Highland Hero Read Free

want to want him. Even if he proved to be a very good man, she could never have him. Not only was she poor and landless, but she had certainly not endeared herself to him by thrusting herself into the midst of his troubles.
    “Your dog neither snarls nor bristles,” Lucais said as he looked at her. “He trusts me.”
    “Ye think so?” she drawled. “Try to walk away with the bairn.”
    She smiled as Lucais picked Malcolm up, stood up, and started to walk away. He had barely taken two steps before he was confronted by a snarling, threatening Gar. After a moment of trying to stare down the dog, he whispered a curse and handed Malcolm to her.
    “How did ye get him to do that?” he asked, frowning when Gar immediately relaxed.
    “He is a clever dog,” she replied, patting Gar on the head. “He will help me keep this bairn safe.”
    “I can protect my own kin.” He cursed when she just looked at him, one delicately arched brow lifted. “My sister Elspeth was unwise,” he said even as he wondered why he was bothering to explain anything to her. “She took a lover when she was young and heedless, a mon she could never wed, for he had a wife already. Finally, she turned to a mon who had courted her for a long time and they were married. I ne’er learned what turned her, whether her lover had done something wrong or if she had just grown older and wiser and realized that she did not wish to spend the rest of her days as that mon’s leman. She and her young mon Walter were happy and Malcolm was soon born, her lover troubling them only now and again.” He shook his head, puzzled and still fighting his raw grief. “Elspeth and Walter were not afraid of her old lover, seeing him as no more than a nuisance, and I soon did the same.”
    Edina fed Malcolm as she listened to the sad tale, hearing Lucais’s pain and struggling against the strong urge to try to comfort him. “But her lover was a danger to her, wasnae he?”
    “Aye. I dinna ken what finally changed him from a nuisance to a threat, but ’tis clear that jealousy and rage finally overwhelmed him. He killed Walter and Elspeth and took Malcolm. There must have been a hint of sanity remaining, and he could not put a child to the sword.”
    “Nay. He just tossed the poor wee bairn into the forest so that he could feed the animals or die on his own slowly.” She believed him and, as she settled Malcolm against her shoulder and rubbed his back, she scolded herself for trusting too quickly. “Do ye ken who the mon is?”
    “Aye. Simon Kenney, a mon who would be poor and landless save that he made a rich marriage.”
    “And why havenae ye killed him yet?” Edina was a little surprised at her bloodthirst, but then Malcolm patted her cheek with one damp little hand, and she understood.
    “I cannae find the mon,” Lucais reluctantly admitted.
    “Ye arenae having verra good luck at finding things, are ye?” she drawled. “Mayhap ye should make use of Gar.”
    Lucais decided to ignore that insult and glanced at her dog. “Where did ye get a name like Gar?”
    “From Maida, my uncle’s cook. When I brought my wee puppy to the kitchens to show him to her, she said he was so ugly, he gars me grew— makes me tremble. So I called him Garsmegrew, but ’tis a mouthful, so it soon became just Gar. He grew into a fine, handsome beast,” she said as she patted the dog’s head.
    There was a distinct gleam of laughter in her beautiful eyes. Lucais was not sure he was pleased to discover that he was right, that her eyes were breathtaking when seen up close. There was a faint slant to their shape, her lashes were long, thick, and as glossy a black as her hair, and the green was the color of ivy.
    Afraid he was in danger of revealing his ill-timed attraction to her, he turned his attention to her dog, and nearly smiled. Gar was big, his shaggy coat was a mottled gray, and he was indeed a very ugly dog. When the animal was snarling and baring his impressive teeth, he