Love Me Forever by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

was an actual thief, and , he had once tried to rob Their Graces. And that wasn’t even the worst. He was not just a thief, but an abductor of women. Amazing. Though even more amazing was that a magistrate hadn’t been summoned posthaste to deal with the fellow. But Kimberly assumed that was because he was somehow related to the duke’s aunt.
    The only reason she had gone down to dinner tonight, feeling as miserable as she did, was on the off chance that she might see the Scot again. Silly of her. And he hadn’t even made an appearance. She would have been much better served to have gone to bed early, particularlysince now that she was trying to get some sleep, whoever was in the next room to hers was making that impossible.
    There was banging going on, creaking, an occasional burst of laughter, and voices just loud enough to be bothersome, but not loud enough to distinguish any words. She was reminded of the sleepless night at that inn, though those walls had been thinner, allowing her to distinguish the Scot’s brogue in the occasional words she’d heard. This racket was just as bad, however, and if it persisted much longer, she was going to be forced to do something, though she wasn’t sure what.
    Pounding on the walls, she supposed, would cause her the least effort. As tired as she was, she had absolutely no desire to go seek out the housekeeper, if that lady happened to still be up, just to be moved to another room, which would require even more time. Not for the first time, she wished she weren’t such a light sleeper, or she might have at least had a chance of getting to sleep even with that racket going on.
    The proper thing to do would be to suffer in silence, but Kimberly simply didn’t feel like suffering any more than she already was. So fifteen minutes later, when the noise hadn’t even lessened a little, she finally pounded on the wall behind her bed.
    In response she was treated to immediate silence. She had made her point, obviously. She sighed, fluffed her pillow, and lay back down—only to be startled half out of her bed with a much louder pounding on the wall coming back at her.
    Well, that did it. So much for doing it the easyway. She’d get herself moved to an empty wing—there had to be one in a home this large—but first she’d give those inconsiderates in the next room a piece of her mind. If the same thing hadn’t happened to her so recently, she would never have considered a confrontation. But she was furious now, she had gone through this just two nights ago, and because of that, she had no thought at the moment for doing what was proper or ladylike.
    She yanked on her robe, nearly cut off her breathing in belting it too tight, slammed her door back against the wall when she opened it, and a few seconds later was banging her fist on the next door down from hers with all the strength she could muster. That it opened immediately wasn’t all that surprising. With that loud crashing in of her own door, she’d given ample warning. What did surprise her was that Lachlan MacGregor stood there.
    But Kimberly wasn’t dumbstruck by him this time, though she found him no less fascinating. She was simply too furious for that to matter.
    She glared up at him and demanded, “Have you no sense, man, to not realize how late it is and that you might be disturbing others with the noise you’ve been making?”
    To that he merely raised a curious brow and said, “So the little wren has a voice after all?”
    She blushed at being reminded of her earlier gawking. But that didn’t cut through her anger, especially when another voice drew her eyes to a man lounging in a chair farther in the room, the very man she’d upbraided a few mornings ago for keeping her up half the night.
    “Aye, I can vouch for that,” the fellow saidwith a drunken nod. “A voice? More like a banshee wail she’s got. ’Tis her who screamed me ear off at that inn a couple days ago, and for nae good reason.”
    “Och,