Read Knight In My Bed for Free Online Page B

cheeks.
    Niels slid a sideways glance at Rory, but the other man only made a noncommittal grunt and shrugged his burly shoulders. An uncomfortable silence welled up between them until Isolde's cousin finally said, "I warned the whoreson I’d grind his bones to powder if he isn't gentle with you.”
    “Lower your voice, will you?" Isolde admonished him, mortification stinging her cheeks, her battle against blushing   instantly lost. Every inch of her blazed with the heat of ten fast-burning fires.
    Fires fueled as much by her own agitation at being in such a position as by the meaning behind her cousin's words.
    "Answer me, Niels. Do you believe he would hurt me?" She lifted her chin and set her face into her best imitation of what she thought of as her da's laird's look.
    The stern expression her late father had oft used to intimidate those who sought to defy him. As Niels meant to flout her now, if the stubborn set of his jaw was any indication.
    She peered deep into his eyes and tried not to blink. "Well?"
    Her da's old trick must've worked, for she'd only stared at him a few moments before he blew out a breath and rolled his eyes. "Nay, I doubt he would from what I've heard and seen of him."
    "I am glad to hear it," Isolde said, the firmness of her voice amazing her. "For I doubt I could go through with what I must do, knowing someone lingered outside the door."
    Niels gaped at her. "You cannot think to dally with him without us close at hand?"
    "Did you not just say you do not believe he would do me ill?"
    Looking more uncomfortable than ever, Niels rubbed the back of his neck. Isolde seized her advantage. "I am not asking you to leave, merely to stand out of hearing range. I cannot be expected to-'
    “ ‘Tis dangerous in other ways," Rory broke in. "What if someone comes looking for you? If we are not here-"
    "But you will be," she cut him off, "at least close enough to take up your positions should anyone approach." Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder, then lowered her voice. "This is difficult enough without having the two of you within hearing range."
    Niels reached to touch her arm, but lowered his hand when she backed way. "'Tis for your own good," he said. "We don't think any harm will befall you, but we cannot risk the chance."
    Yet you 'd see me betrothed to a man I revile?
    Balloch MacArthur's coarse face rose up in her mind, an image even more unappealing than the thought of facing an unclothed Donall the Bold in her bedchamber.
    Turning aside, she stared down the shadow-filled passageway. As gloomy as the ill-lit corridor and the yawning stairwell beyond, so bleak would her life be as Balloch MacArthur's bride.
    Isolde shuddered.
    If she meant to rid herself of Balloch, she had no choice but to lie with the MacLean. Balloch, a brutish man, dull of wit but exceedingly proud, would surely extricate himself from a betrothal if she told him she carried another man's child.
    And she'd have to conceive and give birth to that child if she hoped to forge an irrefutable bond between her dwindling and weakened clan and the powerful MacLeans.
    A bond she saw as her clan's sole chance of survival.
    Her resolve strengthened, she turned back to face her cousin and Rory. "Rory, you are about the same size as the MacLean. I bid you to fetch him something to wear. I've ordered a meal brought to my chamber, and I will not sup with a naked man sitting across from me."
    Rory blinked. "We were told he is to have naught but table scraps, and he was divested of his garb a-purpose. The council gave ord -"
    "And so have I," Isolde overrode his objections. She paused to gather her courage. Never had she been so assertive. “Would you seek to make me more uncomfortable with this situation than I already am?"
    “Nay, my lady, 'tis only –“ Rory began, but she silenced him with a pointed look.
    "You may stand guard at the top of the stairwell. I will not have you lurking outside my door." Her tone dared them to deny her