Read Online When a Scot Loves a Lady by Katharine Ashe - Free Book Online Page B

a hook, bending to swipe his boots with a cloth, his head a wretched mash of anger.
    Anger, he could feel in spades. Only anger, still after so long. His tenure with the Falcon Club had done nothing for that, nothing at all, although that had been the reason he’d joined five years earlier. To cast off grief and guilt, and most of all fury, with purpose. To release his anger by keeping himself occupied.
    All idiocy. He’d run away, accomplishing nothing but alienating himself for far too long from his home, the house in which his son lived.
    His son.
    He went into the parlor.
    Lady Katherine stood by a window. The pane was open and the cold air blowing in rippled the delicate fabric of her skirt. But she did not seem to note it. Her wide gaze rested on him, strangely questioning once more.
    His anger slid away, heat of an entirely different kind replacing it, low and insistent again. By God, those thundercloud eyes could bewitch a man.
    â€œAn ye wish, lass, A’ll saddle ma horse an search the road behind,” he heard himself say.
    â€œFor our servants?”
    â€œAye.”
    â€œYou would do that when you have just told Mr. Yale he oughtn’t to ride?”
    â€œAye.” That, and quite a bit more he began to fear with a sick twist in his stomach. He wanted to please her and see those thunderclouds glimmer with desire as they had in her bedchamber. “An ye wish.”
    She remained silent a moment, slender and poised like a portrait, but shimmering with muted life in the gown that caressed her curves as his hands might. There was every newness about her, yet every familiarity, as there had been for the briefest moment that night three years ago. His heart beat a frantic pace.
    A tiny crease appeared between her brows. “I would not have you put yourself at risk.”
    He nodded. “Nae tae worry, lass. Thay’ll hae found shelter.”
    â€œI hope so.”
    â€œA ken ye dae.”
    Her frown deepened. “ Do you know?” Then the corner of her lips twitched, her winged brows quirking. “That is what you said, isn’t it?”
    She was ice and fire at once, diamonds and feather down, soft heat bubbling forth through a cool veneer.
    â€œAye.” Leam backed toward the door. Distance was safest. Imagining she would shy from his blatant barbarity, he had redoubled his incivility earlier, boorishly commenting on her gown. The ploy had rewarded him only with the sensation of her skin marked upon his hand and the sweet, humid heat of her breath upon his lips.
    But this honest conversation was going no better.
    Distance. Sanity. Alvamoor, where his son awaited him to celebrate Christmas. His son. Nearly six now, his appearance no doubt altered since the previous year, as always with the swiftly growing young. But Leam knew the boy’s face well. Better than his own.
    Without bidding the lady adieu, he grabbed his coat and gloves and retreated once more into the wild out-of-doors. The cold without could not touch a man with a soul of bleak barbarism like his.

Chapter 5
    K itty folded linens. She had not performed such a domestic task in an age. Permanently residing with her mother in her brother’s town house, she left the housekeeping to Alex’s capable London staff. But Mrs. Milch had complained again of the lack of the serving girl, and Kitty’s brain was good for nothing more taxing this afternoon.
    By the stable Lord Blackwood had spoken perfect English to Mr. Yale. Nary a hint of brogue or tumbling roll had marred the cadence of his deep voice speaking clearly and smoothly the king’s own English. Better than the king’s.
    She’d heard it by accident. She had opened the window to release from the parlor a cloud of smoke a hard wind had sent down the chimney. But she had tarried there in the frigid air to spy on him. She would deny it to herself if she could, but she had no wits to now.
    Perhaps he had been putting on airs to tease