Highland Knight by Hannah Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

knife, please.”
    Avery cursed softly and clapped it into his outstretched hand. When Gillyanne ran to her side, she took her cousin’s hand in hers. She was not terribly concerned about punishment, although Cameron looked furious. He might lash her with angry words and secure her more firmly, but Avery realized she was completely confident that he would never physically hurt her.
    “Did ye really think ye could escape?” Cameron asked as he grabbed her by the arm and started back to the camp.
    “One can always dream,” she murmured.
    “And just where did ye think ye would go with no horses and no supplies?”
    A good point, she mused, but she had no intention of letting him know she had only meant to plague him a little, even if that did leave her looking somewhat foolish. “We thought we would throw ourselves upon the mercy of the nearest church.”
    “Aye,” agreed Gillyanne. “We meant to claim sanctuary.”
    “Do ye really expect me to believe that?” Cameron cursed softly when both girls just shrugged. At the edge of the camp, they met up with the two guards and Cameron told the two red-faced men, “They are bonny and wee, but dinnae let that fool ye again.” He shoved the two girls toward their guards. “They are cunning and more trouble than they are worth.”
    “Seek sanctuary?” Leargan said, laughter choking his voice as he and Cameron walked away.
    “Wretched brats,” grumbled Cameron. “They are up to something. They are too clever to think that escape could have worked. They kenned they would fail, which is why they fled empty-handed.”
    “Then why would they e’en try?”
    “I wouldnae be surprised if ’twas done just to annoy me.”
     
    “Do ye think he has guessed our game?” Gillyanne asked Avery as they sat before Cameron’s tent eating their evening meal.
    “The thought that we merely try to annoy him may have crossed his mind,” Avery replied, “but he willnae trust in that being the only reason. He will try to find some greater treachery behind it.”
    “He doesnae much trust women, does he?”
    “He doesnae trust them at all.”
    “That doesnae bode weel if ye decide to try and win his heart.”
    “If he e’en has a heart to win,” Avery grumbled.
    “Oh, I think he does or ye wouldnae be having all this trouble. He just doesnae reveal it weel. Some men are like that.”
    “And some men dinnae wish to feel anything for any woman ever, and get verra good at locking up all feeling.”
    Gillyanne nodded, then frowned slightly. “But, he lusts after you.”
    “Lust cannae really be called a feeling, Gillyanne. Or rather, an emotion. ’Tis too easy for a mon to feel it for any woman. ’Tis nay from the heart is what I try to say. ’Tis nay from the mind or soul, either.” She sighed. “Then again, it can sometimes become a crack in the wall a mon has built around his heart. But since I cannae see inside of Cameron to see if that crack widens, I must rely upon what I feel, and I am nay sure I can trust in that.”
    “I pray the mon I finally set my heart on is nay so hard to ken.”
    “He probably willnae be for you.”
    “Mayhap, although I have some difficulty sensing things if ’tis someone I ken weel or care about.”
    “Of course, for ’tis just when ye would like such a gift to be especially keen.”
    Gillyanne laughed and nodded. “Aunt Maldie says my gift may weel be working, ’tis just that I dare nay trust what I feel because my heart is involved. I think your heart is involved,” she added softly.
    Avery watched Cameron move around the camp talking to his men, and she sighed again. “Aye, I believe it is, yet I havenae e’en kenned the mon for a full week and he certainly isnae wooing me. It makes no sense. The only thing that keeps me from leaping on that mon in a lustful frenzy is the knowledge of how he means to use my weakness against my own family.”
    “A lustful frenzy?”
    “Aye. There is nay other way to describe it.” Avery