Highland Thunder (Isle of Mull Series) by Lily Baldwin Read Free Book Online

was. She seldom was given the opportunity to look at him, and when he was near enough for her to see, he usually faced away. Still, his good looks did not make up for what he lacked in character. He was despicable. She had never wronged him. His dislike of her was unwarranted and mean-spirited. She was the one person on Mull who knew his true disposition.
    His nose flared as he inhaled. “I can still smell the lavender from your bath. Why do you linger? Are you waiting for an invitation to join me?”
    Her mouth dropped wide with shock, and then much to her own surprise her temper flared. He went too far insulting her honor.
    “My husband’s body is not yet cold, and still you mock my pain and insult my virtue. Do not play the cad with me. Your disdain I will tolerate as I always have. Its source is known only to you, and I suppose you can choose to like me or not. But you’ve made an affront to my honor, and this I will not tolerate. Is that understood, Duncan MacKinnon?”
    He remained silent. She knelt on the ground and grabbed his hair, pulling his face toward hers. “I asked you a question. Do you ken, Duncan?”
    “Aye,” he said, staring up at her, his black eyes clear and honest for once.
    “You do not have to like me, but you will respect me.” She released his hair and darted back down the hill with wobbly knees and shaking hands.
    For a moment, she did not know herself. Never did she give into temper. She was Brenna—calm and composed even when angry, even when being pushed too far, but something had taken hold of her. A surge of fury tore through her like a bolt of lightning splitting the surface of her composure. She blushed, thinking of how hard she gripped his hair and of the vehemence that laced every word she spit in his face— you will respect me .
    She smiled, deciding he got what he deserved.
    ***
    He stared after her, his conscience stinging from the bite of her words. She was everything good and strong and true. Aye, he respected her. He adored her. He winced as honesty claimed his mind. Hell, he loved her, a love that ran so deep he drowned every time she stood near. Still, she could never be his. His affection might be as big as the sea, but reality confined it to the shallows. Before Ewan died, he ran from his feelings, avoiding her, distancing himself. Now, he had no place to run. He was shoved into a tiny space, crushed by the weight of his silent affection.
    The black sky burst with endless stars that surrounded him in a blanket of darkness and light—as conflicted as his soul. He wished for a moment that he could float high up to the heavens like a ship bound for nothing but sweet relief from his thoughts, somewhere far away from lavender scented skin and strawberry hair.

 
    Chapter 5
     
    The morning sun crested over the hill, painting the sweeping slope in golden light like streams of new honey. May brought fullness to the trees along the forest edge, and the river surged with summer’s speed and abundance. Brenna smiled as she looked with gratitude upon the splendor of her land.
    Two months had passed since Ewan’s life was stolen from her on the streets of a city she would never see, yet he lived on in the trees surrounding the home they had built together and in the river that had sung them to sleep at night. She had been very fond of her husband, and it pleased her to see the lushness of the land he loved so well. But her smile faltered as she circled around her hut and stared at her unplowed fields. By now the fields should be turned, planted, and ready to sprout with new life.
    “’Tis too much work for one woman,” Duncan said behind her.
    She cursed under her breath. She could not abide another hope-wrenching conversation with Duncan. He was trying to force her surrender to a life in the village by breaking her spirit, but she would be damned before she gave him that satisfaction.
    “You could pay some cottars to work the land, but then ‘tis unlikely you would have