Read Onyx for Free Online Page B

back down and stay here,” she said, straightening out her gown. “I’m going to talk to the demon man.”
    “Then, I’ll be at your side.” Weldon had his hand on the hilt of his sword.
    She looked up and noticed the Scots all gathering around slowly. “Nay. And take your hand off your sword. We don’t want a bloody melee right here in the pub. I’m just going to try to get some information from him. Don’t intervene unless it is absolutely necessary. Do you understand me?”
    “Aye, of course .” He raised his hand and motioned for the rest of the men to sit back down. He just leaned on the trestle table and crossed his arms but did not take a seat.
    “ I know he’s keeping information from us. But just leave it to me, I’ll get it out of him,” she told him with a slight smile.
    “How can you be so sure?”
    “Because I saw the randy wench waiting for him, and know that he’s probably craving a pretty woman right now.” She pinched her cheeks for color, then reached up and removed her headpiece and put it on the table, and let her hair spill down over her shoulders. Then she tugged on the bodice of her gown to expose the tops of her breasts.
    “Baroness,” said Weldon, his face looking flushed at seeing her this way, “what are you doing?”
    “Don’t any of you mention this to anyone when we get home,” she warned her men, “or I’ll have your heads for it, I swear I will.”
    S he took a deep breath, then released it, and headed over to the man, figuring once he set eyes on a pretty woman, he’d be a blubbering idiot and confess everything. This wasn’t something she’d ever done before, but she figured she needed to drop her standards slightly and try to do something to entice him, as these barbaric Highlanders would never give information to a respectful, proper lady such as herself. And if anyone back at the castle found out she was strutting around like a strumpet, she would surely die of shame and embarrassment.
     
    “Dagger, ye need te stop drinkin’,” warned Callum, “yer eyes are gettin’ thet crazy look te them. I think ye are feelin’ stressed again, and if what yer mathair said is true, than thet is no’ a guid thing at all.”
    “I’m aggravated and angry,” he admitted. “Me mathair is keeping things from me and I dinna ken why.”
    “What do ye mean?” asked Callum.
    “It disna matter,” he said, looking down to his empty cup and shaking his head. He never really confided in anyone with his problems, and wasn’t going to start tonight.
    “Dinna look now,” said Callum drying a glass with a rag, “but thet English lassie is headed right in yer direction.”
    “Dagger,” Onyx heard from behind him, and turned to see that the woman had followed him over to the drink board. He was surprised that her lackeys weren’t fastened to her elbow, and that she’d approached by herself.
    “Only me good friends call me thet,” he said, trying to get a last drop of whisky out of the glass. “So dinna call me Dagger again.”
    “All right. Onyx, then . . . I thought perhaps we could have a drink together.”
    She sat dow n next to him at the counter, and Onyx felt like this night was going from bad to worse. If only his birthday had been the way his friends had planned, he’d be in the stables bedding one of the Lowland triplets right now instead of trying to ward off a haughty English bitch. And the worst part was, he’d probably never have another chance with the triplets after not showing up for their little rendezvous. And lord knows, he wanted them badly.
    “I tol’ ye I have nothin’ te say to ye.”
    “Dagger, what’re ye doin’, ye bloody bastard? ” came Aidan’s voice from behind him. He turned to see his friends approaching, with the three randy sisters clinging to them like barnacles on a ship.
    “Aye, ye never showed up fer yer . . . pre sent,” said Ian, tucking his leine back into his tartan as he walked, and fastening his weapon belt