The Truth of Her Heart (Highlander Heroes Book 5)
Page 32
“Who are they? Who do you minister to?”
“To Rutherglen, and sometimes Eastfield, and to the castle, Dalserf.”
Alec frowned. “Dalserf? Is that Thomas de Dalziel?” Alec did not know him personally, but he kept in good memory any names of Scots’ families in these Highlands who had sworn allegiance to Edward I.
“Aye.” Her frown was deepening.
Holding her nervous gaze, he asked evenly, “And where is your son just now?”
She went completely still, unbreathing again it seemed, as she tried very hard to give nothing away.
“I have no son.”
Ah, the lass was no liar, was torn up inside to denounce her own flesh and blood, even if it had been done to protect him.
“You sure about that, lass? You sure there’s no’ a lad under that bed?”
She whimpered and shook her head, her gaze pleading now.
“Come on out, lad,” Alec instructed, holding her now tortured gaze. No one and nothing moved. “Dinna make me ask twice.”
A shuffling was heard behind him. He thought the hound might have risen as well as the lad crawled out from under the bed.
Her blue eyes watered with her fright, her lips trembled. Her gaze left him, found the boy instead, and told Alec of the lad’s position by the movement of her gaze. And when her eyes widened frantically and the hound barked, he knew a wee attack was coming. He turned his head, saw a scrawny arm raised, and caught the hand before any damage was inflicted. He dragged the boy to his side, his skinny arm held firmly in Alec’s hand, the weapon seeming to be only his woeful fist. The hound continued to shout his distress.
Sensing movement over Malcolm, he turned and found that the lass had lifted her hands above the lifeless man, her skinny knife facing downward, her expression fierce.
“Let him go.”
“You dinna want his neck snapped.”
“You dinna want his heart pierced,” she returned, her tone just as dangerous.
Alec pushed the boy away, saw him scramble around the table to his mother, who immediately put him behind her and lowered her knife. The hound followed, whining to his mistress.
“I’ve fixed your man,” she said. “Take him and go.”
Alec sighed, still seated, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs. He gave his regard to the lad, met a now familiar intense blue gaze, narrowed in a fashion remarkably like his mother’s, his blond hair short but unkempt.
“Now, lass, you ken how these things work,” he said, indicating the sewn wounds upon Malcolm. “Fever, infection, all sorts of peril imaginable. We’ll be staying right here until my man is well out of danger.”
End of Sample
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Other Books by Rebecca Ruger
The Highlander Heroes Series
The Touch of Her Hand
The Memory of Her Kiss
The Shadow of Her Smile
The Depths of Her Soul
The Truth of Her Heart
Coming November 2020
Highlander Heroes Book 6: The Love of Her Life
Pre-Order Here
And Then He Loved Me (A Highlander Novella, Book 1)
Watch for Torren and Muriel’s tale to be written in
Mountains To Move, A Highlander Novella, Book 2
Coming January 2021
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