Moonstone Read Free

them. She held a silver hairbrush in her hand.
    “You’re the lady’s maid?” William asked.
    She floundered, and then shook herself. “Yes, sir, I am.”
    William nodded at the door. “Do you mind?”
    She opened it and William carried Rhiannon across the tiny chamber. He settled her on the narrow bed. “Her wrists and ankles need tending.”
    “I will see to it , sir.”
    He took in Rhiannon’s shape on the bed, the curve of her hip teasing him, making him wonder what she’d look like filled out to perfection.
    “Thank you, ” the maid said. She assessed him, as if attempting to determine his station, then curtseyed.
    “Aye. I will be outside, if you should need anything.”
    “You will guard the door?”
    He hadn’t planned on it. His mouth was speaking for him again. “I will guard the door. Bolt it though, just to be safe.”
    “Thank you . . . my laird?”
    He nodded and she curtseyed again. When he left the chamber, he heard the bolt slide home behind him.
    William yanked his sword free and eased to the floor, his back against the door, harness buckles scraping on the way down. He set his sword over his lap. At sunrise he would slip out and have one of his men take his place.
    Maybe,   if   he   put some distance between himself and Rhiannon, he could figure out what had just happened, and why.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Despite the nightmares that plagued her each night, exhaustion always claimed Rhiannon. After drifting off, she awoke with the shock that comes from realizing that one is in a strange place.
    She stared at the ceiling until the fear flooding her body calmed into a dull simmer. “Alice?” she called.
    “I’m here.”
    Rhiannon looked down to see her maid curled up at the end of the bed. “What are you doing?”
    Alice slid off the mattress, stretching. “I wanted to keep an eye on you. I was worried about . . .”
    Rhiannon eyed her and she closed her mouth. Alice straightened her chemise, then picked Rhiannon’s silver hair brush up off the side table. “Should we begin, then?”
    Rhiannon’s life was a relentless cycle of captive days bleeding into nights full of bad dreams. “As ready as I can be.”
    Alice slowly worked the silver hairbrush through her waves. Rhiannon was grateful that Alice had remembered to take the brush with her when they left Hanover. It had belonged to Rhiannon’s mother, and she would’ve missed it more than anything else she’d been forced to leave behind.
    She looked at the raw skin of her wrists. “I cannot do this anymore,” Rhiannon said. “We need to escape.”
    Alice’s hand stopped mid-motion. “But how?”
    “There has to be a way.”
    “ There’s no telling what Laird Geoffrey will do to you when we get caught.”
    Rhiannon flattened her lips. “D o try and have some confidence.” She staggered to her feet, her vision blurring. Alice caught her.
    “What about the Highland laird?” Alice asked. “He sat at your door all night.”
    “ He did?” Rhiannon tested her balance, then deciding that she wasn’t about to fall over again, pushed away from Alice.
    Yes, the Highlander had defended her from Geoffrey last night, and she was grateful for that, but she didn’t dare trust him any further. He wanted her in just the same way Geoffrey did. “He was guarding his spoil, no doubt.”
    “What if he wants to help you?”
    “I am certain he does . I know how he wants to help me, too.” She shook her head. “Lecher.”
    “ But he looked at you like he wanted to leap to your rescue.” Alice sighed. “He is nothing like Laird Geoffrey.”
    “Aye,” Rhiannon said in a rendition of a brogue. “And a voice like silk had he.” She touched Alice’s arm. “Men cannot be trusted. Please remember that.”
    “ Not all men are evil. Your father wasn’t. Neither was your brother.”
    “ And now they are both gone.” Rhiannon blinked back tears. She turned away from Alice, meaning to cross to