Fair Border Bride Read Free

merchant.
    “Good day, Master Rutherford. I shall pay for your cloak, since it saved me from being gored to death. Pray tell Joseph how much I owe you, and he will bring it to you later in the day.”
    Muttering and grumbling Rutherford trundled back out into the market place. Alina looked up at Harry, her brown eyes sober.
    “It was a brave thing you did, sir. I am in your debt much more than Master Rutherford. Is there a way in which I may repay you?”
    When she raised her chin, the white ruffle of her chemise framed the line of her jaw and enhanced the purity of her complexion. He caught his breath at the sight. She was beautiful. He thought for a moment of demanding a kiss as payment, and immediately rejected the idea. She would never allow it, and besides, there was something about this maid he wanted to cherish.
    “You did not have to do that.” Harry spoke more sharply than he intended. “I will pay the man. As your lady mother said earlier, I have coin enough.”
    Regarding him with amusement, she nodded. “Aye, Mama can be severe when she has a mind to be. But we cannot let you save my life and pay for the cloak. That would not be just, or fair.”
    Harry let out a faint snort of laughter. “My father always says life is unfair and the sooner I realise it, the better off I’ll be.”
    “That is a hard maxim.” She tilted her head and gave him a warm, considering glance from beneath long black lashes. Her gaze slid from his eyes to his mouth, and lingered there before returning to his eyes. One of her eyebrows tilted, as if questioning him. “But I suppose it is true, especially in these parts.” She lifted the puny creature and let it rest on the soft swell of her bosom where the chemise disappeared beneath her green gown.
    The kitten’s pale claws flexed against the rounded curve of her breast. The court ladies wore stomachers of wood to give a straight line to their expensive gowns, but not so this girl. Harry swallowed. She must be aware of the effect she had on him.
    “A stallholder warned me I may lose my life on the road to Edinburgh. Are things so bad in the Borders?”
    Alina’s smile faded. “Yes.”
    “I must go,” he said. “The journey is one I…it is important.”
    She sighed. “Then go if you must, but it is a bad road and you must take care.”
    “Then I shall take another road.”
    Her smile held condescension. “Whichever road you take through the Borders will be dangerous, sir.” The kitten, tucked in beneath her chin, stared at him, too; both pairs of eyes so serious Harry couldn’t help smiling. “That creature’s probably got fleas, you know.”
    “Will you tell me your name?”
    “Harry Scott at your service, lady.”
    A fine gold chain supported a gold cross at her throat, and it twinkled in the sunlight as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Your family name is Scott?”
    He had chosen the surname at random. Why did she look at him as if he was an enemy? Perhaps he should have chosen a decent English name like Smith or Wilson.
    He nodded, determined to make nothing of it. Scott was a common enough name, after all. “And your name, lady? I may pass this way on my return.”
    “My name is Alina Carnaby. I live at Aydon Hall now. But before you visit, you should know that my father hates every member of the Scott family. So much so that he may kill you the moment you declare your name.”

Chapter Three
     
     
    ‘Stay till night comes ower the ground,’ the packman said to Harry over a meal of ale and ham. ‘Tis safer that way, lessen o’ course the Armstrongs be ridin .’
    ‘Good advice,’ Harry said, reaching for his ale pot. He spent an hour with the man, who regularly walked the route to Edinburgh and back with naught but a pack pony and a sack of knick-knacks for company.
    The packman left for his bed, birds sought their roosts and the clear day sank to a cloudless evening. When the moon rose over the hills to the south, Harry set out, shifting comfortably