Page 4 of A Forbidden Night with a Scot
The man reached for Alicia’s forearm, grabbing it in a bruising grip. She yelped in fear and thrashed against him, trying to push him off, and Katherine threw herself in the middle of it, latching onto the man’s arm to get him to release Alicia.
“If ye dinnae remove yer hand, ye’ll be livin’ without it from now on,” a cold voice called from behind the man’s shoulder. It made them all freeze and Alicia looked up to see who her savior was—only to see a painfully familiar face.
Laird MacLachlan?
Alicia now wished she had been killed in that tavern, after all. She couldn’t imagine a worse fate than meeting Laird Samuel MacLachlan there, in the middle of the night, in a tavern where she wasn’t supposed to be. Out of all the people in the world, he was the worst possible option to save her—not because he wasa bad man, but rather because he was a lovely man and a good friend to her father on top of that.
He was also the only man with whom Alicia had ever been infatuated, ever since she was grown enough to know what an infatuation was. There were fourteen years between them, but that had never stopped her from daydreaming about him, even when she knew she would never have a chance with him.
Slowly, the man let go of Alicia when Laird MacLachlan placed his own hand on his shoulder, his grip so tight that his knuckles went bone-white. He turned around, placing his own hand over Laird MacLachlan’s, and a humorless chuckle left his lips as they stared at each other.
“Dae ye think I am afraid o’ ye?”
Before the man could say anything else, before Alicia or Katherine could do anything, Laird MacLachlan was dragging him out of the tavern, his hand fisted in the fabric of his shirt. He dragged the man through the crowd that parted for them, and Alicia exchanged a quick glance with Katherine before they both followed them outside, but not before Alicia had the book in her hands.
God, I wish the earth tae open and swallow me whole.
CHAPTER TWO
The stench of the tavern permeated everything in its path—the air around Samuel, the table where he sat, even the patrons themselves, it seemed. All of them were the kind of people Samuel had avoided all his life; drunkards, brigands, all sorts of criminals who would quickly team up to attack Samuel if they knew who he was. But Samuel had no other choice. This was the only place where he could meet his scout, who had come to the MacCallum lands after a successful mission nearby.
The MacCallum lands were safe, Samuel knew. Laird Gavin MacCallum was a good friend, a man on whom Samuel could rely. Still, it was always safer to meet in such places. One could never know when one was being watched by an enemy.
Samuel twisted the cup in one hand, looking at the oily ale that swirled inside, and fiddled with his necklace with the other. He had not taken a single sip from it the entire time he sat there, too disgusted by the filth that surrounded him in that place. Hedidn’t dare bring the cup to his lips. He only looked around, waiting for his scout to appear so he could get out of that place.
And then his gaze fell on a man who had cornered two women. From where he sat, Samuel could neither hear what they were saying nor see their faces, but he could tell the man’s presence was unwanted and he was not going to let the two women suffer in his hands.
Pushing off his chair, Samuel walked over to them, fingers already clenched into a fist. When he got close, though, he saw that the two women were, in fact, more than familiar to him—none other than Alicia and Katherine, Gavin’s daughters. At first, he could not believe his own eyes. What were the two of them doing in such a place in the middle of the night?
As he approached them, Alicia slapped the man in the face and before Samuel could reach them, he had grabbed her arm. Fury bubbled up inside him, and before he knew what he was doing, he was dragging the man out of the tavern and throwing him into the street, his lips curling back to reveal his teeth in a snarl.
“Ye should have run when ye had the chance,” Samuel said, throwing himself at the man before he had the chance to run or attack him first. One hand curled around his shirt once more, holding him in place as the other delivered blow after blow to his face, not a single grunt of exertion escaping him as he delivered his punishment.
The man’s nose broke with a sickening crunch under his knuckles. The blood that spouted from it coated Samuel’s handin an instant, drops of it flying to his face as he continued his assault until the man hung limply in his grip, every breath he took through his parted lips labored and pained. A few more punches and Samuel risked truly killing him, he thought, so he tried his best to rein back his anger and let go of him, letting his body collapse to the ground.
When he turned around, Alicia and Katherine were right behind him, watching.
“I’m sorry ye had tae witness that,” he said sincerely. He should have made sure to drag the man away from them, to take his vengeance away from prying eyes. Now, Katherine shook from head to toe, her hand covering her mouth as if she could hardly contain her nausea.
Alicia, on the other hand, seemed entirely unaffected by the violence she had just witnessed. She stood there, motionless, gazing down at the man with disdain written plainly on her face, her dark eyes betraying no sign of fear.
“Why are ye here?” Samuel asked when neither of the sisters spoke. He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped at the blood on his face, though he doubted he could effectively clean his hands of all of it. “It’s the middle o’ the night an’ this place is dangerous. Surely, ye ken that.”
Alicia and Katherine exchanged a glance, but once again, they remained silent. Naturally, they were hiding something, but Samuel couldn’t begin to guess at what that could be.
At least until he noticed that Alicia had her hands behind her back, as if she was holding something there. With a roll of his eyes, he snapped forward, grabbing the item from her before she could pull back from him.
“Och!” Alicia shouted and rushed at him, trying to take the item back, but all Samuel had to do was raise his hand, holding the package above his head. “Give it back! Now!”
“I dinnae think so,” said Samuel, chuckling softly at Alicia’s attempts to grab the item. She jumped once, twice, three times, desperately trying to reach it, but Samuel didn’t give her the chance. Once she realized she would never manage to take it back, she gave up with a frustrated groan, throwing her hands up in the air. Samuel took a few steps to the side and tore the wrapper open, his eyebrows jumping up when he saw the contents of the package.
The Canterbury Tales?
He had to suppress a laugh. He didn’t know what he had expected to find in the package, but this book was certainly not something he would have ever guessed he would find.
All this trouble fer a book… what a strange lass Alicia is.
He was certain this was all Alicia’s plot from the start. Katherine had always been the meek one, too concerned for Alicia’s well-being to let her get in trouble alone but too cautious to start the trouble herself.
