Read Online Highlander Enchanted by Lizzy Ford - Free Book Online

selected one of the smallest daggers he possessed and slid it into her pocket beside the pendant.
    Isabel squared her shoulders and limped to the door. Her heart raced at the prospect of facing the world outside the peaceful bedchamber. The man she wanted dead had given her refuge. The man who wanted her lands would stop at nothing to drag her away and formalize their wedding contract.
    She needed time to deal with both men.
    Isabel left her bedchamber and paused in the hallway outside. She had been far too tired the night before to pay heed to the direction she had been led. She began walking. Instead of hiding her limp, she exaggerated it in the hopes she may be seen as too wounded to ride if she saw Richard and thus, buy herself more time.
    She walked through the small hold, waiting for either man to leap out from around a corner at any moment to confront her. No one did, and the servants and other clan members greeted her with curious looks and friendly smiles without stopping to address her. The Great Hall was quiet, swept clean of rushes, and the courtyards and bailey void either of the men she dreaded encountering.
    She reached the stables and paused again. This time, her thoughts traveled a different path. What if she fled? Left both men and just … ran? She was already homeless and alone, at the mercy of two powerful men, whose intentions were counter to hers. Some part of her had always known there was no return from this journey. What harm was there in being free, truly free, the last few days of her life?
    Isabel took a step towards the stables.
    “Where do ye go, Lady Cade?”
    The way Black Cade said her name, a low growl edged with amusement, sent her stomach aflutter and caused warmth to reach her cheeks. She braced herself and turned to see him. His stance was wide, his moon-hued eyes pinned to her, and his muscular arms were across his chest. He looked every bit the warrior, every bit the cold, cruel man who had taken everyone she loved from her.
    “’Tis not your concern, Laird Cade,” she replied.
    “Yer in m’home, and already stole one of m’horses. Ye think I’d trust ye with another?”
    “You who lied about your true name would pass judgment upon me?” she challenged, anger rising once more.
    “A strange lass, an English one at that, shows up claimin’ t’be m’wife and says I should ken this already. Ye began this with a lie, m’lady.”
    “Betrothed. And it was not a lie.”
    He studied her and moved closer, until the heat of his muscular frame reached her. “I do not ken ye, lass. No king ‘as ever asked me t’wed ye, either. But ye know this, don’t ye? Ye didna come t’wed me.”
    She reached into her pocket for the knife. “You know why I came.”
    “Yea. To kill me,” he said, amused once more. “Praytell, how have I wronged ye?”
    How did he not know? For a moment, she was so surprised at his ignorance of the purpose which consumed her so fully for two years, that she was unable to speak. Had he kilt so many men in battle, he did not remember the noble Englishman her brother was?
    “I want to hate you for what you have done, even if ‘tis a sin to feel such,” she whispered. “I wish you had not taken mercy on me.”
    “Yer betrothed will remove you from m’home soon enough, Lady Cade.”
    The thought of leaving with Richard filled her with despair. “I will not leave with him.”
    “Ye wish stay here, m’lady?” he asked her.
    “I have no intention of remaining.”
    “If ye doona plan t’ leave and ye doona plan to stay, then what is yer plan?”
    “I assume you will murder me when I try to kill you,” she answered truthfully.
    “You choose death over a life with your betrothed?”
    “I choose Hell over a life with him,” she said with rare anger in her voice. “For I shall surely burn for my attempt to kill another. I never intended to return to England. This journey was, and remains, my end.”
    “If ye ask it of me, I’ll allow ye