Read Online The King's Mistress by Sandy Blair - Free Book Online

water and up the embankment. Before he could dismount, however, Lady Greer sprang from the palfrey, tucked the gray’s injured hoof neatly betwixt her skirted knees and, with blade in hand, expertly extricated a stone.
    Shocked a lady-in-waiting would think to do such, much less know how, he waited until she dropped the hoof to grab her wrist. Her wee smile of satisfaction at a job well done instantly dissolved when he tightened his hold. Her fingers unfurled, and the short-bladed sgian duhb she’d secreted in her pocket fell to the ground.
    “What have we here?” He ran his thumb over a surprising number of calluses crossing her right palm and fingers. “Been hard at work, have we?”
    “Nay, just a few tasks, country life you know…” Blushing, she laughed in dismissive fashion, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
    Gone were the charming peals he’d so often heard at court. In their place were rich husky tones he would never forget. His grip tightened further. Her voice, her faulty memory, the cow’s milk, the blushing, her lack of flirtation, her stomping about rather than gliding, the frankness of speech and now this. A chill danced down his spine. All the discrepancies now made sense.
    He had the wrong woman.

  “ Better caution than danger. ” ~ Old Scottish Proverb
    Chapter Seven
    Genny yelped when MacKinnon jerked her up against his massive chest and hissed, “Who are you?”
    “You’re hurting me!”
    His eyes turned coal black as he loomed over her. “You’ll have more than bruised arms if you don’t tell me your name this instant.”
    Oh dear merciful God! “You know who I am. I’m the king’s mistress.”
    He shook her. “Stop lying!”
    Fearing she might faint, she insisted, “I’m not. ”
    He huffed in disgust and pushed her toward the palfrey. Before she could catch her breath or her thudding heart could steady, he grabbed her by the waist, his thick, long fingers squeezing the breath out of her, and tossed her onto her saddle, then bound her hands to the saddle horn with one of the reins. “Aye, you are lying. There have to be two of you. Twins. ”
    Oh Lord, he knows. What will he do now?
    Using the free rein, Britt pulled her palfrey after him. As it danced in agitation, he, cursing under his breath, vaulted onto his stallion, then turned south, heading back from whence they’d come.
    Nay! The moon was already three quarters full! “MacKinnon…Britt, please listen. We have to head north to Edinburgh.”
    He glared over his shoulder at her. “Why? Do you fear if we return to your cottage I’ll find your sister hiding beneath the hay? Or mayhap in the loft you were so anxious to check again before we left?”
    The saints preserve her. Could Greer have returned to the cottage? Nay, she wouldn’t be so foolish, wouldn’t dare put her bairn in such peril. But then she’d been so frightened. Oh God…
    Genny’s tears spilled unchecked as she mentally ran through the myriad of troubles her sister could have encountered. Greer might not have found a ship to take her to Ireland. She might have found a ship but then spied someone she knew onboard and then fled home. Someone might have accosted her and stolen what coins she had, and thus her means to garner passage. Or she might have just taken it into her pretty stubborn head to go home.
    “Please, MacKinnon, please turn about.”
    “Tell me your name.”
    “I’ve told you.”
    With a look of pure disgust, he tugged on the palfrey.
    Hour upon hour, only the clacking of hooves and creaking of leather broke the silence. When she could stand it no longer, needing to pace, to do something other than be hauled about, she said, “I have need for privacy.”
    Glancing at her over his shoulder, he curled his lip in derisive fashion. “Hold it.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Then you’ll have a wet—”
    Something whizzed past Genny’s cheek—so close it burned her skin—before hitting a nearby tree with a loud thwangggg