Let Me Be Your Hero Read Free

that did much to put her at ease. “Aye, I do remember, although his lordship has grown considerably taller since that time. I dinna expect ye will remember me, Lord Monleigh, but on the behalf of my father, I welcome ye and yer men to Inchmurrin and Lennox Castle.”
    “Lady Claire, I thank ye for yer gracious welcome. And ye are incorrect about my memory. I remember quite well my first sight of ye. How could I not remember, when I witnessed how ye so capably punched the sheriff’s son in the eye for hitting yer sister and pushing her into the mud.”
    Everyone laughed, and Claire instantly felt a burst of heat upon her face. That was followed, she knew, by an explosion of color across her cheeks, as fiery and red as her hair. Lord above, she would never forget that incident, but she had forgotten it happened on that day, so long ago, when the Grahams were at Inchmurrin.
    She also remembered her father’s stern scolding, and the subsequent punishment of being unable to ride her pony for one month. Once that was handed down, she heard her father say, “On the other hand, I dinna remember ever seeing anyone, man or lad, taking such a well-aimed punch and executing it with a more perfect delivery. Mayhap ye should have been a lad, Claire. Young Lachlan will have a black eye that he will no be able to hide. I fear ye have made an enemy for life, lass, for he will never forgive ye for the fact that it was a lass what bested him.”
    “And I am two years younger that him,” she boasted, with much pride in her voice.
    “Fine words butter no scones, Claire. I will not have ye putting on the plaid of a braggart. Now, come here and give me a kiss and then off with ye.”
    The memory faded away, along with the warmth of her face, when Claire looked at him.
    Monleigh was smiling. He asked Dermot if he had witnessed the punch.
    Dermot nodded. “Oh, aye, I saw the moment she caught young Lachlan on the side of the cheek with her fist, and it slid right into his eye.”
    Monleigh was laughing when he turned to his brothers. “The puir laddie went down in a heap. By the time we got there, his eyes were glazed and his arms limp.”
    “Ye mean he was knocked unconscious?” the one with the bluest, heavenly eyes asked.
    “Aye, he was no’ doon verra long, ye ken, but long enough that there was no mistake but what the wee lassie was capable o’ defending herself and those she sought to protect.”
    “Tell me, has Lachlan Sinclair forgiven ye for the punch?” Monleigh asked, his eyes dancing with humorous indulgence.
    “No, he swore a vow of retribution, and although he has not yet collected, I ken he ha’ no’ forgotten aboot it.”
    Monleigh then apologized for not introducing his brothers, and corrected the oversight immediately. “May I present my brothers…”
    Claire barely heard the name Niall, but when he introduced her to Fraser Graham, Claire regretted to thebottom of her heart that she had punched Lachlan Sinclair in the eye, and she swore on her mother’s grave, that from this day forward, she would strive to be more ladylike, then added a short amendment. At least when Lord Fraser is nearby…
    They talked on for some time, the brothers interacting with Claire and her sisters, and then Claire invited them to stay for dinner.
    Monleigh seemed pleased. “Thank ye for yer kind invitation. We had plans to go straight to Graham-stone Castle once we left here, so we would arrive before nightfall. However, such an invitation is difficult to turn down. What are a few miles ridden in the dark? What say ye, brothers?”
    “I am quite fond of midnight rides,” Niall said.
    “A modest price to pay,” Fraser said, “in exchange for a few hours of good conversation, in the company of such lovely lasses.”
    “Do ye think,” Kenna asked after the men walked off, “that in our times it could happen that a man would be so besotted over a lass that he would kidnap her, like they did in bygone times?”
    “Are ye