Tyler, Lynn - For Her Honor [For Her] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Free Page B

There was really only a little bit of blood until he pulled the sword out. The gaping hole spurted red blood with every pump of his heart until he took his last breath just seconds later.
    Jocelyn gazed at her rescuer in awe as he turned around and thrust his sword into the belly of another thief, splitting him from the lower belly strait up to his chest. His intestines fell out in a red, slimy ribbon and pooled at her feet.
    She fought the urge to vomit and shuffled backward to avoid the dead man’s organs. She looked up and saw a giant of a man approaching her. It was dark, and the only thing she could make out about him was the swing of his long hair. Her body ultimately gave up, and she dimly felt her knees buckling under her. For the first time in her life, Jocelyn saw her vision blur and knew she was going to pass out. Her last thought was one of disgust that her body would fail her so badly. Before she could sit down, her legs finally gave out, and she fell into a heap at the base of a tree.

Chapter 2

    Robbie MacGillivray and his small contingent of men cautiously picked their way down the mountain. He was aggravated with what seemed to be the whole world. Someone was raiding and firing his crops. Someone, presumably the same person, was stealing his cattle. But probably even more irritating than that was that Jamie had been late.
    He scowled at his brother’s back as a branch swung back and narrowly missed his face. If the younger man hadn’t been off tupping one of the village wenches, they would have been able to leave on time. They would have already reached the modest stone cottage where Jocelyn MacKenna lived with her father, and he would be snug in a warm bed with his new wife. Instead he was spending what was supposed to have been his wedding night on the back of a horse.
    Jamie was Jamie, he supposed and admitted the real reason he was irritated. Jealousy. And damn, he hated being jealous of his youngest brother. But there it was. Jamie was in a different lass’s bed every time Robbie turned around when Robbie himself hadn’t been with a lass in years.
    As laird he should have had the women falling at his feet and fighting to be in his bed. He could have forced the lasses into his arms, but he really couldn’t stand the thought of bedding a woman who feared him, either because of the gruesome scar that slashed his face or because of the rumors surrounding his first wife’s death.
    Finally though, the idea of fathering heirs had become too strong and too urgent to deny, and he turned to finding himself an acceptable marriage. Logic dictated he marry a lass with a large dowry, but he had never been one to listen to logic alone.
    And so he had contacted Alasdair MacKenna and offered for the hand of his second youngest daughter. Her reputation spoke of a wild, unhindered lass who did as she pleased and paid no man any heed. Lately the rumors had turned to her supposed infertility.
    Robbie thrust aside another branch and resumed scowling at his brother’s back. Adding to his bad mood, his brothers had done nothing but try to talk him out of marrying the MacKenna lass. They maintained he needed a sweet, biddable bride who would bend to his will and cower under his might. Well, they hadn’t said that exactly, he acknowledged to himself. But that would be exactly how a sweet, biddable bride would act.
    Growling a warning when his other brother, Will, pulled even with him, he stared into the woods ahead of him. He was sick to death of his brothers trying to talk him out of his marriage. “Easy, Robbie,” Will soothed. “I just wanted you to know we will support you should you come to your senses and reconsider your choice of bride.”
    With a sigh of exasperation, he forced himself to keep his hands on the reins and not around his brother’s neck. “I need legitimate heirs, William. You know that. Jocelyn MacKenna’s elder sisters have all born several bairns, all braw and healthy. The lass will bear me