The Snow White Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

soft conviction that Eleanor was tempted to believe he thought as much.
    But men lied. Not a one of them was to be believed, especially one so certain of his own charm as this Alexander.
    She said nothing, and they stepped through the last portal, into the bailey. Eleanor took a deep breath of bracingly cold air. The snow still fell, though not as thickly as it had the night before, and it was dark. Snow gleamed on the roofs of Kinfairlie village. The land seemed shrouded in silence, and though she listened with care, she heard no approaching hoofbeats.
    “So you assume me to be of the ilk as those men you have known, though I am not. How might I persuade you otherwise?”
    At his words, Eleanor realized that Alexander had been watching her. She wondered how much he had guessed of her thoughts and feared his intent anew. “You will not.”
    He smiled then, a smile of such confidence that she knew she had not deterred him. Indeed, she seemed to have done the opposite. “Then my quest shall prove interesting, indeed.”
    “If you pursue me, you will not bed me.”
    “That is not my intent.”
    She could not contain her curiosity then. “I do not understand. What then is your quest?”
    “ To see you smile, no more and no less.”
    Eleanor stared at Alexander, so shocked was she. He smiled at her, his very expression beguiling her, tempting her, teasing her with the prospect of fulfilling his sisters’ scheme. He had firm lips and a steady gaze.
    He would not be so fearsome to meet abed. Eleanor’s heart leapt in a most uncharacteristic manner.
    She scoffed then, seeing the trick in his words. “Ah, but you would demand a tribute upon your success, to be sure.”
    Alexander shook his head. “If you were inclined to grant one, I would accept it, but it is not my manner to force myself upon unwilling women.”
    She had forgotten that she had been holding Alexander’s arm, but she became aware of it now, beneath his sure regard. His arm was warm and strong beneath her fingertips, and Eleanor thought she could feel the pulse of his blood beneath the flesh, even through the barrier of cloth. He was no ancient man, but one young and virile and intrigued by her. She looked at him, noted the mischievous curve of his lips, and knew that she would have surrendered her heart to Alexander Lammergeier a dozen years earlier without a murmur of protest.
    But she was no innocent maiden any longer. She would have been happy to have never learned the lessons she had learned, but that did not change how they had shaped her life.
    Eleanor pulled her hand from the crook of Alexander’s elbow and stepped away, half-certain that he mocked her. “You are light of heart for a man so burdened with responsibility as a laird should be.” She folded her arms across her chest, feeling the cold now that she was two paces away from his heat. “Perhaps you are not laird at all.”
    Alexander sobered then, his gaze flicking over the village before them. When he met her gaze again, though, his smile was less mischievous and his words came low. “Perhaps for this night, I have decided to forget my obligations.”
    If his jesting manner was enticing, his thoughtfulness was more so. Eleanor had never been able to resist a man with his wits about him. She had to depart and do so immediately.
    Eleanor forced a smile, though it was a sad one, then shrugged. “There is your quest fulfilled, Alexander Lammergeier, and now I will depart. You may disregard your obligations, but I will never forget mine.”
    “Not even for one night?”
    “Not even for one moment.” With that, Eleanor turned away from this intriguing man, gathered her cloak about herself, and began to walk away.
    Kinfairlie was no sanctuary, not with a man such as Alexander as its laird, a man who could make her doubt even for a moment all she knew to be true.
    She was best away from this false haven; the farther away and the sooner, the better.
     

 
     
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