The Accidental Highland Hero by Terry Spear Read Free Book Online

cleared his throat like he always did when he’d been up to mischief. “Eanruig and I found her on the rocks after her ship sank. We saw the sun glinting off a brooch she was wearing and after nearly wrecking the boat on the rocks, we managed to pull her from the sea, slightly battered.”
    James stared at him in disbelief. Normally it was his good fortune his clansmen always kept him informed no matter how trivial the concern. So what was the problem now?  “Why did you not already say so?  I asked if there were any survivors.”
    “Nay, you asked if there were any men who survived,” Niall corrected him, but his tone was conciliatory.
    James raised his brows. “Man or woman, I would not think I would have to be so explicit. Why did no one think to mention this to me?  Was the lass the only one who survived?”
    Niall nodded. “She was thrown upon the rocks in a bad way. When Eanruig and I reached her, she was unconscious. She is staying in the chamber next to yours where Catriona was to reside.”
    In utter disbelief, James glanced at his mother, now seeing why she had been nervous when speaking of the chamber.
    She shrugged a shoulder as if it mattered not. “Catriona delayed her journey for a fortnight.”
    James clenched his teeth and controlled his language then stormed toward the chamber. “And what, pray tell, Tavia, did you say to upset the woman?”
    “I called her a Dunbarton. She got out of bed, and when I tried to confine her, she fought me. I could not stop her and came to tell Lady Akira at once.”
    James’s blood instantly boiled. “You gave Catriona’s chamber to a Dunbarton?” James asked his mother, unable to curb his angry tone of voice. “Our staunchest enemy?”

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Unable to find her own plaid brat in the guest chamber, Marsali dashed into the adjoining bedchamber. Grabbing a green and blue plaid from the foot of a massive bed dominating the room, she threw the wool over her shoulders. With naught to fasten it, she held tight to the cloth, hiding the thin chemise she wore beneath it. Would be unseemly to dash through the unfamiliar castle barely dressed, yet her only concern should be to escape from the enemy’s midst.
    Was she a Dunbarton?
    She couldn’t remember, only the name seemed too familiar, and she feared she was. Not that it was a bad thing, only that these clansmen thought so.
    The men constantly squabbling over their borders was not her fault. If she were King Alexander’s queen, she would rule there would no longer be any fighting amongst the clans. Although he reigned only over the land between Forth and Spey while the land south of Forth was entrusted to his younger brother David—so James did not come under either’s rule. Not even King Alexander could stop the continuous bickering between the clans in his dominion nor could the clan chiefs elsewhere. Which brought to mind a stranger question. Why did she know her king’s and his brother’s name and not her own?
    No doubt she had done something evil and had no wish to know her name.
    On the way to the stables, she heard Niall’s aunt’s voice and Niall himself headed in her direction. She rushed as fast as her shaking legs could take her down the opposite hall. ‘Twas not the fear of being caught, but the fever and chills that consumed her. Och, it was the fear of being caught also. Who was she trying to fool?
    Continuing past another large chamber, she discovered backstairs most likely used by the servants. She hurried down them and found her way to servants’ quarters, a large room with rushes strewn across the floor and sleeping pallets stacked against one wall. Everyone seemed to be at the meal except for Niall, his mother, Tavia, and another man who spoke angrily to them. The laird of the castle?  James?
    ‘Twould be her luck that they had hidden the fact she was being harbored here against the laird’s will.
    Two brawny, bearded Highlanders stood near the main entrance of the