Read Online Passion and Plaid - Her Highland Hero (Scottish Historical Romance) by Anya Karin - Free Book Online Page A

Rodrigo said, clapping Gavin on the
back. “I do not think you have met Elena, my wife.”
    “I was moments from asking after this beautiful
lady,” Gavin replied with his customary dashing manner. “A pleasure.”
    “Oh! Yes! And pleasure from you, too,” Elena said
blushing.
    “No, no,” said a thick German-accented voice from
beside Ben. “We say ‘A pleasure to meet you, too,’ Elena.”
    Elena corrected herself but as she did, Olga
pushed past her much smaller friend and took Gavin’s hand, shaking vigorously.
“I have heard more about you than you probably want me to have heard.”
    “Well, that’s...May I ask your ladyship’s name
before you take my arm off? We should get you a sword, or a hammer.”
    A smile spread across Olga’s broad face. “Kenna,”
she said. “Kenna told me all about you and your courage and your...muscles, and
your...”
    “Right, right, Olga, very good,” John cut in. “Gavin
is very tired and needs some-”
    “I was about to say your charming smile ,”
Olga interrupted right back.
    “Ah, yes, Olga! Kenna told me so much about you.”
    “I am! Will we be seeing Miss Kenna soon?”
    “Oh aye, I think you will. She’s just up the road
in Mornay’s Cleft. She’s-”
    “John, you are a child made man,” Lynne said,
reaching up to grab her lover’s ear and twist it. “We’ve all heard the name of
the town and laughed at it when we were young, and here you are, firmly out of
youth, giggling away.”
    “I’m sorry!” John chortled. “I canna help it, the
town, cleft? Mornay’s? You couldna come up with a better name if you tried.”
    “If you think the name is so funny, you’ll enjoy
that the inn where Kenna’s staying has a pair of lady’s legs on the sign. Seems
even the people living there canna get enough of the joke.” Gavin grinned. “Or
they know everyone else tells it, so the innkeep just went along.”
    For a moment, everyone breathed, recovering from
the mixture of emotions and laughter that had gripped and shaken them since
Gavin returned. John fiddled with some kind of rod upon which was mounted a
mirror.
    “What’s that ridiculous little toy?” Gavin said to
his friend.
    “This isn’t any toy. You can use it to see around
corners, providing the light’s with you.” John replied.
    “Dinna help you any when I caught you.”
    “You’re a bright one, you know that? How’re you
going to use a mirror in the dark?” John asked.
    “She – Miss Kenna – she alright?” Elena said,
cutting in.
    “Is Miss Kenna alright, Elena, is how we say
that.” Olga corrected.
    “Ah...aye, she is,” Gavin said, amused at the two
women. “She is. She’s staying behind to look around the town. There’s a bit of
a strange mayor at work there. He seems to have taken to overcharging the
people of the town a great deal. Causing some strain. Apparently the farmers –
or some of them anyway – are being pushed off their land, and then he buys it
up and is clear-cutting it to make some sort of plantation. There’s more to it,
and if you ask me, he aims to get everyone out of work and then put them to
working at his farm.”
    “That being the case, why are you here?” Ben
asked. “And as to that, why is the sheriff free?”
    “Ah, that. Aye, well, when we got to Mornay’s –
which is the name I’m using to prevent John from losing concentration – we took
a room at an inn and though I wanted to bring him inside with us, the innkeeper
insisted he’d be secure in the back. I left him in the care of a rather strong
stable boy, who was eager for the job. Must’ve been a good break from his
normal boredom, I suppose. But Alan, being Alan, promised him a huge sum of
money to be let free, which he’ll never play. The young man felt terrible, and
I canna blame him. The hundred Crowns the sheriff promised would have fed his
family for years.”
    “And you had a sweet thing waiting for you inside,
ah?” John nudged him in the ribs. That time, even