Conall: The 93rd Highlanders, Book Two by Samantha Kane Read Free Book Online Page B

me?
You could have had her yourself. She told me so. Told me she was
hoping you’d be the one.”
    “ What?” Munro
looked genuinely flabbergasted. “No, you must be
mistaken.”
    Conall shook his head and
stood to face Munro. “No. She told me true, the day I returned when
I asked if she’d taken up with you while I was gone. Said she
wanted to, but you’d have none of it.”
    “ And so I
wouldn’t,” Munro said, his face suddenly blank, hiding his thoughts
again.
    “ I ask
again,” Conall said solemnly. “Why?”
    “ She was
meant for you,” Munro told him. “Anyone could see that.”
    “ You watch
her all the time,” Conall said slowly, staring at Munro and seeing
things clearly for the first time. “You want her.”
    “ I’d have to
be half a man not to,” Munro told him. “But that doesn’t mean I
can’t resist my urges and let the lady choose. She chose
you.”
    “ She didn’t,”
Conall insisted. “You made her. You said no. She deserved a real
choice.”
    “ Damn it, are
you listening to me? She waited for you. She chose you. She won’t
be waiting for you forever. No one will wait for you forever.” He
stopped speaking abruptly, and Conall got the impression there was
more he wanted to say but he wouldn’t. Conall didn’t care how
agitated Munro got. He already had a bruised face, so there was no
call to worry about that.
    “ She needs
someone,” he said in a choked voice. He turned away and cleared his
throat. Then he faced Munro again, determination firing through
him. “She wanted you. And you want her. So go get her. Go
on.”
    “ Are you
daft?” Munro demanded. “To be giving away a woman like
that?”
    “ She doesn’t
want me,” Conall said. “But I warn you, unless it’s marriage on
your mind, you’d best stay away from her. I’ll not be putting her
through that again.”
    Munro gave a choked
growl. “There’s no talking to you, so I’ll talk to her. And not
about me marrying her, but you.”
    “ Why are you
so determined to see us together?” Conall asked, truly perplexed.
“When you could have her yourself?”
    “ Because you
deserve each other, not me,” Munro said through clenched
teeth.
    “ You mean she
doesn’t deserve you?” Conall asked, not understanding. “Are you
saying you’re too good for her, and I’m not?”
    “ For Christ’s
sake, have you got stuffing in your ears? I said nothing of the
kind.” Munro stalked over to the tent entrance. “I’m going to
settle this once and for all. And you better live up to your words,
Fletcher. You’d better be marrying her when I come for
you.”
    Conall smiled sadly.
“I’ll be going to your wedding,” he assured him.
    Munro threw his hands in
the air and ducked out of the tent.
     
     
     

C hapter S ix
     
     
    Graeme knocked loudly on
Avril’s door. He could hear her sniffling inside, the damn door and
walls of the hut were so thin. Christ, why hadn’t Conall built her
a new one?
    “ Who is it?”
she called out, trying to sound angry instead of miserable, but he
wasn’t fooled.
    “ It’s me,” he
called out softly. “Graeme. I mean, Munro.”
    He heard her unlocking
the door, and it opened, though he couldn’t see her. He stepped
inside and she pushed the door closed. She’d been hiding behind it.
He turned to her and she had her head down, the plaid wrapped
around her.
    “ Ah, lass,”
he said sadly, and she threw herself in his arms, crying. He hadn’t
expected it, and stumbled back a step. She just wrapped her arms
around him tight, enveloping him in the plaid with her. “You poor
thing,” he said softly, running his hand over her hair. Shining
pieces of it had come out of her plaits, which she’d wrapped in a
coronet around her head. She felt slight and fragile in his arms
and he wanted to hold her in his lap and not let her go.
    “ I’m not a
poor thing,” she said stubbornly, sounding all stuffed up in the
head from her crying. “I’m mad at him.”
    “ Course