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

well, I’m no’ surprised they stuck me in the servants’ wing,” Lachlan replied, supposedly to his friend, though his eyes remained on Kimberly. “But I’ll be settling down in my own good time. ’Tis sorry I am that you’re being disturbed, lass, but”—he shrugged—“you can blame your employers for that, inasmuch as this is where they put me.”
    He might have mistaken her for a servant when he lifted her out of his way earlier in the entry hall, but unless he was deaf, he must have heard the duchess use her title when she’d apologized to Kimberly. Megan had also mentioned that she was a guest here. So his inference now that this was the servants’ wing simply because she was in it, she saw as purely an insult, a deliberate one.
    Odious man. His manners left much to be desired, but then, she’d already known that, given the way he had completely ignored her earlier. But Kimberly wasn’t going to knuckle under just because he chose to be odious.
    “It’s obviously your habit to make disturbances no matter where you are. But this is not the servants’ wing, MacGregor, which you know very well. I am visiting Sherring Cross just as you are. Furthermore, I am sick. I am exhausted. I desperately need some sleep, but I can’t get any with you doing your best to wake the entire household.”
    “I’m thinking that wouldna be possible wi’ a household this large, lass, though I’ll allow theidea does have some merit just now, in the mood I find myself in.”
    He said the last with a somewhat evil grin that brought her brows further together. Obviously, he had no intention of doing the decent thing.
    That just added exasperation to her fury, enough to cause her to snap, “And I’m thinking you don’t have a brain to think with. Are you Scots truly this inconsiderate? Or are you simply so self-centered that you don’t care who you upset or disturb with your rudeness?”
    She’d managed to make him angry. His sudden black expression left her little doubt of that. And he took a step toward her, making her gasp and step back. Yet he took another step, then another, then another, causing a smidgen of fear to rise in her chest, and the wish that she’d sought out the housekeeper after all, instead of taking her complaint to its source.
    “So you’re thinking I’m rude, are you?” he said in a low, menacing tone. “You havena seen rude, lass, at least no’ from me, but that can be arranged if you dinna cease haranguing me wi’ your blathering.”
    By the time he finished, he’d backed her right back into her own room. And he seemed somewhat satisfied that he’d done so, since he merely ended with a curt nod, grabbed the handle of her door, and closed it, loudly, behind him.
    Kimberly was left standing there wide-eyed and trembling. He’d frightened her, no doubt about it. But only because she’d had no idea what he might do. And she’d let him get away with it. How smug that Scot must be feeling at the moment.
    Laughter came again from the room next door.Color flooded Kimberly’s cheeks, since she was certain that laughter was at her expense. The wren had been frightened back to her nest. She wanted to march back over there and give them a further piece of her mind, she really did—yet her heartbeat hadn’t returned to normal yet. And she couldn’t be sure that ill-mannered Highlander wouldn’t manage to frighten her again.
    But it absolutely infuriated her that she couldn’t deal with the situation as it deserved. And that was because the Scot was an unknown quantity, when she was too accustomed to dealing with known quantities. She was plain and simply too intimidated at the moment to confront him again.
    With a low sound of disgust, mainly for herself and her lack of courage, she locked her door, discarded her robe, and crawled back into the large four-poster. A very comfortable bed, but she gave up the idea of getting any sleep in it, at least for tonight. It was still too noisy and she