Read Love Beyond Compare (Book 5 of Morna’s Legacy Series) for Free Online Page B

one piece, I opened my eyes slowly to find the outlines of two humongous men standing in the dining room.  
    “Do you need a room?” I didn’t appreciate that the strangers saw fit to walk into a darkened building, but I knew that Gregor needed all the income he could get. I wasn’t about to turn away the first real guests of the night.  
    “Aye, lass. Apologies for our late arrival, we have been visiting friends.”
    I knew enough of hospitality around here to find his statement odd and thought it best to illuminate the room as quickly as possible, in case they turned out to have less than honest intentions for entering. I didn’t have any real weapon, but there were a few kitchen utensils that weighed a good deal, and I was feistier than my size suggested.  
    “Visiting friends? And they didn’t offer you a bed for the night?” I backed into the sitting room so I could keep an eye on them, reaching just inside the doorway for the first candle I could get my hands on.  
    “Aye, o’course they did. ’Tis only I dinna wish to sleep in the castle. I doona much care for them.”
    I stilled midway into the dining room, gripping the candle hard enough that wax dripped onto my hand. I had to grit my teeth to keep from dropping my only source of light as the hot wax blistered my skin.  
    Adwen MacChristy. It had to be. The very guest I was supposed to have been at the castle to meet this evening. Surely, he would’ve heard my name before; I was certain that my absence had been discussed at dinner. I couldn’t tell him who I was unless I wished for word to get back to Baodan. I enjoyed my work here. I wasn’t about to do anything to compromise it.  
    “Are ye all right, lass? Ye seem to be staying a good distance away. I can promise ye that we mean ye no harm.”  
    It was the voice of the second man who stood nearest to the doorway. He was even taller than the first, and I found him to be one of the most formidably large men I’d ever seen. Not fat, simply tall and broad and, even in the darkness, all muscle. All I could see was his outline, but had this been the twenty-first century, he would have undoubtedly been some sort of professional athlete.  
    “Yes, I’m fine. I just spilled some wax. Give me a moment.”
    They stood in the entryway while I lit all of the candles. Only once I was done did I step back to fully give them a good look over.  
    Good-looking specimens, the both of them.  
    The taller one who’d just spoken offered me a warm but shy smile as I looked them over. His bright blue eyes shone with a kindness that immediately eased any previous concern I’d had about the two men. He had dark hair, cropped shorter than most men of the time but still long enough that natural curls stood out on end, giving him a wild, rugged appearance.
    He had the biggest hands I’d ever seen. As I gazed at them, I could see the wear on his palms, the callouses caused from repeated hard work. I immediately made the assumption that this man wasn’t Adwen. Not that the other lairds I knew didn’t work hard, they certainly did, only it wasn’t often the same back breaking work that so many others did day in and day out.  
    The man I presumed to be Adwen stood only a few inches shorter than the first, bringing him in at a solid six-foot-two. He was impossibly handsome, with dark hair that fell nearly to his shoulders and thick dark brows that framed honey-colored eyes.  
    He took one step toward me, placing his hand on the side of my arm.  
    “Ye have burned yer hand from the wax, lass. Let me take that candle from ye.”
    The touch of his hand sent a spark shooting down my arm and I relented, passing off the dripping candle before turning to dip my hand in a cool basin of water.  
    “Thank you. Uh, the castle you say? So you know the McMillans then? Might I ask your names?”
    I glanced up at both of the men as I splashed the cool water over my hand, and the man I believed to be Adwen confirmed my