To Tame a Highland Warrior Read Free Page B

“What’s on your mind, Grimm?” he asked, fascinated.
    Grimm swallowed. He hadn’t even realized he’d plaited the war braids into his hair. A man wore war braids only during the blackest hours of his life—when he was mourning his lost mate or preparing for battle. So far, he’d worn them twice. What had he been thinking? Grimm stared blankly at the floor, confused, unable to vocalize his thoughts. Lately he’d been obsessed with ghosts of the past, memories he’d tossed savagely into a shallow grave years ago and buried beneath a thin sod of denials. But in his dreams the shadow corpses walked again, trailing behind them a residue of unease that clung to him throughout the day.
    Grimm was still struggling to answer when a guard burst through the doors to the study.
    “Milord. Milady.” The guard nodded deferentially to Hawk and Adrienne as he hastily entered the room. He approached Grimm, a somber expression on his face. “This just came for ye, Cap’n.” He thrust an official-looking piece of parchment into Grimm’s hands. “The messenger insisted ’twas urgent, and to be delivered into your hands only.”
    Grimm turned the message slowly in his hand. The elegant crest of Gibraltar St. Clair was pressed into the redwax. Suppressed memories broke over him:
Jillian
. She was a promise of beauty and joy he could never possess, a memory he’d consigned to that same uncooperative, shallow grave that now seemed determined to regurgitate its dead.
    “Well, open it, Grimm,” Adrienne urged.
    Slowly, as if he held a wounded animal that might turn on him with sharp teeth, Grimm broke the seal and opened the missive. Stiffly, he read the terse, three-word command. His hand fisted reflexively, crumpling the thick vellum.
    Rising, he turned to the guard. “Prepare my horse. I leave in one hour.” The guard nodded and left the study.
    “Well?” Hawk demanded. “What does it say?”
    “Nothing you need to address, Hawk. Doona worry. It doesn’t concern you.”
    “Anything that concerns my best friend concerns me,” Hawk said. “So give over, what’s wrong?”
    “I said nothing. Leave it, man.” Grimm’s voice held a note of warning that would have restrained a lesser man’s hand. But the Hawk had never been, and would never be, a lesser man, and he moved so unexpectedly that Grimm didn’t react quickly enough when he whisked the parchment from his hand. Grinning mischievously, Hawk backed away and uncrumpled the parchment. His grin broadened, and he winked at Adrienne.
    “ ‘Come for Jillian,’ it says. A woman, is it? The plot thickens. I thought you’d sworn off women, my fickle friend. So who’s Jillian?”
    “A woman?” Adrienne exclaimed delightedly. “A young, marriageable woman?”
    “Stop it, you two. It’s not like that.”
    “Then why were you trying to keep it a secret, Grimm?” Hawk pressed.
    “Because there are things you doona know about me, and it would take far too long to explain. Lacking the leisure to tell you the full story, I’ll send you a message in a few months,” he evaded coolly.
    “You’re not getting out of this so easily, Grimm Roderick.” Hawk rubbed the shadow beard on his stubborn jaw thoughtfully. “Who is Jillian, and how do you know Gibraltar St. Clair? I thought you came to court directly from England. I thought you knew no one in all of Scotland but for those you met at court.”
    “I didn’t exactly tell you the whole story, Hawk, and I doona have time for it now, but I’ll tell you as soon as I get settled.”
    “You’ll tell me now, or I’m coming with you,” Hawk threatened. “Which means Adrienne and Carthian are coming as well, so you can either tell me or prepare for company, and you never know what might happen if Adrienne comes along.”
    Grimm scowled. “You really can be a pain, Hawk.”
    “Relentless. Formidable,” Adrienne agreed sweetly. “You may as well give in, Grimm. My husband never takes no for an answer. Believe