Captured Heart by Heather McCollum Read Free Book Online Page A

deepening dark, her heartbeat would slow back to normal.
    “What do you need to find?” His tone was casual and it brought her gaze back around. He sat close, watching.
    She couldn’t quite tear her eyes away from that gaze. “I…I don’t know that, either.”
    “Something to do with the devil who’s chasing ye?”
    Meg tipped, just enough that he noticed. His eyes never left hers. She glanced down at her hands. She was a burden to these men.
    “So ye do read.” Ewan sat down on the other side of Meg and peered at the open book. “English and Gaelic?”
    “Mostly English, some Gaelic,” she answered in his language. She concentrated on keeping her breathing normal, even.
    “Most unusual.” He turned the rabbit on the spit. “Ye are the most unusual lass I’ve ever met.”
    Meg forced a little laugh. “I’m just an average Englishwoman r aised in the countryside.”
    “Hardly,” Ewan continued. “Ye shoot the bow as well as the goddess Diana.” He motioned to the rabbit, which Meg had shot earlier. “Ye tend the impaired and injured.” He moved his hand in the direction of the men milling around securing the horses. “Ye read.” He tapped the book. “And ye’re brave enough to journey alone without an escort.”
    “Foolish enough,” Caden remarked.
    She frowned at Caden, but he’d already beaten her to that particular facial expression. His favorite. She certainly didn’t want to call attention to the fact she was far from the usual English maid, but she also didn’t want this mighty warrior to think she was totally daft. If these men thought her clever, then they’d be less likely to try to trick her or take advantage of her lack of Highland knowledge.
    “As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I had an escort. My wolf, Nickum, was and still is my escort.” She pointed toward the woods. “He never leaves me. The first night we journeyed I thought six wolves would surely take us down. Nickum was just waiting until they tired before he attacked. As soon as I fell off of Pippen, he was right there to protect me.”
    Both men stared at her. Caden’s teeth clenched shut, but Ewan’s mouth hung open like a gasping fish. “Ye were on the ground with six hungry wolves?” he all but yelled.
    “Well, I had shot three of them with my arrows,” she explained and turned her gaze to the snapping flames. “So it was really just three wolves by that time.”
    “Ye could have been killed!” Ewan continued. As his hand brushed hers, she could sense his rapid heartbeat, his empty stomach, and full bladder.
    “I was lucky that I didn’t hit my head on a boulder when I fell.”
    “No, woman! The wolves, they could have torn ye apart,” Ewan said.
    Meg shook her head. “Not with Nickum following me.” She turned to Caden. “So you see, I did not foolishly run away without an escort.”
    She waited for them to agree, acquiesce, or admit that she did know what she was doing, even though she really didn’t. Instead, silence ensued as they all watched the rabbit turn.
    “So ye are running away?” Ewan asked, the normal humor in his tone gone. “From who?”
    Caden’s eyes bored into her but kept her face forward. She needed to tell him something. She’d called his bluff before about leaving them, but she’d be foolish to do so. This band of Highlanders was her best chance of reaching her aunt safely.
    “My mother died when I was five summers old.” She hesitated. “A wicked man accused her of being a witch just because she helped people who were sick or injured. He had her burned.”
    Meg watched the sharp tongues of flame dance under the rabbit with the night breeze. Her mind touched on the awful dreams she’d had since her uncle had taken her away, the dreams born of whispers about her mother, whispers of how she screamed in the flames.
    “And now he chases ye,” Caden said.
    Meg watched the fire. The bowing flames entranced her. She could almost imagine the image of a body moving in the