Highland Destiny by Hannah Howell Read Free Book Online Page B

small, terse courtesies they had exchanged in passing had been enough to make her uneasy. She had often caught a look in his dark eyes that told her he was fully aware of her retreat. Maldie also sensed that he was not going to allow it any longer. Despite that, she tried to slip past him, sighing with resignation when he caught her firmly by the arm.
    “I was going to leave ye alone with your brother,” she said as she turned to face Balfour, making one faint attempt to pull free of his hand and quickly giving up when he tightened his grip.
    “Weel, I have no wish to hurt Nigel’s tender feelings,” Balfour flashed a quick grin at Nigel before fixing his gaze on Maidie, “but I came here to fetch you.”
    “Why?”
    “’Tis time ye went outside and had a wee taste of spring.”
    “I had a verra big taste of it when I walked from Dundee to here.”
    “The fine weather wasnae here yet. The sky is bluer and the sun warmer now.”
    “Nigel may need something.”
    “Aye,” agreed Nigel with a sharp haste that caused Balfour to frown. “I dinnae think I should be left alone just yet.”
    “Ye willnae be alone,” Balfour said, watching Nigel closely as he nudged Maldie out of the room. “Old Caitlin is hobbling her way to your room e’en as we speak.” He grinned when Nigel groaned a curse. “She cannae wait to spend a few hours with ‘her wee, bonny bairn.’”
    “What was that all about?” Maldie demanded after Balfour shut the door and started to tug her along the hallway.
    “Old Caitlin was Nigel’s nursemaid, his milkmother,” Balfour replied. “She still sees him as a wee lad, not a mon, and treats him so. And, why have ye suddenly agreed to come with me after fleeing from the sight of me for days?”
    Maldie briefly considered telling him the truth, that Nigel was wooing her. She had simply made a choice between the two brothers, both of whom were trying to lure her into bed. There was a chance she could put a stop to Nigel’s tentative seduction before there was any real confrontation. To walk off with Balfour, who made little secret of what he wanted from her, might be one way to do that. She brushed aside the thought of telling Balfour any of that, however. She was courting enough trouble by simply lingering at Donncoill without setting one brother against the other or, worse, inspiring them to indulge in some manly competition where she was the prize.
    “I havenae been fleeing from you,” she protested, struggling to sound haughty.
    “Aye, ye have. Scurrying off like a wee timid mousie flushed from the grain.”
    “Ye think yourself far more important than ye are.”
    “Racing for the safety of some warren like a wee rabbit with the hounds after it.”
    “I was but leaving so that ye and your brother could have some time to speak privately.”
    “Bounding off like a deer that has heard the hunter’s horn.”
    “Ye are going to run out of animals soon.”
    Balfour choked back a laugh. “Slinking off into the shadows like a whipped cur.”
    “Wait a moment.” Maldie stopped as they left the keep, yanking on her arm hard enough to halt him and make him face her. “What happened to bounding, racing, and fleeing?”
    “Ye dinnae like the word slinking, eh?”
    “I am nay afraid of you, Balfour Murray.”
    He hooked his arm through hers and started to walk again. “Nay? Then ye run from me because I am nay as pretty as Nigel?”
    She stumbled slightly and he watched her closely as he waited for her reply. From the moment Nigel had opened his eyes after shaking free of the fever’s grip, Balfour had sensed that the man was no longer seeing Maldie as a possible threat. The gleam he had sometimes caught in his brother’s eyes had not been that of a man seeking to solve a mystery or root out betrayal. Nigel wanted Maldie, and Balfour began to think his brother wanted her as badly as he himself did.
    The instant he had seen the glint of desire in Nigel’s glance, Balfour had fought