My Highland Lover Read Free Page A

Kenna’s grown and the girls aren’t far behind. Don’t think I haven’t got plans for them. I mean to see all my girls properly settled before I move on.”
    Trulie blew out the breath she had been holding. So that was it. Granny was afraid Trulie was about to settle down and sink her roots even deeper into the current century with a man Granny didn’t like. Trulie’s relationship with Dan had always irritated the older woman. For what reason, Trulie wasn’t quite sure. Dan was…okay. Most of the time. “Dan is a good man, Granny. He’ll take good care of me. Of all of us.”
    Granny stormed forward two steps. She locked her spindly legs into sparring stance and raised a bony hand into a shaking fist. “Do ye really love him, Trulie? Does yer love for him make yer throat ache with tears if ye canna be near him? Do ye pine to hear the rumble of his deep voice whisper yer name in the darkness?”
    Granny stomped forward another step. Her voice grew shriller with every word. “Say it, Trulie. Tell me the truth. If ye thought ye’d ne’er see Dan again, would ye rather die than live a day without him? Tell me. Tell me Dan is the other half of yer soul and I will ne’er talk about jumping back again.”
    Granny’s voice fell to a low, ominous knell as she shook a knobby finger toward the center of Trulie’s chest. “But don’t ye dare lie to me, gal. Because if ye do, ye won’t just be lying to me, ye’ll be lying to yerself.”
    Granny’s ever-increasing brogue, paired with the fire in her eyes, shoved Trulie back a step. Apparently, it wasn’t Dan Granny had a problem with; it was whether the relationship was strong enough to satisfy Granny’s standards.
    Trulie swallowed hard. Did she really love Dan? She tried hard to think tingly, I-can’t-live-without-you thoughts of Dan—tall, gangly, always-preoccupied Dan. Trulie blew out an exasperated breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She just couldn’t muster anything more than a vague, foggy feeling of
meh.
Why couldn’t she bring his long, narrow face and soft, brown eyes into focus and feel…something? At least she thought his eyes were brown. Weren’t they?
    Instead, she envisioned eyes fierce with rage. Strange-colored eyes, an unusual shade she’d never seen. They were blue. Sort of. They reminded her of a night sky exploding with tendrils of brilliant-white lightning.
    Instead of Dan’s lanky, underfed form, Trulie pictured corded, muscular arms bulging like banded whisky barrels as they wielded a sword as long as she was tall.
    Trulie started to speak, but then closed her mouth again. Dan was safe. Dan was security. But no, Dan was not her love, and Granny already knew the truth of it. Granny had always told Trulie never to settle, and here she was about to do that very thing. Trulie shook her head against the confusion. No. She was not settling. She was just making sure they were all taken care of. What the devil was wrong with that? “Dan will take good care of us, Granny. Don’t worry. It’ll be all right.”
    “It will not be all right!” Granny stomped a tiny, booted foot hard against the muddy ground. “I will be damned if I allow ye to break my oath to yer mother. Ye will not settle for safe old Dan. Yer true future, the future waiting to set your soul on fire, can only be found in the past.”
    S COTLAND— T HE H IGHLANDS— T HIRTEENTH C ENTURY
    Gray MacKenna jerked away from the hypnotic depths of the roiling orange embers. A cold sweat peppered his chest. He couldn’t stop his hand from shaking as he wiped the moisture from his skin.
Damnation. Had it been real or just a vision?
“What the hell do ye play at, Tamhas? I bid ye show me the traitor and instead ye throw me in the path of some unearthly beast?”
    Tamhas didn’t look up from the worktable. His gnarled hands patiently twisted the worn stone pestle into the mixture of herbs and oils gathered in the bottom of a chipped mortar. The only sound breaking the