Warrior Untamed Read Online Free PDF Page B

in this is the best.”
    It took every bit of willpower under her command for her to keep her mouth shut. It didn’t matter what he said. Since her arguments were solely to allay his suspicions, there was no point in allowing herself to be upset by his reaction. All this was playing out exactly as she had expected it would.
    “There’s a good lass,” Jamesy consoled, and after a quick hug he mounted his horse. “Take yer things backto yer rooms and dinna waste yer energy thinking upon any of this. Oh, and keep a close watch over the minstrel’s cousin, aye?”
    “I’ll take care of my things once yer gone,” she answered, following beside him as he made his way to join the others. “I’m headed to the wall walk first, to see you off.”
    Her brother’s relief flashed in the smile he gave her as he joined his friends and the whole company of men headed out through the gate.
    She raced up the narrow stairs to a visible spot at the wall and lifted her arm in a wave of farewell. Dutifully, she kept a smile pasted on her face until the group of men disappeared into the distance.
    Men. Annoyingly arrogant, completely predictable, and, above all else, unbelievably gullible. It was one of the more valuable lessons her mother had taught her early in life.
    And still her uncle had the lack of good sense to wonder why she didn’t want a man of her own. Not for her. Not now, not ever. She had a much higher purpose in life than tending to the needs of some dullard.
    As if to plague her, the memory of Halldor pulling her close to steal a kiss danced through her mind.
    “Ha!” she huffed, smacking her hand against the stone hard enough for the sting to drive away the vision.
    Of all the men she didn’t want, most especially she did not want that one.
    With the riders far enough away that she couldno longer see any trace of them, she hurried down from the wall walk, across the bailey and beyond, out to the small gate at the back of the castle grounds.
    In Jamesy’s haste to leave her behind, he’d never even noticed her horse was missing from the stable. Just as no one had noticed, in the midst of all the activity, when she’d saddled the animal and tethered him out near the back of the castle grounds.
    Reins held loosely in her hand, she led her mount through the small gate and then secured it behind her before hoisting herself up into the saddle and trotting into the nearby woods.
    Da had always claimed that the only thing that kept her from being Jamesy’s equal as a warrior was her lack of patience and her inability to control her temper. What he hadn’t counted on was her superior cunning and determination. Those traits more than made up for her small lapses of temper. Or so she consoled herself in those times when her temper got the best of her.
    She traveled beside the main trail, keeping to the trees until she was far enough away from the castle to be out of danger of anyone spotting her.
    Lucky for her she’d spent so much of her childhood on horseback trailing after her da. Once, when she was young, she’d even been all the way to Skye with him. The thought of again pitching across the waves on that pitiful excuse for a ferry did not appeal to her in the least, but she pushed those concerns away. That was a minor inconvenience she would deal with when the time came.
    Her first priority was to catch up with Halldor O’Donar.
    Finding him before the others did would be no challenge for her skills. Patrick MacDowylt was a fine warrior, but he thought in a straight line, just as her brother did. Though they’d refused her entry to their meeting, she’d listened in on them as they’d made their plans to follow the trails to the ferry that would carry them across the water to Skye.
    Halldor, on the other hand, was a much more complicated thinker, more devious and cunning. She’d learned that much about him in the short time they’d spent together. He’d be keeping one eye out for the Beast as much as he would