Read Online Mystic Warrior by Patricia Rice - Free Book Online Page B

flew through the air, and he cursed his own strength. He set her down and released the slender hand to which he’d become attached so quickly.
    He’d overcome his disappointment that he couldn’t shove her back into Ian’s custody. Given Lis’s tenacity, what she hoped to accomplish by coming here alone did not bear scrutiny. No matter how high-and-mighty and powerful she thought herself, he knew he couldn’t let her roam loose in a world of chaos she didn’t understand and would probably want to Heal. He snarled in exasperation.
    She wrestled with her filthy skirt, and he could almost feel the withering frost of her glare. To have Lis find him in the midst of yet another disaster peeled off his callous hide and left him raw and exposed.
    He’d already discovered that he could never have a real relationship with any woman in the Other World. Sooner or later he always revealed himself for the monster he was. With Lis, however . . . she already knew him, inside and out, good and bad. There were far larger reasons why he couldn’t have her, yet it was a comfort to be known .
    â€œI assume you have some means of transport?” she asked.
    â€œAnd you knew this how?” Acknowledging the correctness of her supposition, he grabbed her arm and steered her toward a structure the fire had not harmed.
    â€œBecause that is what you do—plan and scheme and look so far into the future that normal people do not understand your intent. Most of the time, it is vastly frustrating because you do not communicate well.”
    Entering the stable, he lit a torch hanging on the wall just inside the door. “I doubt that I have improved since you saw me last.”
    He set the torch in a bracket. A horse whinnied and kicked its door, and he scooped a handful of oats from the barrel.
    â€œWas hanging that soldier from a tree branch intentional or accidental?”
    â€œA little of both,” he said. “I wanted to kill him but restrained myself.”
    â€œBefore, you would not have bothered restraining yourself. Perhaps you exhibit signs of improvement.”
    He knew his flaws better than she did. He deserved her scorn and so did not respond to it. He reached for the homespun shirt he kept in the stable, and shrugged into it, not wanting to feel so naked in front of her. Under the circumstances, he couldn’t expect to start up where they’d left off.
    He led the mare out of its stall and fed her oats. She bucked her head affectionately, hitting him in the chin. Murdoch scratched behind her ear and in the torchlight considered his “wife” with an interest he could barely conceal. What the hell should he do with her?
    He knew what he would like to do with her, but that would be perilous for all concerned.
    She offered her hand for the mare to sniff, then rubbed the horse’s white-striped nose. “I’ve wanted to learn more of these horses Ian told me about. She has a delightful mind.”
    Her gesture of friendship to an animal destroyed all his belligerent defenses just as her kiss had shredded his wits.
    â€œYou didn’t come here to learn about horses.” He brought out the small cart he’d made. “So why are you here?”
    â€œBecause it is my duty.” Then she added, in that studious, observant manner he would have given years of his life to hear again, “The gods must be testing you.”
    If he still believed in fair and just gods, he’d have to agree with her.
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    â€œYou’ve been planning this hiding place‚” Lissandra said without inflection, sitting stiffly beside him on the narrow bench as the cart rolled up to a woodcutter’s cottage.
    The floral scent that was Lis’s own spun Murdoch’s head so thoroughly that he could scarcely think straight. “Of course I planned it,” he snarled in retaliation for what she was doing to him. “It is only a matter of time before the