Highland Savage by Hannah Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

ye are content to let this battle continue to drag on like this? To continue to nip at Ranald and flee his retribution until ye destroy Dunlochan?”
    Katerina desperately wanted to hit him—repeatedly. Instead of her anger causing the man to back down, he pummeled her with hard questions. Worse, his questions revealed that he could clearly see all that was wrong with the fight she was locked into. It was destroying Dunlochan. A quick, decisive win was desperately needed, but she could not see any way to get one, not without causing far more bloodshed than she could stomach. She ruefully admitted to herself that, if Lucas gave her that much-needed decisive victory, a part of her would be eternally grateful. Another part of her, one ruled quite firmly by her pride, would undoubtedly want to inflict some severe, painful injury upon him.
    “We are doing our best to stop Ranald from destroying Dunlochan and benefiting from it.” She turned away from him and started on her way again. “When this fight is over he and Agnes will have nothing, mayhap not e’en their lives, but I will hold Dunlochan and my men will still be alive.”
    “’Tis admirable that ye dinnae wish the men who fight with ye to suffer or die, but no battle can be completely bloodless. Nay, not if it is to be won.”
    That was a hard cold truth she had no wish to study too closely. The men who rode with her were her people, her kinsmen, and her friends. Several times, as she had tended to wounds received during a raid, she had seriously considered giving it all up. Theburden of keeping her men alive and trying to rid Dunlochan of men like Ranald often grew so heavy Katerina felt crushed by it. The only thing that kept her struggling onward was the certainty that Agnes and Ranald would never let her rest. They would never trust her to simply accept her meager inheritance, accept all her losses, or accept their attempt to kill her. They would never believe that she would simply live peacefully on the little piece of land and the small cottage her father had left to the loser in the battle for the rule over Dunlochan. They would kill her and anyone foolish enough to stand with her.
    And why that thought should suddenly make her so afraid for Lucas, Katerina did not know. The man did not deserve her concern. He was obviously one of those men who believed that, if anything went wrong in his life, it had to be the fault of some woman. She was surprised she had not seen that in him until now, but suspected his fine looks and her desire for him had hidden a lot of his faults from her.
    “I fully intend to win this battle, Sir Murray, and without turning the land red with the blood of my kinsmen or friends,” she said, once she was sure he would not hear any of her own lack of confidence in her voice. “Mayhap we have just been testing Ranald’s strengths and the skill of his hirelings ere we make our final strike against him.”
    Lucas snorted, his disbelief clear to hear in the rude sound. He could tell by the way Katerina clenched her small hands into tight, white-knuckled fists dial she was furious, but when she just continued to walk, he decided it was safe to ignore her anger. It was undoubtedly foolish of him to join Katerina’s small army, but since he was now part of it, he was eager for the battle to be won. Katerina was very skilled at slapping Ranald swiftly and sharply, but she had yet to succeed in knocking the man down. Her men had to be as eager to put an end to the battle as he was, yet Lucas suspected few complained openly, so the plans never changed. It was past time they did so.
    What angered him at the moment was what fed his eagerness to get Katerina to heed him and start fighting Ranald, really fighting the man. Lucas’s own deep need to make Ranald pay for beating him and trying to kill him was definitely part of his eagerness, but not all of it. He had to face the fact that he did not like Katerina constantly putting her life at risk,