Loving A Highlander Read Online Free Page A

didn’t mean to pry into your personal life.”
    Gerard sighed and looked around the one room cottage that was now bathed in morning light, illuminating the cracks in the walls and the dirt floor underneath his feet.  “You didn’t.”  He attempted to smile, but the corners of his lips wouldn’t obey. 
    He motioned for her to take a seat at the rickety table while he sat back down on the bed, trying to ignore how good it felt and how just walking across the room had drained him of energy.  “Sit down and I will tell you about my life.”
    Isabella’s protest died on her lips as she noticed the weary look in his eyes and the paleness beneath his tan.  He was still ill and it had been foolish of her to suggest he was in any condition to travel.
    Gerard cleared his throat as he leaned back against the down pillow.  “Her name was Lorna,” he said, his voice dull as he tried to distance himself from the pain that roared through him, tearing him apart from the inside out.  “We had been married a little over a year when she got caught in a rainstorm, became ill, and died.” 
    His gaze tangled with hers.  “Lorna was pregnant with our unborn child,” he said softly.
    Isabella gasped at his words and from the raw pain that was stamped upon his features.  This was a man who had lost much.  Had loved much, only to have the thing he cherished most torn from his grasp. 
    She had a feeling Gerard had been wandering far from home for some time.  Afraid to return and confront the memories that haunted him at every turn.  Tormented by thoughts of the woman he had loved and the child he would never know.  The pain was etched into his face and scored deeply into his soul.
    She wondered what it would be like to have that kind of love.  For a man to care about her more than he cared about his next breath.  For Gerard had loved his wife, of that she was certain.
    “I’m sorry for your loss,” Isabella whispered.  Her words sounded hollow, but she didn’t know what to say to ease his pain, or if such a thing was even possible.
    Gerard inclined his head slightly.  “And I am sorry for yours, lass.  It appears as if fate has been most unkind to both of us.”
    Isabella brushed a lock of her blond hair away from her face and opened her mouth to respond, but Gerard’s eyes had drifted closed and he was breathing heavily.  She placed a blanket over his sleeping form and sat back down in her chair.
    Her gaze fastened on his handsome face.  In sleep, he appeared much younger.  Closer to her own age of twenty-four, although she knew he was more than likely older.
    She was old by most people’s standards.  Dried up and shriveled on the vine as Owen used to say.  He had been a few years younger than her and hadn’t hesitated to remind her that she was lucky he married her.  After all, he had often said, what man wanted a woman who was close to becoming wrinkled with age.
    She returned her thoughts to her visitor.  His hands were crisscrossed with scars, and she could tell he was a man who was not a stranger to hard work.  It was apparent he had been knocked around by life.  Weathered the storm and was still standing.  He was a fighter.  Someone who would protect what was his with his dying breath.
    A thrill of excitement went through her at the thought and she shivered.  What would it be like to have a man such as this in her life?  To wake up in his arms every morning and feel his hands on her body?
    Isabella shook her head and rose from her chair.  She was being foolish.  This was a man who could have any woman he wanted.  Why would he want a woman such as her?  Knowing that she was wasting her time thinking about things that would never be, she quietly slipped out the door.  Out into the dim light of the new day and away from the troubling thoughts that plagued her.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter
    Three              
     
                 

 
    Gerard sat up in bed and wiping