To Marry A Scottish Laird by Lynsay Sands Read Free Book Online Page A

the bird’s weight might make it slip off the branch, but when that didn’t happen, Joan heaved a sigh and moved to the tree to begin to climb. Never having climbed a tree before, she was surprised at how easy it was. It didn’t seem to take long at all to climb up so that the branch the bird had flopped over was at her chest level. Joan reached for it then, but of course it was out of her reach. Quite a ways out of her reach.
    Joan debated the matter and then climbed up until she stood on the branch the bird was on. She then eased to sit on it and pressed her hands down on the branch and straightened her arms. The action lifted her behind enough that she could then swing to the side a bit until her hip bumped against her right wrist, then she lowered herself and performed the action again over and over until she had moved herself far enough along the branch that she could reach the bird.
    Smiling at the thought of the meal she was going to make for Cam that night, Joan picked up the bird and moved it to lie between herself and the trunk on the branch she was on. She then began to shift herself back the way she’d come. She was perhaps halfway back when the bird she’d thought she’d killed proved otherwise and suddenly fluttered and squawked beside her. Startled, Joan jerked, one hand slipping off the branch, and then she was falling. Crying out, she grabbed for something to stop her fall, and then cried out again as her head slammed into a branch. Pain radiated through her head, and then through her whole body as she crashed to the ground. Joan moaned as darkness claimed her.
    C AM WAS PACIN G THE CLEARING AND F RETTING over what was taking Jo so long when he heard her scream. He whirled in the direction he thought the sound had come from and by the time the second scream sounded, he was running. The problem was he had no idea where she was, and after the second scream there was nothing to lead him to her. Cam shouted her name several times, but got no response, and then simply had to search the underbrush and area along the river. He did so quickly and methodically, aware that the sun was on its downward journey and he had to find her before dark.
    Cam had been searching for what seemed like forever, growing more anxious by the moment when he glimpsed what looked like a bundle of cloth under a tree ahead. Eyes squinting, he moved slowly toward it, but then broke into a run when he recognized that it was Jo, lying on her back.
    “Jo?” he said, dropping to his knees beside her. When she moaned and turned her head, relief coursed through him like he’d never before experienced. Her eyes were still closed, but she was alive at least, and she was stirring.
    Bending, Cam scooped her up in his arms and straightened. The action brought her eyes open and she moaned again and winced as if the light bothered her.
    “Oh, my head,” she muttered, turning to press her face against his chest.
    “What happened?” Cam asked, carrying her quickly back along the river toward the clearing.
    “I fell out of the tree,” she admitted on a sigh, raising one hand weakly to the base of her skull. Wincing at her own touch, she pulled her hand away and Cam cursed when he saw the blood on her fingers.
    “What the devil were ye doing in the tree in the first place?” he asked sharply.
    “Trying to get a pheasant,” she admitted, sounding weary. Jo blinked her eyes open to give him a wry smile as she explained, “I knocked it out with my slingshot. I thought it was dead, but when I started to come back down the tree with it, it woke up and startled me. I fell . . .” She shrugged and turned her face into his chest again. “Sorry, I guess we won’t be having pheasant for supper as I’d hoped.”
    “I’ll find us supper. Ye should ha’e left it to me to begin with.”
    “You are still healing,” she began and then suddenly stiffened and turned her face to his, eyes popping open. “Damn. Put me down. You shouldn’t be