Read The Highlander's Heart for Free Online

holdings and left the castle with some haste.
    It was not that he had anything against Eileen Douglas, except that she was a shrew with a shrill voice and a haughty laugh, but that was hardly a consideration. An alliance with Douglas would be a highly desirable thing, but other alliances and loyalties must be taken into account. Rumblings of discord were in the air, whispers of treason and preparation for war. It was a dangerous, lawless time in Scotland.
    A man waited for him in Glasgow. Campbell dreaded the meeting, but it must be done. He needed the information to make a difficult decision. Though Campbell had traveled with his brothers for most of his journey, he had separated from them for this last task. For this meeting, he must go alone.
    Campbell rubbed the linen bandage around his thigh. It was not his fault Isabelle was alone in Ettrick Forest. He had no responsibility for her. He had already saved her twice, what more could he be expected to do?
    Campbell rubbed his head that was beginning to ache. English. They brought nothing but ruination. And poverty. England had held Scotland’s King David captive for the past nine years. England demanded a crushing ransom for his release. As laird, Campbell was expected to make large annual contributions, money that could be better used to support his own clan. He had every reason to leave that English piece of baggage on the road where he found her. And yet…
    With an audible sigh Campbell spurred his mount and galloped down the road. He pulled up when he reached the point in the road where he had made camp with Isabelle. She was not there. He paused for a moment, listening to the birds singing in the morning. He frowned at his own stupidity. He had wasted his time by returning. He must hasten to make up for lost time.
    He turned his horse to leave but stopped short at the sound of a familiar shriek. With a loud rustling Isabelle skittered onto the lane in front of him. She looked up at him, wide-eyed. Her long, silky, black hair was disheveled, and her red cast-off gown was torn, revealing more of her lush décolletage than was the dressmaker’s original intent. Her appearance was even dirtier and more tattered than the day before, if such a thing was possible.
    Isabelle was a wild thing, a fey wood nymph, decorated with twigs and bits of shrubbery. He had never beheld a more beautiful creature. Her dark eyes were large and alluring, her red, full lips matched what her scarlet velvet gown might once have been, and her body was curved in all the right places. He was not a man to take up dalliances easily, especially with a disgraced English miss, but he was sorely tempted.
    “Good day to you, sir,” she said with a graceful curtsy as if they had met in a ballroom. In a fruitless gesture she tried to smooth her hair and gown.
    “Good day.” He smiled in spite of himself. She amused him, and precious little in this world did.
    “You have recovered your horse!” she exclaimed with sudden recognition.
    “Aye.”
    “That was very clever of you! What did you do with Red Cap?”
    “He stole my horse,” said Campbell. Further explanation could not be needed.
    “Oh. Yes. Well.” Isabelle scanned the forest, her brows knit together in apprehension.
    “Looking for someone?” asked Campbell, scanning the forest himself.
    Isabelle’s eyes opened wide. “N-no. I was… lovely day. Where do you go today, sir?”
    “I am to Glasgow.”
    “Glasgow!” Isabelle clapped her hands together as if enraptured with the idea. “I would dearly love to visit that town. It is a town—yes?”
    Campbell was suspicious. “Yesterday ye said ’twas imperative ye returned to England and now ye wish to visit Glasgow?”
    “Yes! Only I do not wish to keep you. I recollect you said you needed to make haste.”
    “Why this sudden change in plans? When ye left this morn I believed ye had decided to walk back to England yerself.”
    “I… yes.” She looked into the forest again with