Samantha James Read Online Free

convinced.
    She allowed Egan to set the pace of their travel, which was hard but not grueling. Near noonday they stopped to water the horses at a tiny loch that glistened like a jewel in the sunlight.
    Standing behind Egan, she found her gaze inexorably drawn to him. He stood next to his stallion, his hand carelessly curled around the reins while the horses slurped noisily from the calm, crystalline waters, his booted feet braced slightly apart. When he turned his head to the south, the direction in which they traveled, she was afforded a view of his profile.
    Unaware of her perusal, she examined him more thoroughly. Had she not known him, he would have frightened her. He was big, broader than any of the MacKay brothers had ever been, more than two hands taller than she—and, oh, aye, the hands of a man!—and not a diminutive one at that. His skin wasweathered a deep bronze which never faded, even in the deepest chill of winter.
    He was, she found herself admitting, an arresting sight. Even when she’d come to Dunthorpe as a bride with eyes for no man but Niall, she’d always thought him attractive. His handsomeness was marred only by the thin white scar angled on his cheekbone just beneath his left eye.
    Glenda swallowed. Had she but one word to describe Egan, what would it have been? Intense was the only word that sprang to mind.
    Suddenly a memory rose high aloft in her mind, the memory of a night not so very long ago…the scene in the hall that night at Dunthorpe was one of merriment and gaiety—Daniel, one of Cameron’s men, had wed Alinda earlier that day. Though it was not the first wedding since Niall’s death, there had been a poignant ache in her heart that day. Lilting music filled the air and dancers swarmed the center of the hall; she’d been idly watching the celebration when someone had pulled her to her feet and swept her into the circle of dancers. Moments later, laughing breathlessly, she felt herself whirled around.
    She came face to face with Egan. He did not reach for her, nor did she reach for him; it was as if neither of them knew what to do, as if…as if each were brought up short by the sight of the other. The moment passed in but an instant, for she was seized by another partner.
    It was later she spied him near the hearth with Patsy, the alewife’s daughter. Patsy had smiled invitingly up at him, her arms twined familiarly around his neck…
    When next she looked, he was gone…and so was Patsy.
    She did not see either of them again that eve.
    Sleep was elusive that night. A stark, wrenching loneliness spread through her; the ache was nearly unbearable. She thought of Daniel with Alinda…Egan with Patsy…
    And her beloved Niall.
    She cried herself to sleep that night…cried as she had not for so many, many months.
    ’Twas odd, the sensation aroused by that remembrance. Her gaze strayed to Egan again and again that day—just as they had that night.
    Her earlier wish was all at once renewed…
    Why couldn’t it have been Finn she was with ?
    Glenda couldn’t withhold the yearning any more than she could stop the sudden clenching of the muscles of her stomach. Ah, but she should have known Cameron would want Egan to escort her!
    In truth, she had known Egan nearly as long as she had known Niall. Though Niall and Cameron were brothers, the three of them had been so very close—Niall, Cameron, and Egan. Indeed, Egan had almost been raised as one of Ronald’s sons. Glenda knew that Niall had always regarded Egan as one of his own brothers. Yet somehow she had never thought of Egan as a brother—nay, never in this world…not in the same fond way in which she had always regarded Cameron. With Egan, it was never so easy to laugh and tease…indeed, had she ever laughed and teased with the same carefree abandon that she had with Cameron and his brothers? Nay, she thought slowly. Somehow she had always been far too conscious of his masculinity. Yet it was not only that—Egan was not a man