The Highlander's Temptation by Eliza Knight Read Free Book Online Page B

aunt’s eyes.
    “I serve God and my family, too, Aunt Fiona, but that doesn’t make me a sinner when I take a moment to stare up at the clouds and embrace a few breaths of peace.”
    Aunt Fiona frowned, then pressed her fingers to Lorna’s head making her turn back around. Begrudgingly she followed her aunt’s nudge.
    “Aye, lass. A few moments of enjoying nature’s beauty is indeed no sin.”
    Lorna took a deep breath, glad she could make her aunt see the right of it.
    “But doing so at the cost of your brother’s men, your family’s safety and your very life, is a sin.” Aunt Fiona plucked a pale green ribbon off the dressing table as though she hadn’t just told Lorna she’d be going straight to hell.
    “Ye may think me a sinner, Aunt Fiona, but between the two of us, I’ve definitely got more to live for.” Lorna shoved to her feet and walked toward the door with her aunt sputtering behind her. The light green ribbon trickling to the floor. “Your lessons and advice may have been welcomed by my brother while I was growing up, but they are no longer welcomed by me.” Hand on the iron doorknob, Lorna twisted. “I’d hoped we could be friends. I’m a grown woman now, and I dinna need an instructor.”
    Aunt Fiona straightened her shoulders, looking down her elegant nose at Lorna. “We shall see about that.”
    Lorna kept her lips firmly closed, refusing to fall into another sparring match with her aunt. Instead, she inclined her head with respect and waited for the bitter woman to leave the room.
    Lifting her skirts, Fiona swept from the room in a cloud of citrus and cloves—the way she’d smelled since Lorna was a child—the same way Lorna imagined a greatly revered queen would.
    As soon as her aunt was gone, Lorna took a deep breath, letting all the pent up anxiety flow out of her. She shut the door, thoughts of her aunt pushed to the background as a sound outside reminded her of their uninvited guest. She hurried toward the window. What had Magnus decided to do about Laird Montgomery?
    Flinging open the shutters, she searched the courtyard for signs of the dark warrior, and when seeing none, she looked for her brother. It appeared the two of them had disappeared. A glance over the moors gave her no further information. ’Twas entirely possible that her brother had sent the man on his way, and that he’d made such haste as to have disappeared from view already. Then again, he could be in the great hall now, drinking ale and laughing with her brothers.
    Laughing about her.
    Lorna frowned and did one more cursory glance around the courtyard, coming up empty-sighted and irritated.
    Why today, of all days, did that brawny, handsome, wicked looking warrior have to ride to Sutherland? Why did he have to make an appearance now?
    Jamie Montgomery… The name was so familiar... But he was a laird, and her brother often associated with other clan chiefs. She’d likely heard his name in passing. If that were the case, then why couldn’t she shake the feeling that she’d met him before?
    “Jamie Montgomery,” she murmured, fingers sliding over the ridges of the shutters.
    No bell suddenly tolled her enlightenment. She was still in the dark. But if he happened to be downstairs instead of on his way back to wherever he came from, she would certainly get to the bottom of the mystery. For her own sake. And not because she found him to be altogether very enticing.
    The kind of man she could imagine herself getting married to.
    The kind of man she could imagine spending the rest of her life with.
    The kind of man she imagined bending her backward over his arm as he kissed her.
    Lorna shook her head. What the hell was she thinking? She’d just brandished her dagger in the man’s face! He’d scared the wits out of her. The last thing she should be thinking of was falling for him.
    His soul could be as dark as his hair for all she knew. Lorna waved away her mad thoughts. For certain , Magnus would have sent