Spellbound by Kelly Jameson Read Free Book Online

handed her the tattered doll, which had fallen in the dirt, and made his way back toward the elegantly dressed woman. “Be more careful in yer ways, Amaris.” Maighdlin was astounded to see her captor show a kindness.
    “ My laird, ‘twas clumsy of me. I am just eager to see ye home. ‘Tis been too long since we last met.” She tried once more to embrace him, but he pushed her gently away and she lowered her arms slowly.
    “ Are ye no’ happy to see me, my laird? It has been three long years ye’ve been away.”
    Kade pulled Maighdlin down from the horse, and hoisted her small form over his brawny shoulder. “I haven’t time for pleasantries, Amaris.”
    “ Put me down!” Maighdlin squealed.
    Amaris scurried to keep up with Kade’s long-legged strides. “Where do ye go, and why do ye carry a servant over yer shoulder?”
    Kade stopped and turned to face Amaris, ignoring the limbs flailing about his mid-section and the small fists pounding, to no avail, on his broad back.
    He leveled his gaze on Amaris. “How is yer husband, my lady? Does he fare well?”
    Amaris’ eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. “So, ye’ve heard about my recent marriage.”
    “ Aye, I’ve heard. Tell me Amaris, which satisfies ye more, yer husband’s aging blade or his coin? I’ve heard tale he’s a wealthy man, wealthier than my brother Niall. Is that why ye took Niall to yer bed and then spurned him so quickly? Because Glendon was the richer?”
    Maighdlin buried her head in his back. “I canna breathe! Put me down, you toad-faced lout!”
    Amaris eyed Maighdlin with interest but ignored her. She saddled close to Kade and craned her head to look up at him. She trailed a finger along the hardened, hair-fringed muscles of his forearm and smiled sweetly. “Aye, the coin doesna hurt. But I remember ‘twas your blade that left me full and satisfied like no other, Kade. And ye’ve been away for a long, long time. Niall and I were young when we dallied. We were no’ in love. He reserved that for another….”
    Kade brushed her aside. “We were young and foolish then. Ye moved from man to man, aye from brother to brother, with nary a thought for his heart. Ye have a gilded tongue. And though I know well how it can please a man, the thought of it now makes me sick. Tell me, have you grieved at all for Niall? Have ye already tired of your aged husband’s withered blade?”
    Kade spun on his heel and left a seething Amaris in the courtyard. “Aye, and all this talk of yer manly prowess is going to make me sick if ye don’t put me down!”
    He finally stopped in a dim, tunneled passageway to the great hall and set Maighdlin on her feet but he did not release her. “You have a bold tongue, wench.”
    The weathered stones above her spoke in accents of danger and strength. Like the man who now held her in his steel-bound arms. Even the shadows seemed to tighten about them in a menacing dance, the stones sweating with old secrets.
    “ Do ye no’ remember how I dealt with it before, Christel?”
    She felt the color drain from her face. Yet anger rose sharp as a blade between her ribs. “You imbecilic, moronic, half-witted wretch! Ye’ve run a fool’s errand for I am no’ Christel MacKinnon!”
    He crushed her to him, his jaw, rough with a days’ growth of dark whiskers, grazing her chin. His eyes traveled over her quivering, parted pink lips, the rounded curves of her firm breasts, her slim waist. “Ye would do well no’ to bait me, Christel. Ye would no’ like the consequences.”
    “ What will ye do?” she fair cried. “Impress upon me another of yer distasteful kisses?” She was shouting now but didn’t seem to realize it. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes.
    “ Distasteful, was it?” Kade’s memory traveled back to another’s lips, youthful and full, pink and lush as a morning sunrise, and willing yet. Lips he’d waited for. Dreamt of. Longed for. A sweet face that swam in his vision before, during, and