To Love a Highlander by Sue-Ellen Welfonder Read Free Book Online

spoke as if she’d rehearsed her arguments. “He considers any woman touched by you as tainted goods. They are no longer worth his esteem.
    “You’ve never been in a position to challenge him before his peers.” She looked at him with those sparkling eyes, speaking easily of his lowly birth. “Now you have the chance to thwart him, spoiling his plans.”
    For a heartbeat, Sorley was tempted.
    Greatly so.
    But he knew Sinclair too well.
    So he went to the door, setting his hand on the latch. “Sir John’s fury would be terrible, my lady. I dinnae care for myself, but he would—”
    “He won’t lay a hand on me.” She joined him at the door, touched his elbow. “I’ll be home to Knocking Tower before he’d have the chance. Besides”—she gave him a smile that went straight to his heart, almost convincing him—“the Highlands are no place for a Lowland noble. He wouldn’t find me there if he tried.
    “So, please…” She squeezed his arm. “Will you not agree to help me?”
    “I will consider it.” He wouldn’t, but she needn’t know that. “Meet me in the castle chapel tomorrow e’en and I’ll give you my answer. If anyone questions you, you can say you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of the pink lady. That’s where she is most frequently seen.”
    “I will be there.” She lifted on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
    “I’ve no’ yet agreed.” He was determined to say no.
    Placing a hand on the small of her back, he urged her out the door. Once it was closed again, he leaned his back against the wood, a smile curving his lips. Perhaps there was a way he could assist her and scratch an itch that had plagued him for years.
    Sometimes the gods did favor a man, and who was he to refuse their gifts?
    Pushing away from the door, he went to the window and braced his hands on the cold, damp stone of the ledge. As if the fates truly were tempting him, he was in time to see Lady Mirabelle crossing the bailey. A thin drizzle still fell and an enormous moon drifted in and out of the clouds. Wind blew sheets of mist across the courtyard, but Mirabelle strode through the rain as if she was made for such weather.
    His smile deepened as he watched her.
    She paused before the sheltered arcade on the far side of the bailey and tipped back her head as if she savored the misty damp on her face. Sorley’s pulse quickened, a whirl of heated images filling his mind. In his experience, women who appreciated rough weather were equally wild and passionate in a man’s arms.
    He’d enjoy discovering if the same was true of Lady Mirabelle.
    His blood ran hot at the thought, pure masculine anticipation surging through him as she disappeared into the shadows of the arcade. Rarely had a woman roused such an intense response in him. And never had he been more inclined to ignore such yearnings.
    What a shame he knew he wouldn’t.

Chapter Two

    T he rain had stopped by the time Sorley wakened early the next morning. Through his window arch he could see a clear gray sky and a scattering of stars. Wind howled round the tower and the predawn air had turned so cold he almost expected to find a dusting of frost on the bailey cobbles. Not that he was eager to leave the warmth of his bed and trudge across the room to confirm his suspicions. Doing so would require braving a floor that rolled like waves on the sea and suffering the sight of walls that appeared to breathe.
    Even so, he pushed up on his elbows to glare at the toppled ewer of wine lying on the floor rushes in the middle of his bedchamber.
    It swam in and out of view, as did the equally empty ale jug on the table.
    In truth, there were a few other discarded ale and wine vessels littering the quarters he usually kept as tidy as possible.
    He knew because he’d downed the contents of each one.
    Now he was paying for his folly.
    Rarely had his head pained him so greatly.
    “Devil take the lass,” he snarled the curse, the effort only worsening the thunder