Read Online The Runaway Highlander (The Highland Renegades Book 2) by R. L. Syme - Free Book Online

into a frown. “I haven’t much time, my lady, and it would appear that as we are unable to send word to all the parties involved in our previous plan, then I must take you into my confidence and beg your assistance.”
    Anne’s heart leapt. An opportunity not only to help her countrymen, but potentially to see Broc again. Perhaps Broc could take her away from this place. “Tell me, please, do you know if all de Moray’s men will be rescued in this plot?”
    “That is our plan. Why, my lady?”
    “There is a man in the dungeon that I know quite well. He is… was… my fiancé.”
    The man’s dark brows clenched in earnest. “Then tell me his name and I promise that we will do our best to liberate this man.”
    “Broccin Sinclair.”
    A look of relief relaxed the guard’s features and a smile lifted his countenance. “Then you are not only in luck, my lady, but also a confirmed miracle from above.” He again took her hand and this time bowed low over it, rather than the perfunctory kiss.
    “I am most pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady de Cheyne. They call me the Highland Renegade. I am Lord Andrew de Moray, eighth Earl of Moray and friend of Broccin Sinclair. It is on his behalf that I am here today.”
    *****
    Aedan had left the castle gates behind him hours previous, and he still couldn’t rid himself of the stench of that dungeon. Nor thoughts of a certain Lady Anne de Cheyne.
    R umination over a woman was a foreign concept to Aedan Donne. Since the day of his wounding, Aedan had been the pariah of every social function and the enigma of every public gathering.
    In all his years of hiding his face and shunning the company of women whenever possible, he’d never met a female so utterly uninterested in his deformed appearance as Anne de Cheyne. She’d hardly given it a first look when they met, and since, hadn’t paid it more than a second’s notice.
    It was almost as if she couldn’t see it. Which was ridiculous.
    But it definitely explained to Aedan why his fascination wouldn’t quit. If she was used to deformity and it didn’t fascinate her, then being around her wouldn’t be so much work as it often was with other humans.
    Very few people paid so little attention to the inhuman half of his face. The Sheriff was one. His sister. A blind woman who ran the inn at Gretna. But in general, he was not only the object of scorn and ridicule, but the constant center of attention. And shame.
    Having been such an attractive and sought-after youth, and having been so completely in love as a young man, it had taken him years to stop caring what people saw when they looked at him. Until one woman looked and saw something other than a creature to be pitied or a monster to be feared.
    These thoughts had been plaguing him all through the morning ride, and Aedan saw no reprieve in sight. The directions the Sheriff had relayed to him were clear, but distant. It would take most of the day to verify what the Sheriff claimed, and even that was a stretch. He wasn’t certain he could make Belford in only a day, regardless.
    If the Sheriff had precise information, and the de Moray rebels really had managed to set up a camp inside the border of England, then his quest would be finished. He could give the English army his information and be through with it.
    A smattering of trees lined the small hill down toward the River Twill which would take him to the Roman road if he followed it. For anonymity, Aedan liked to avoid the king’s roads, all of them. But no doubt, it would provide him faster passage than following his nose over the unfamiliar terrain.
    He could see the tower house at Barmoor Castle and beyond it, the village of Lowich, no doubt. It had been more months than he could count since he’d been this far into England—and always, it seemed, in pursuit of a wayward person. But beyond Lowich, and then beyond Belford, he would be in unfamiliar territory unless he stayed on the road.
    Aedan pulled his horse