Read Highland Brides 03 - On Bended Knee for Free Online Page B

older man’s brows shot up. “Man?” he said, and turned to look at his companions. “Did he say man?” The rest of them laughed. It grated on Cameron’s nerves.
    “I see no man here!” said one of his lackeys, and then the man sniggered.
    Cameron glowered up at them.
    Stinkin’ Sassenachs, all of ‘em!
    It didn’t matter. They were his means to an end. And they needed him as much as he needed them. With that in mind, he rose, unfazed by their leers. He slapped the dirt from his hands and then his bottom, meeting their leader’s gaze with as much swagger as he could return.
    “FitzSimon,” he said in greeting to the man. “You’re a bloody fool for not taking her last night when ye had the chance!”
    “I’m thinkin’ ye’d like to keep your tongue, Scot!” another of his lackeys said.
    FitzSimon raised a hand to the man. “MacKinnon never left her side,” he said plaintively. “What would ye have me do? Walk up and wrench her from his arms?”
    “You’re her da!” Cameron reminded him.
    “Aye, but my daughter has lost her wits over this man. He steals her from my home and she somehow manages to lose her heart to him! Little fool! She would not see reason two months ago, why should she now? Nay, you must bring her to me, instead.”
    Cameron screwed his face. “Me!” He pointed to himself incredulously. “Ye expect me to drag her out of my laird’s bed?”
    FitzSimon narrowed his gaze. “You are a bright boy. You’ll find a way to lure her out from his sight.”
    “Not me!” Cameron refused. It was one thing to make FitzSimon aware of Page’s whereabouts so that he might take her himself, and another entirely to take a hand in her abduction. Iain would skewer him through! “I’m no boy,” he said, casting daggers with his eyes, “and neither am I a fool!”
    The man’s brows lifted. “Ho ho!” He walked forward and stood before Cameron. “Are we not?”
    Cameron refused to be cowed though his gaze shifted nervously from one of FitzSimon’s men to another. All stood watching, grinning, their rotten teeth flashing. FitzSimon reached out for him suddenly, and he couldn’t help himself. He flinched. The men’s laughter rang in his ears.
    Gently, he slapped Cameron’s face. “Soft as a maiden’s breast,” he remarked, and a chill passed through Cameron, despite his rising fury.
    FitzSimon’s men laughed in unison.
    Cameron shoved FitzSimon’s hand from his face.
    “Tsk. Tsk. I should never have expected a boy to do a man’s job,” FitzSimon said, and shook his head. “Go home to your mother, Cameron.”
    Cameron’s face and neck heated, though not so much in chagrin as in fury. He was not a boy, and he hadn’t had a mother in so long he’d forgotten what one was! No one gave him any respect! He was not stupid and he had a rotten feeling in his gut about FitzSimon and his daughter both. As far as he was concerned they could both go back to hell from whence they came!
    “Dinna fash yourself… I’ll get her to ye!”
    FitzSimon’s eyes glimmered suddenly. Satisfaction curled his lips.
    “If you swear to take her—all o’ ye!” Cameron made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Back to your bloody Sassenach land and be done with us forever!”
    “Of course.” FitzSimon nodded. “Ye’ve my word.”
    Cameron spat upon the ground. “That’s what I think about the word of an Englishman!” he told FitzSimon.
    “Why you!” FitzSimon’s man lunged forward, but FitzSimon placed himself between them, shielding Cameron. The man halted, casting Cameron malevolent glares. It was clear to Cameron what he would have liked to have done to him had he had the chance.
    FitzSimon turned to him. “You’re not too quick-witted, boy, are ye?” He spat upon the ground after Cameron.
    Cameron glowered at him. “I’ll get her to you, FitzSimon!” he swore, his feet planted firmly and his shoulders squared. “But then I want you out of here forevermore!”
    The two of them