Angel of Skye by May McGoldrick Read Free Book Online Page B

again, if I killed every outlaw on this island, there would be no one left.”
    Anger flashed through Fiona at his words. He had been here long enough to know that the people of Skye were not outlaws. She successfully checked her temper but could not hold back from responding somehow.
    “Why limit yourself just to Skye, m’lord? Why not depopulate the entire Highlands?”
    “Your idea has merit, lass,” he responded. “But don’t you think the clan chiefs would object?”
    “How could they object, m’lord?” she said mildly. “They would be the first to go.”
    “Are you suggesting that every laird in the Highlands is an outlaw?”
    “More likely that than every peasant on Skye.”
    “That’s difficult to believe,” Alec responded, enjoying her challenging wit. “Especially considering I have yet to come across a law-abiding peasant since arriving.”
    “Clearly, you are meeting the wrong sort of people...m’lord.”
    “Am I meeting the right sort now?” he asked with a smile.
    “That is for you to decide,” she answered seriously. “But I will tell you one thing, I’m no outlaw.”
    “If that’s so, then why did you run from me this morning? Who are you, lass?”
    “You can see what I am, an innocent islander...unlike those you let go.”
    “Perhaps. But it’s thanks to me that you–as a leper–are not an outlaw as well,” Alec said defensively, stung by her accusation.
    Fiona’s temper flared at his words.
    “An outlaw commits harmful acts,” she responded. “And with or without your interference ...m’lord...I have never been an outlaw!”
    Alec took in, with some amusement, the change in the woman standing before him. Her posture was no longer that of the sickly creature who had faced the three brutes. Her voice was clear and strong, her attitude challenging. If she tosses her head one more time, he thought, that hood might fall right to her shoulders. He restrained an urge to step up and push back the hood. He wanted to see the expression he imagined on her face. And what kind of face is it? he wondered. She was a bit of a puzzle that needed solving.
    “Even if I accept that you’re no outlaw, you still have much to thank me for,” he answered, absently stroking the downy feathers of the bird on his arm.
    Fiona watched his long, strong fingers on the odd, white plumage of the falcon. She noted the man’s gentleness.
    “Aye, m’lord,” she said after a pause, trying her best to inject her voice with irony. “I have so much to be thankful for. Why, for the second time today, you have nearly killed me with your kindness.”
    “What?” This was too much. “Have you already forgotten? In addition to your felonious background, I see you also suffer from lapses of memory. I did not try to harm you. I saved you.”
    “You call crushing my skull beneath the hooves of your horse ‘saving’?”
    “Hooves can be far less painful than a sword in the back.”
    “For you, perhaps,” she muttered.
    “Don’t make me sorry I saved your neck.”
    “Now it’s my neck you’ve saved.”
    Alec glared for a moment at the hooded figure.
    “Ebon was not even close,” he continued. “However, if your head had been crushed, you would not be here standing and arguing.”
    “Oh, so it bothers you to have a person accuse you–”
    “Aye, when I’m being unjustly accused of crushing someone’s skull.”
    “It’s all the same. You tried.”
    Alec stared for a moment at the fiery creature before him. He could not see her eyes, but he could feel the sparks of wit flying out at him from the dark recesses of the cloak. He shook his head, and amusement crept into his features.
    “Your gratitude overwhelms me...not to mention your manners.” He smiled, placing the hood over Swift’s eyes.
    “I am sorry, m’lord,” Fiona responded immediately, “if I do not measure up to what you are accustomed to–mainland peasant manners!”
    “Oh, don’t be sorry,” Alec quipped nonchalantly.