Read Highland Knight for Free Online Page A

others and searched for Gillyanne. She almost smiled when she finally saw her cousin returning from the trees, having obviously suffered the same need she had. There was a big man trailing after Gillyanne as well, and her cousin looked furious. What was truly amusing was that the tiny Gillyanne’s guard actually looked a little intimated by the girl. It was not amusing, however, to see that any attempt at escape would require eluding two very large men.
    “Are ye intending to listen to every wee word I say, too?” Gillyanne snapped at her guard when she reached Avery’s side.
    Avery could not completely repress a soft laugh when both men hastily stepped back several paces. “They are only doing as their laird commanded them to, Gillyanne.”
    “I ken it,” Gillyanne said, “which is why I endured it like the lady I am and didnae beat the fool o’er the head with the first stick I could set my hands on.” She took several deep breaths, then demurely clasped her hands in front of her skirts. “There, I am calm now.”
    “Does that truly work?”
    “Sometimes, when I am not truly verra angry. As ye said, ’tis nay Colin’s fault. Howbeit, that dark devil who ties ye to beds and horses best nay get too close for a while. So, how fare ye?”
    “Weel enough,” Avery replied as she hooked her arm through Gillyanne’s and began a leisurely stroll, almost smiling when she heard their reluctant guards fall into step behind them.
    “Truly? I thought ye might be a wee bit troubled. Just a sense I had.”
    “And your senses are far too keen.”
    “Aunt Maldie is verra pleased about that. Ye are nay without your own gifts. ’Twas ye who sensed the danger coming the day the DeVeau men attacked.”
    “A lot of good that did.”
    “We are alive. If we had been caught completely unaware, we may weel have perished in that first bloody onslaught. Aye, and our kinsmen were warned. Truth, it was too late for them to be completely readied, but, mayhap a few more had sword in hand than would have if ye hadnae sounded the alarm. E’en as we ran, we could hear the benefit of your warning.”
    “We could?” Avery was more than eager to hear that she may have been able to save a few lives.
    “Aye. The first sound we heard was the clash of swords, nay the screams of thedying.”
    “That followed.”
    “Sadly, aye, it did. But that sound of sword hitting sword, chilling though it is, told us that someone was ready to face the DeVeaux, if only to hold them back so that others might flee and survive. Dinnae fret so. There is naught we can do but pray for the souls of the dead, and that there werenae too many of them.”
    “I do so. Often,” Avery murmured.
    “We must fix our thoughts upon our current troubles.”
    “Aye. How to keep Payton free and unharmed.”
    “True,” agreed Gillyanne, but then she fixed Avery with a steady gaze. “And how to ease your troubled heart.”
    “My heart is troubled, is it?”
    “Aye. The lusting is bad, isnae it.”
    “Oh, aye.” Avery shook her head. “My innards are knotted with it. My only consolation is that I believe his are, too.” She exchanged a brief grin with Gillyanne, then grew serious again. “I dinnae believe I have the strength to fight it for verra long.”
    “Oh, dear.”
    “Aye, just so.”
    “Then we must set our minds to thinking of a way to steal some of the sweetness of victory from him.”
    Avery nodded. “I have already begun. One thing is to be sure to make Payton ken that my chastity wasnae stolen; it was given away freely and willingly. It will ease whate’er guilt Payton may feel.”
    “That will certainly lessen some of the bite of Sir Cameron’s plans.”
    Silently cursing the way her pulse increased at the mere sight of the man, Avery watched as Cameron approached her and Gillyanne. It was understandable in a way. He was, after all, an extraordinarily fine-looking man. Somehow she had to turn what could easily prove to be a weakness into a