Her Wicked Highlander: A Highland Knights Novella Read Free Page A

cleared his throat, then glanced around. Dusty furniture, peeling wallpaper, tarnished wall sconces. He returned his gaze to Aila. “This place? It’s mine.”
    Her eyes widened in disbelief, but he hadn’t told her a lie. As a newly minted Highland Knight, he and the rest of the Knights shared ownership of Beauly Castle. This was their headquarters in the north, though it had never been used by a Highland Knight for that purpose until today.
    Aila swallowed hard, and her green eyes sparkled as she glared at him. “I dinna believe you. You’re a liar and a kidnapper. You’ll be hanged for this.”
    “I doubt that.”
    He could hear her teeth grinding together. He turned to the closest bedchamber. “This room’ll be yours.”
    “Oh, aye? Not yours as well?”
    One side of his mouth twisted up in a smile. “Would you like that?”
    Damn, he shouldn’t have said that. He was a Highland Knight now. His duty was to protect the monarchy and its citizens from those who would try to undermine them. Not to seduce those he was trying to protect. No matter how much he wanted to.
    She bristled. “Nay,” she snapped. “I would not.”
    She tore her arm from his and stomped inside the small bedchamber, slamming the door in his face before he could take a step to follow her.
    He stood at the door for a long moment, debating whether to go in. But there was much to be done, and he didn’t have the time to coddle the woman.
    Instead, he gripped the door handle with one hand. With the other, he found the ring of keys and inserted them patiently into the lock one by one as she yelled at him from the other side, asking how dare he attempt to lock her in this infernal prison, until, on the fourth key, the lock turned.
    “Fine!” she shouted. “I’ll be jumping out the window, then!”
    “Go ahead,” he said. “Least that’ll happen is you’ll break a leg. More likely you’ll be snapping your neck.”
    She growled in frustration. “I’ll knock down this door, then, like you did.”
    “Good luck.” She’d need a great deal of luck, in fact. This door was sturdy wood, not rotted like the entry door.
    “This is intolerable,” she cried. “You must tell me what this is about. I ken it’s about the King Richard Dagger somehow, but you canna just kidnap me from my house and not tell me anything!”
    Poor lass. She did sound utterly frustrated and confused. But, again, he didn’t have the time to coddle her. Not to mention the fact that his work was shrouded in secrecy, and he wasn’t sure how much he could safely tell her.
    Why couldn’t she just comply without question? In his experience, women were compliant, docile souls. Then again, he didn’t have much experience in actually talking to the fairer sex.
    He simply said, “I’ll be back later,” then he went downstairs.
    He found a room that must have been a salon or drawing room. Near the entry hall, it was in relatively good condition, with only the thinnest layer of dust on its furniture and floors, and a working fireplace. He cleaned the space until it was livable, and brought in some of the chopped firewood he found in a storage room by the kitchen. He went to his saddlebags and brought Aila the clothes and shoes he’d found in her cottage. In his own baggage, he found enough food to sustain them until tomorrow, when he’d go into Beauly for market day and fetch enough supplies to last them until he received further orders from the Knights.
    He located the well and drew up some water to use for washing. After cooking up a simple midday meal of bannocks and meat and leaving the prepared food on a tray in the drawing room, he went upstairs to fetch Aila.
    The window was open, and a cold draft had settled into the room. Aila was nowhere to be seen.
    Bloody hell.
    He strode to the window and looked out. She’d tied the bedclothes together as a kind of climbing rope—like Rapunzel’s hair, he supposed—and had jumped the remainder of the way. The winter