Read Online A Lass for Christmas (Tenacious Trents Novella) by Jane Charles - Free Book Online Page B

up, and
settled her on his lap. She should move, get up, or push him away,
but all she could do was cry with her face buried in his shirt. He
smoothed his hand over her hair and whispered in her ear. “That’s
it. Let it out. Ye’ll feel better when it is done.”
    Madeline wasn’t sure how this could be
better, but it felt good to cry.
    After several moments, her tears stopped. She
sniffed, and he held a handkerchief up to her face. Madeline took
it and blew her nose.
    She sighed and laid her head against his
chest. His heart pounded in her ear. He was warm and comforting.
She wanted to give up to oblivion, just stay there, and sleep in
his arms.
    Lachlan leaned back, taking her with him.
They both reclined against the bed but he did nothing to move her
from his lap and Madeline didn’t want to leave.
    She barely knew this man, yet she was
comforted in his presence. She wanted to cling to him, but it was
not to be. Tomorrow she would go home with Jordan, and Lachlan
would travel on to Scotland to find his Christmas bride.
    “I am sorry,” she whispered.
    “Ye’ve nothin’ to be sorry about.”
    “I’ve upset your life.”
    “Ye’ve caused all this snow?”
    She felt herself smiling and pulled away.
“Had I not gone for a walk last night, you would have had a
peaceful evening at home.”
    Madeline glanced up and sucked in a breath.
His left eye was swollen and turning an ugly reddish purple color,
as was the bruise on his jaw. She brought her hand up to soothe
him, but he winced at her touch. She shouldn’t have touched him. It
probably hurt like the dickens, and it was all her fault.
    “I am sorry,” she said again. “I’ve never
seen Jordan so angry.”
    “Me either, lass.”
    She laid her head back down. “I’ve never seen
any of my brothers strike anyone. Only my father struck out.”
    “Was he fond of spankin’?” His voice rumbled
in his chest.
    “Willow switch.”
    Lachlan stiffened. “On his sons?” he asked
hesitantly.
    “All of us, though I am fairly certain he
only used his hands on Mother.”
    Lachlan muttered something she couldn’t
understand. She wasn’t even sure why she confessed this part of her
childhood to him. She had never told anyone, and the only person
who had ever seen the scars across her bottom was her maid.
Jordan’s anger had frightened her, but he was fighting a man over a
perceived injustice. Lachlan had not fought back when Jordan hit
him after he came in the room. As Lachlan acquired another bruise
after he left and Jordan had no marks on his face, she assumed
Lachlan had not fought her brother. She admired him for that.
    “I should have told you who I was.”
    “Aye, ye should have.” He leaned forward and
kissed her forehead. “But I would have still fished ye out of the
lake, stripped ye of yer clothin’, and slept with ye last
night.”
    Madeline’s cheeks burned with
embarrassment.
    “You wouldn’t have kissed me though.”
    He frowned. “Probably not, though the
temptation would have been a difficult one to fight.”
    Madeline pulled away and slid to the side of
the bed. She shouldn’t be on his lap, and certainly not like this
in his bed.
    Lachlan did not let her go, however and
pulled her to his side and rested an arm around her back and
waist.
    “Why don’t you tell me what this business is
about being a bastard?”
    She sighed. She didn’t want to tell anyone,
but he did have a right to know. So she recounted everything she
had overheard in the library.
    “How is it possible they could rule that the
two died without bodies?”
    “The carriage went into a swollen, rushing
river. Some of their belongings were found along the shore and the
river emptied into the sea. Everyone assumed their bodies had been
washed away. Somehow Father created the entire scene so he could
hide the fact that his wife had left him.”
    “Yer father is the one who is the bloody
bastard,” Lachlan ground out.
    “I don’t know what is to become of me,”