Tempt Me With Kisses

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Book: Read Tempt Me With Kisses for Free Online
Authors: Margaret Moore
had sold all the fleece her father had left in store. The major portion of her dowry must be in coin, easily transported. The property here in Dunburn he would rent out, to provide a steady source of income after they were married.
    Mercifully it was but a short way from the tavern to the large walled enclosure that housed both MacDougal’s warehouse and the living quarters, which the old man had shared with his daughter before he conveniently died.
    A man who craved power had to be willing to make sacrifices to get it, and if that meant marrying a merchant’s daughter for the dowry she would give him, so be it. A wise man who wanted the merchant’s daughter would also do what he must to ensure that she was his, even going as far as seducing her.
    Fiona MacDougal had taken some persuading, but at last she had succumbed.
    Thus it was with a feeling of immense confidence and satisfaction that Iain MacLachlann pounded his fist on the MacDougal gate and waited for a servant to let him in.
    His foot tapping impatiently, he waited some more, then pounded again.
    Strange.
    Fiona’s servants were better trained than this.
    The fog became a steady drizzle, further souring his mood. He would have cursed and returned to the tavern save that soon he would have Fiona on her back beneath him.
    Iain smiled to himself as he thought of the night they had finally shared in her bed. A surprising woman, Fiona. He had never guessed she could love so well.
    But then, he knew what he was doing when it came to bedding a woman.
    At last, as even the taking of Fiona began to lose its appeal, he heard the shuffle of footsteps crossing the puddled cobblestone yard. The grill in the smaller door in the gate creaked open. An unfamiliar man’s head appeared in the aperture. The fellow’s face was wrinkled and weather-beaten, and a thick thatch of matted gray-blond hair stuck out from beneath a sodden hood.
    “Who are you and what do you want, banging fit to wake the dead?” the big oaf demanded, his slightly German accent marking him as a loathsome Saxon.
    What in the name of Scotland was Fiona doing hiring a Saxon? He would have the impertinent lout dismissed.
    “I am here to see Fiona MacDougal,” he announced. “Let me in.”
    Beneath his grizzled brows the man’s watery blue eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Don’t know nobody by that name.”
    Although all Saxons were stupid, this dolt must be simple in the head, too. “Fiona MacDougal, fool! The woman who hired you.”
    “I’ve been Heribert of Hartley’s man for neigh on ten years.”
    His soaking cloak now weighing on his shoulders, Iain didn’t trouble himself to hide his impatience. “Who, in God’s name, is Heribert of Hartley?”
    “Who wants t’know?”
    “A kinsman of King William of Scotland,” Iain haughtily retorted. A distant kinsman he was, but a kinsman nonetheless.
    “Heribert of Hartley be a wool merchant,” the Saxon grudgingly explained. “He bought this place to ship his wool south a month ago.”
    Iain couldn’t believe his ears. “Then where is Fiona MacDougal—the woman who owned this property?”
    “Oh, her. She left Dunburn a fortnight back.”
    Once over the initial shock, Iain’s mind worked swiftly. As Fiona was her father’s legal heir, she had the right to sell the property. But the wench had done so against his very specific wishes. “When did you say this was?”
    “The sale was a month past and she left a fortnight ago,” the man repeated as he started to close the grill.
    Iain swiftly shoved his gloved hand in the opening. “Not so fast, my friend.”
    Marshaling his talents other than martial, Iain made his expression sorrowful.
    “Have a little mercy,” he pleaded as if his heart was broken, “and forgive my manner. Fiona is my betrothed. We quarreled the last time I was here. I had to leave on business for the crown before I could make up with her, and I’ve only just got the chance to come back. Now I find she’s gone and

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