Read Online Sapphire Dream by Pamela Montgomerie - Free Book Online

not understand what was going on, but she knew what she had to do. Find Hegarty.
    And to do that she needed the pirate.
    She crept slowly up the hillside until she could see him. And, hopefully, not be seen herself. As her gaze crested the top of the hill, she sucked in her breath at the sight that met her eyes. Stour in all its prefire glory. She’d thought she understood the size of the place as she’d wandered the restored keep in her own time, but the castle in its prime was a sight to behold.
    The pirate stood with his hands up, his clothes plastered to his muscled body as two men joined him. Her eyes widened at the sight of them.
    The pair looked as if they’d just stepped out of a Shake spearean play, give or take a century. They wore heavy blue coats and tight black pants. One appeared to be sporting a wig, unless he genuinely had a massive head of long, curly black hair. Each wore a gun on one hip—long unwieldy-looking pistols—and a sword on the other.
    Either the whole place was one giant reenactment or she was really and truly in the past.
    As she watched, one of the guards moved too close to the drenched pirate. Rourke plowed his fist through the soldier’s face, flattening him. But as he turned to mete out the same punishment to the second guard, the man pulled his gun and pointed it at Rourke’s head.
    “On your knees.”
    Brenna’s heart went to her throat. The bluecoat was about to shoot her ticket home. She had to do something—attract the guy’s attention and fast.
    If they catch you, they’ll kill you.
    Good grief.
    As Rourke knelt, hands on his head, she scrambled onto the coarse ground of the heath, her muscles tensed, every nerve in her body screeching as if she were running into the path of an oncoming car.
    “Excuse me! Could you point me in the direction of the nearest Wal-Mart? I seem to have misplaced my Nikes.” Did Wal-Mart carry Nikes? Like that mattered.
    The bluecoat and Rourke glanced at her and scowled in unison, the soldier’s gun never wavering from Rourke’s head. The pirate looked like he was going to kill her. The bluecoat turned, ignoring her. Guess the drowned rat look didn’t pose much of a threat . . . or much of a come-on. And she had too many clothes on for the wet T-shirt look to work.
    The man on the ground began to stir.
    She had to do something.
    She knew what they’d do in the movies . . . or California. If the assets weren’t showing through the shirt, then pull up the shirt.
    No. No way.
    The downed guard groaned.
    Oh, man.
    Taking a deep breath for courage, she gripped the two hems and pulled them up to her shoulders. And stood there, feeling like an idiot. The gentle breeze caressed her half-frozen nipples, but no one seemed to notice.
    “Hey!” If she was going to flash, she sure as heck wanted a little reaction. A girl had her pride after all.
    She started toward them. “I feel like I have seaweed stuck to me. Can you see? Do I have any seaweed stuck to me?”
    The pirate saw her first. His eyes widened. His face turned to stone. The bluecoat did a classic double take as his scowl slid right off his face.
    Brenna was beginning to wonder if the pirate was going to take advantage of the opportunity she’d provided him, when he finally moved. In a flash, the bluecoat’s gun went flying.
    She yanked the wet fabric down as Rourke and the bluecoat fought. Almost too late, she heard the sounds behind her and whirled to find the downed guard rising and pulling his sword.
    The pirate didn’t seem to notice. “Rourke!”
    But even as she yelled, he knocked the bluecoat clean out with a right uppercut to the jaw, then grabbed the man’s sword and met the charge of the second soldier.
    Brenna watched them in heart-pounding fascination. A real, to-the-death sword fight, not the choreographed kind she’d seen in movies. The two men moved with amazing speed and skill, each desperate to win, for to lose meant death.
    And the death had better be the