My Highland Love: Highland Lords Series by Tarah Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

disappeared into the trees, and
Marcus hesitated. The keep was another ten minutes' ride. Could he
send Elise on alone? He remembered Katie MacGregor and cursed. He
couldn't gamble with Elise's safety.
    Marcus quietly made his way back down the
hill and, minutes later, distinguished her form in the darkness.
"Elise," he called in a whisper.
    Her head jerked in his direction, but she
didn't cry out. After another instant, he reached her side. He
grasped her shoulders and pulled her close, whispering, "We must
ride—and fast." She started. "All will be well." He squeezed her
shoulders. "You ride with me. Can you stay in the saddle?"
    She nodded.
    "Good lass." He reached for the reins
    She grabbed his arm. "What's happened?"
    He hesitated. "Campbells."
    She glanced at the hill. "So close to Brahan
Seer?"
    "Aye."
    Marcus vaulted into his stallion's saddle,
then extended a hand toward her. Elise yanked her skirts thigh
high, grabbed his hand, and jumped nimbly up behind him as he
pulled. She wrapped her arms around his midsection. The soft
contours of her breasts pressed into his back. He gritted his teeth
and nudged the stallion into a quiet walk, keeping the mare close
until they were well out of earshot of the small camp. Then he
urged the stallion into a gallop.
     
    The men on the castle walls sprang to life at
their approach half an hour later. Marcus brought their horses to a
skidding halt before the gate. "Open!" he shouted. "'Tis me,
Marcus."
    The gate creaked open and he drove the horses
through before the doors had swung wide. He halted amongst the
gathering warriors and brought his leg over the horse's head,
sliding from the saddle.
    "Marshall," he called to the nearest man as
he pulled Elise from the saddle, "find Daniel and have him gather
twenty men. We ride in ten minutes. Where is my father?"
    "I dinna' know," Marshall answered. "Mayhap
the great hall?"
    Marcus started off, then stopped and whirled
to see Elise standing where he left her. "Go to your cottage," he
ordered then, cursing the powers that be, set out after his
father.
    * * * *
    Elise glanced at Michael, who rode alongside
her. His gaze remained directly ahead. The rigid set of his mouth
indicated he was still angry with her for coming alone to his
cottage. Guilt unsettled her. His anger was born out of concern,
and he was more right than she cared to admit. To make matters
worse, the trip had been a waste. He hadn't received a recent copy
of the Sunday Times .
    Birds abruptly took flight in the trees up
ahead. She gave a small cry. Michael shot her a look that said, Not so sure there aren't any Campbells on MacGregor land, are
you?
    Heat warmed her cheeks and she looked
straight ahead. The Campbells had eluded Marcus that night three
weeks ago. No further trace of them or their kinsmen had been found
since, but Marcus was on a mission to discover who had trespassed
onto his land. As a result, she wouldn't be able to ride more than
an hour without encountering one of his men.
    Damn him. If not for his watchful eye, she
would be on a ship to America. The night he fetched her from
Michael's, she had decided not to return to Brahan Seer but to
continue to Glasgow and chance the first ship away from Scotland.
The wanted notice had been in the Sunday Times dated three weeks
prior, but Price could have given up since then.
    She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes.
Price stared back at her from behind her father's mahogany desk at
Landen Shipping. MacGregor men wouldn't crawl the land like mice
much longer. Soon she would return for the man who had put her
mother in an early grave, then quietly took part in her daughter's
murder. Her heart constricted. Steven was a casualty of her
making—a casualty she knew Price Ardsley relished. Elise forced
back tears.
    Beware, stepfather. I will return.
     
    "Will you come to the great hall?" Elise
asked Michael when they passed through the castle gates.
    "Aye," he replied shortly.
    "Michael," she began, but he