Read At the Highlander's Mercy for Free Online

and left the keep.
    Since he never doubted that Connor would arrive at his gates due to Symon’s actions, he had many things to see to now. All of the clan elders and counsellors would be arriving at his call. When given the true accounting of what Connor could bring against them, Rob felt certain they would understand their precarious position and want to end it quickly. The threat to the clan, their meagre lands and keep included, should be enough to warn them off this dangerous path.
    Several tasks had called to him at the same time, so he saw to those and waited on word about Lilidh’s servant and guards. If they were alive and she kept unharmed, it could alleviate the MacLerie’s legendary temper before he massacred every Matheson there. As he walked from the chamber, the irony struck him.
    He would be unworthy of being chieftain ifhe simply capitulated and released Lilidh to her father and husband.
    Though for all the wrong reasons, her presence here gave him an opportunity to improve his family’s conditions. With her as a bargaining tool, he could make things better for the Mathesons. Of course, it would mean cementing her hatred of him for ever—though he doubted she felt little else for him even now—and it would be the last time he would see her or speak to her.
    And though kidnapping an heiress was a time-honoured tradition here in the Highlands, taking a chief’s daughter who happened to be another man’s wife did not usually get the same results. With one, a man could end up wealthier with his clan well supported. With the other, wars, death, humiliation, mayhem and possibly beheading or castration followed. Now, since the first was not an issue, he needed to find a way to not allow the latter to happen.
    By the time Rob made his way back up to his chambers that night, several things had fallen into place. Symon seemed cowed for the moment. Only two of Lilidh’s guards had died and, though he’d not told her yet, her old serving woman would recover. Beathas reported thatthe only injuries Lilidh had suffered were the obvious ones and those would heal.
    However, the problems that Lilidh caused had not gone away and would increase with every passing hour that she remained in his keep. Until she was healed and he could get to the bottom of this mess, he must hold her and hold her close—for her protection as much as his own.
    Walking down the corridor to his chambers, he nodded to the two guards there and sent them off with a wave of his hand. Rob had already set an order for guards to be in place there whenever he wasn’t in his room, so he knew they would be back at dawn. Lifting the latch, he stepped inside, ready, he thought, for anything.
    The sight before him made the very floor beneath his feet shift.
    Lilidh lay on his bed, her hair spread like a wild, dark storm on the pillows. Her face, washed of grime and dirt, showed the delicate curve of her chin and the pale pink of her lips revealed itself. The potential in her as a child and young girl had blossomed to full beauty as she’d reached womanhood. Beathas had washed her and given her a clean gown. Asleep in his bed, without the fear or pain or anger thathad controlled her expression earlier, he could have believed she belonged there.
    And from the way his heart thundered in his chest and his blood heated his veins, the sight of her there was something he wanted. Rob nodded to Beathas, who sat by the bed watching over her charge. She put down the garment she worked on and came to him, putting her finger to her mouth, warning him to silence.
    ‘She has just now quieted,’ Beathas whispered.
    ‘The potion did not keep her asleep, then?’ He glanced across the chamber to watch the slow, calm rise and fall of her chest under the sheet.
    ‘It worked while I had need of it,’ Beathas replied.
    While the healer tended to the worst of her injuries
.
    Rob walked closer to the bed. ‘Any instructions?’
    ‘Ha,’ Beathas grunted out. ‘You plan