Read Online Lyon's Gift by Tanya Anne Crosby - Free Book Online Page B

appalled.
    Montgomerie didn’t reply.
    Please talk back, she pleaded with the sweet
little creature. Say something... anything...
    The lamb bleated.
    God bless you! she silently lauded the
animal.
    “ I’ll do my best, Fia,”
she responded, then peered back at Lyon Montgomerie. “Verra well!”
she said, sounding exasperated. “I’ll do it!”
    Meghan could have sworn she’d caught him
with his mouth agape, but he recovered quickly enough. “What?” he
asked, his expression clearly unsettled, though collected. “What is
it you will do?”
    Meghan rolled her eyes. “Why, I’ll wed with
you of course, you silly dolt! What else?”
    He blinked, and Meghan felt almost smug over
the look of surprise that appeared in his stark blue eyes.
    “ You will?” Baldwin
sounded nonplussed as well.
    “ Aye! I’ll wed with
him—though I will not like it!” she assured them both.
    Montgomerie narrowed his eyes at her. “And
why the sudden change of heart?”
    Meghan lifted a brow. “Who says I’ve had a
change of heart, Sassenach?”
    “ Very well then, why the
change of mind?”
    “ Because she’s mad, I tell
you!” Baldwin persisted. “Can you not see that, Lyon?”
    Meghan smiled inwardly. Now was the perfect
opportunity, she thought, to introduce them to “Fia.” It was all
she could do to keep the laughter from her voice as she informed
them both, “Because Fia says so, of course!”
    Montgomery frowned at her. “Fia?”
    She gave him her most guileless look in
response. “My grandmother!” she explained, and smiled fondly at the
animal, waving at it as though it might wave back. “She never leads
me astray. My Minnie always knows best!”
    His face screwed with what Meghan could only
interpret as disbelief, and she had to bite the inside of her lip
to keep from giggling-
    He blinked. “You are speaking of the
lamb?”
    Meghan returned a frown, pretending
ignorance, and prayed she’d not spoil the effect by laughing out
loud. “What lamb?”
    He didn’t answer at once.
“ That lamb,” he
said after a moment, pointing to the beast in question.
    Meghan gave him a glower of the sort she
usually reserved for Colin. “That’s no lamb, you knave!” She
pretended to be insulted. “That’s my Minnie!”
    He scowled. “You cannot be serious?”
    “ Of course I am!” Meghan
assured him, trying not to laugh at the outrageous lie.
    “ Of course she is!”
Baldwin maintained. “Do you not recall she was talking to the beast
when we discovered her?”
    The lamb bleated. Perfect timing, Meghan
thought.
    “ Och! Nay! I dinna think I
can do it, Fia!” Meghan exclaimed, effecting a tone of
defiance.
    “ Christ!” Montgomerie
exploded. “You cannot believe I would fall for such a ludicrous
tale? That’s a bloody rotten lamb you’re talking to!”
    Meghan didn’t have to pretend outrage now.
His very tone vexed her. “I don’t know what you’re saying,
Sassenach, but dinna dare speak so rudely of my Minnie!”
    “ You cannot be
serious?”
    “ I can, and I
am!”
    Lyon studied her face for some indication of
her lie.
    Her expression revealed only her
umbrage.
    She was a bloody stinking good actress, he
decided.
    “ You would have me
believe...” He pointed at the lamb just to be certain there was no
mistake. “... that dumb beast is your grandmother?”
    “ I would have you believe
naught at all, Sassenach! I dinna care what you think! I’d have you
let me go! And I take it back!” She tried to shrug free of him
again. “I will not wed a mon who is so rude!”
    The little lamb bleated.
    She turned to the beast, and said
vehemently, “You dinna ken what you’re askin’ of me, Fia! I will
not wed this brute! Not for Scotland, not for my brothers, not for
peace, nor anythin’ else at all!”
    Lyon blinked in the face of her ridiculous
tirade.
    She couldn’t be serious.
    She certainly looked serious.
    She was talking to the beast as though it
could comprehend what she was saying. And the