Black Falcon's Lady (Celtic Rogues Book 1) by Kimberly Cates Read Free Book Online Page A

pricking her skin the only thing that made her feel truly alive.
    Then Tade's dark-lashed eyes alighted on her face. Crystal green, they shone over-bright with emotion, strangely soft, almost tender in the light streaming from a branch of glowing rushlights. They hypnotized her as he slowly untangled himself from the others, pacing over to slip one warm palm under her elbow. Maryssa tried to hang back, feeling awkward and shy, but the fingers encircling her arm would not be denied as they urged her into the circle of children.
    "Aye, and isn't that just the way of it. I survive an ordeal that makes Devin's look like a day at Puck's fair, and he is the one who gets all the coddling." Tade feigned such a wounded expression that the little ones dissolved into fits of giggling. Seven small faces tipped up to eye Maryssa with eager curiosity.
    "'Deal? What's a 'deal, Tade?" the red-curled waif begged, squirming free of Devin's arms.
    "A 'deal is what Tade will put us through if we don't all listen to his ridiculous story," Deirdre sniffed.
    "Fine. Make jest of my brush with death. Perhaps poor Phelan would like to know just how his breeches came to split.”
    "Tade Kilcannon, if you say one word to him I swear I'll-"
    "Cut the seat out of my breeches?" Tade caught a coppery tendril with his finger and gave it a tug. "Then Phelan and I could commiserate over the viciousness of jealous women.”
    "Tade. Deirdre." Rachel's soft warning was cut off by an exasperated cry from Deirdre, and Maryssa could hear a shading of real desperation in the girl's voice.
    "All right! All right! Tell us how we almost became so lucky as to be free of your constant torture." Deirdre's flashing green eyes flicked in a scathing path over Maryssa, and she tossed her red-gold curls. "And as long as you're tormenting us, you might be so kind as to tell us who this person is."
    Tade's fingers, still lightly cupping Maryssa's elbow, tightened just an instant. She could almost feel his bantering mood darken, but the smile he turned on her was warm. "This is—" His grin widened slowly, tantalizingly until even his eyes shone with blinding mirth. "I have no idea who this is, but she almost drowned me an hour ago.”
    At the memory of the magnificent body beneath that grin, bare and glistening in the moonlight, Maryssa's breath squeezed in her chest, her gaze falling to the toes of her shoes. "My name is Maryssa.”
    "Maryssa. . . Maura . . ." Tade savored the sounds as though they were warm honey. "It suits you. Soft. sweet." Maryssa's gaze leaped up to his, expecting to see sarcasm or jest, but there was no hint of derision in the green depths, only an intensity that made her body tingle as though swept by a cool breeze. A stirring of remembrance rippled through her as if those emerald eyes were, somehow, familiar, but in a breath all her attempts to place that raking gaze vanished as an outraged cry split the quiet.
    "Sweet?" Deirdre exclaimed, wheeling on Tade. "Are you mad? She's English and you stand there mooning like you're behind a cow byre. Even now the soldiers—"
    "Deirdre!" The sharp snap of Rachel's voice made Maryssa start. The waif who had stared up at her so openly buried her face in Deirdre's petticoats, the other small children darting like startled kits behind a gangly youth with the barest fuzzing of a beard on his cheeks. Maryssa squirmed under the battery of eyes fastened on her in varying degrees of hate and fear. Only Rachel's face still held welcome.
    "Please forgive Deirdre," Rachel said. "I wish I could say she is not often so rude, but she takes after her brother, in tongue if not in temper. If you've suffered Tade's company for the tick of a clock you know that.” One work-roughened hand reached out, and a gasp escaped Rachel's lips the instant her capable fingers touched Maryssa's chilled skin. Rachel spun on Tade in blustering fury. "What on earth did you do to this child, Tade Kilcannon? She's as cold as a well in winter and wet