Clandara Read Online Free

wild animal, without pity or remorse, and as she waited for his answer she sensed his shame and regret for the past.
    â€œJames, my darling … forgive me. I had no right to ask. The past is your affair. Forget I ever asked you. Please.”
    â€œYou have every right, if you’re to marry me,” he said at last. “And whatever I’ve been, Katharine, I never lied in my life. It’s a poor virtue, but the only one I can boast. I shan’t lie now. If your father said I was a murderer, he told the truth; a cattle thief and a whoremonger … all these things and more. Do you still love me?”
    â€œMore than ever,” she told him, and taking his hands in hers she kissed them.
    â€œSince I met you,” he said, “I’ve changed myself. I’ve not laid a hand on a woman or drawn my sword on any man. I have tried to be worthy of you, Katharine. If you marry me, I will spend my life trying.”
    She put her arms around him and drew down his head and kissed him, long and passionately as he had taught her, and then his arms came round her and she was pressed so tightly against him that she could hardly breathe. They went backwards down upon the ground, and her desire rose to meet his until she trembled. Their world grew dark; the bright sun, the wind, receded, and her senses clamoured and begged and a cry of surrender was torn from her shaking lips. As he held her he felt as if he were on fire; for a moment he hesitated, fighting himself and her, and then he thrust her away from him. She lay looking up at him, her blazing hair loose over her shoulders, and there were tears in her eyes.
    â€œJames, James, what did I do wrong?”
    â€œNothing, my love. Nothing. The danger is past, and it was all my fault.”
    â€œYou could have taken me,” she whispered. “I wished it.”
    â€œI know,” he said. “But I’m not going to anticipate our wedding. Sit up, my darling heart, and braid up your hair. I must look your father in the eye tomorrow.”
    He smiled and helped her upright, and touched the shining red hair as she bound it up again.
    â€œWhat colouring will our children be?” he wondered. “If our son has your hair he will be the first Red Macdonald for generations.”
    â€œMy son will be like you,” she answered. “Black as the night crow. And brave and splendid above all other men. Promise me one thing.”
    â€œAnything. Anything in the world.”
    â€œPromise me that whatever my father says to you tomorrow, you won’t be goaded into a quarrel. I know Father. He may have agreed to Robert but only because he thinks he’ll win. And if you lose your temper with him, then all is lost. I know he’ll try to make you.”
    â€œI will be as meek as milk,” he promised her. “I have too much to lose to mind a few insults. But I’ve a feeling I’ll get a bonny reception, all the same!’ He laughed and held her close to him. “Don’t be afraid for me; I shan’t fall into any trap. I’ll go to him bonnet in hand.”
    â€œWhat of your own father?” Katharine asked him. “Does he know you intend to marry me?”
    â€œHe does,” James answered grimly.
    â€œAnd what did he say?”
    James did not answer immediately. Sir Alexander’s reply had been shouted from the head of the dinner-table in the Great Hall at Dundrenan, and it bellowed still in his son’s ears.
    â€œKatharine Fraser! I’d sooner ye brought back a common hoor as a bride. If it isn’t one and the same thing.”
    Only the intervention of his younger brother Hugh had stopped father and son leaping at each other. They had stood glaring and spitting with fury, and for the first time in his life the evil old man had retreated before the greater rage of his elder son. “Marry her then, but I warn ye, if you bring her here the servants’ll poison her inside a