True Love Brides 02 - The Highlander’s Curse Read Online Free PDF

himself that time, or to make a coherent defense, not when he was assaulted by the anguished thoughts of so many men and women. He had felt the crushing press of a venomous malice, one unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Had he become more sensitive as he grew older? What had changed? Mhairi had said there would be a test, and Garrett did not want to fail it before his lovely maiden.
    He did not wish to fail her.
    The very possibility made his breath hitch and his palms damp.
    What would the maiden think of him, if she knew the truth of his curse? Would she accept his nature and still regard him with admiration? Or would she condemn him as others had done, and turn away?
    The questions plagued him all the day long.
    Garrett gutted the wolf and left the innards for other hungry creatures in the forest. He skinned the hide from the body, scraping it clean with care. He built a frame and stretched the hide taut, then hung it from a tree, ensuring it would dry and cure. The light was fading but he worked steadily, unable to compel himself to stop. He had a vision of his bold maiden, her hair loose, the firelight dancing over her bare skin as she awaited him. In his bed. Atop the wolf’s pelt.
    His bride.
    His salvation, if Mhairi’s tale could be believed.
    Garrett spared a glance to the darkening sky. If he waited much longer, his maiden would never be his bride. His chance would be lost, maybe forever. By remaining in the forest, he would fail. If he went to Seton Manor, he might, by some miracle, succeed.
    That made the choice. Garrett had to go. He glanced down at himself, at the blood on his kilt and boots, at the dirt he had accumulated in weeks of tracking the wolf. He looked like an outcast or even a madman. He ran a hand over his chin and felt his short beard with dismay. She must have thought him a wild man of the woods.
    But nay, she had not.
    All the same, Garrett could not meet her family like this.
    He peeled off his shirt and bathed hastily in the river, sensing that an opportunity was slipping away. He worked quickly to make himself as presentable as possible, his heart racing with the certainty that his sole chance could be lost. He knew the shape of his own face well enough that he was able to shave the growth from his chin with his sharpest knife.
    The reflection in the surface of the water seemed to be of a different man, one with a new spark of hope in his eyes. He carried little, but he had another shirt in his pack. It was not a fine shirt, but it was cleaner than the one he wore and it would have to do. He noted the blood on his kilt and rinsed it out as well as he could before wrapping it around his waist once more. He laced his jerkin over the shirt and cast the end of his tartan over his shoulders, then bent to buff the toes of his boots. His crossbow was hung over his shoulder, his quiver on his back.
    He was hardly a prince, but he was as clean as he could be.
    And the prize was well worth any risk.
    Garrett strode through the forest to the road before his confidence could fade. He swallowed when he first set his booted foot upon the road, but steeled himself to emerge from the shadows of the forest. He exhaled and told himself that the experience at Killairig would not be repeated.
    There was no doubt where the manor had to be. This smaller track branched from the road that led from east to west and sea to sea. Although Garrett had followed the wolf through the forest, he guessed that Seton Manor must lie as this road’s end point.
    As he walked, Garrett heard the chatter of a hundred minds increase before him. It grew rapidly in volume, just as it had when he visited Killairig. His instinct was to turn to the right, but he recalled the way his maiden had fought her own impulses.
    Surely he could do as well.
    He walked along the road, taking measured steps as he drew steadily closer to the manor. He forced himself to take the tone of the thoughts he overheard, to sample some of their