Highland Warrior Woman (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free

his plaid in place, he withdrew it and wrapped it around the female.
    “Do ye know the lass, Calum?” Hamish asked.
    He gave a slight shake of his head and urged his mount forward. Not another word was spoken until they entered the keep more than an hour later. The lass hadn’t stirred, and her skin felt hot to the touch. He was becoming very worried.
    “Gerty, I have need of yer skills,” Calum yelled when he entered the keep and stood at the base of the stairs leading to the bedchambers. “And find Lilith!”
    He knew Gerty would have heard his roar and ascended until he was on the third level, where his and his brothers’ sleeping chambers were. Making his way down the hall, he kicked open the door to his room and gently placed the lass onto his large bed. He began removing her clothes so their cook and their healer could tend to the lass once they arrived.
    By the time he had her naked, his jaw was clenched so tight his teeth ached. Not one inch of her had been left untouched. She was black and blue all over, and he could see the imprint of knuckles embedded in the skin of her stomach.
    “Oh my lord, ye poor wee lass,” Gerty moaned as she entered Calum’s chambers and saw the battered woman.
    Calum watched his housekeeper intently, making sure she didn’t inadvertently hurt the female even though he knew the notion was ludicrous. Gerty was one of the gentlest souls he knew. Why he felt the need to protect the strange lass, he couldn’t say, but the need to see to her safety and care seemed paramount.
    Gerty washed the lass all over and then applied salve to the bruises. Soaking a cloth in witch hazel, she placed it on the lass’s inflamed eye and then dipped another cloth into the solution and covered her swollen face, only leaving her nose and mouth free. Once she was done, Calum handed over one of his shirts to his housekeeper then walked over to the bed and gently lifted the lass until she was half sitting and half reclining against his chest. He held her while Gerty pulled his shirt over her slight body.
    “Who would do such a thing, Calum?” Gerty whispered furiously.
    “I donnae know, Gerty, but I intend to find oot,” he replied in a hard voice.
    Light footsteps sounded on the stone floor outside the chamber. Calum looked up and motioned Lilith into the room.
    “Ye asked for me, Laird?”
    “Aye, Lilith. The lass is hurt. Would ye please see if there is anything ye can do to ease her pain?”
    Calum watched Lilith examine the injured girl. “Gerty has done much of the work,” she said aloofly.
    He wondered what he had ever seen in the woman. Now that he had seen the battered angel in his bed, Lilith looked so cold and calculating. He had been thinking with his phallus, not with his head.
    Although he had told Lilith from the start that he wanted no emotional entanglement with her, she had accepted him into her body on a few occasions and he had shared her with his brothers once, too. But Lilith seemed almost emotionless, and he had never seen any indication of tender feelings for him in her eyes when they had lain together. It had taken his younger brother’s words to wake him up and make him see that Lilith was only after a position of power and was using him, too. He hadn’t touched her in months, and the thought of doing so again made his stomach churn.
    “Aye, and I did it well,” Gerty said coolly to Lilith before turning back to Calum. “Do ye know who the lass is?”
    “Other than that she is a MacTavish, nay.”
    “She has the fever and will need to be watched closely. I’ll send up some food and drink.” Gerty bustled from the room.
    Lilith stood from the bed and faced him. “The lass doesnae seem to have wounds inside her. She has a slight fever and lots of bruising, but she will heal.”
    “Thank ye, Lilith.” Calum gestured to the chair near the hearth and took the seat opposite. “I know ye and I have shared a bed upon occasion, as ye have with me and my brothers. I