For the Highlander's Pleasure Read Online Free

in his roasted pheasant. “The forest is full of the poor and outcast who have done nothing wrong save failing to feed their families. How will your sword determine who is guilty of more serious crimes and who has merely stolen a few loaves of bread to stave off starvation for another sennight?”
Was this the source of her concern? Did the lady possess a tender heart to deliver secret food stores to the forest dwellers? He wondered how much she knew of the crimes that went on in her father’s lands.
“My blade will seek only those who warrant it.” His conversation with the earl had reinforced his belief that the rogue knight who’d killed Finn’s brother had taken refuge near Caladan. Though the body that had appeared at the forest’s edge lacked the stab wounds that had marked Fergus’s body, the local victim had had the same unnatural paleness in his skin. Fergus’s body had not showed the unusual signs until hours after his death, alerting Finn too late that his brother had been murdered by means more foul than a mere enemy blade.
“As a foreigner to our lands, how will you know the difference?” Her intent expression revealed more than polite interest.
Lady Violet was worried about someone in the forest. An outcast? A banished lover, perhaps? The thought rankled with surprising force.
“You wish to protect an exile?” He lowered his voice, shifting closer so they would not be overheard by the servers and musicians that drifted in and out of the hall. A maid with a lute warbled softly while the earl slept.
She stood abruptly, her shoulders stiff with offense, or at least a good pretense of it.
“I bid you good-night, sir. The keep is small, but there is a chamber at the top of the west tower. One of the servers will show you the way.”
This was a conquering hero’s welcome? No wonder nary a Lowlander had answered the earl’s call. They must know that Lady Violet was a hard-hearted lass. Unlike Finn, however, they did not know she possessed a secret, seductive side that would make her well worth pursuing. Either that, or perhaps they knew she secretly pined for some ne’er-do-well who had been cast out of the keep.
He shoved back from the table, refusing to let her run off to her chamber and hide. Or worse, send a warning to whomever she hoped to protect in that forest surrounding Caladan.
“I would prefer you accompany me.” He told himself it was because he needed to watch over her tonight in case she tried to send a missive outside the keep. But he recognized a strong desire to be the one to thaw this woman’s chilly exterior and experience that inner heat he’d glimpsed earlier.
Him. No one else.
“Sir, I do not think that would be—”
“I believe you owe me at least this one small courtesy after you spoke falsely to me this afternoon.”
She arched an eyebrow, as if taking his measure anew.
“I believe I was a bit too courteous already.” She laid her fingers lightly upon his arm, cautious with her touch as she lowered her voice. “By chance alone, it seems I have bestowed more favors upon you than I have on any other man.”
She blushed as she reminded him of his unexpected glimpse of her bare breasts. Her glare reminded him that she had not bestowed those favors willingly. Her honesty took him by surprise.
And yet… ahh . The memory. He’d smile forever at that one captured moment in time.
When her hand slid from his sleeve, he followed her from the great hall, plucking a torch from the wall for their journey through the dark and drafty keep. Loose stone crunched under his boot as he stepped, and the scant tapestries hung limp with time and dust.
“I did not plan it thus, Lady Violet.” He caught up so he had an excuse to take her arm, guiding it through his so he could keep her by his side. “I thought I had stumbled into a fair dream when I spied you in the river. A cold day for bathing, was it not?”
Her nails bit lightly at his sleeve as she took a step on an uneven bit of