The Ghost (Highland Guard 12) Read Online Free

didn’t notice anything amiss. She tossed the plaid she wore around her shoulders on the bed, kicked off her slippers, pulled the pins from her hair, and threw them on the small dressing table before moving to the window.
    She froze. The tiny piece of silk thread that she’d tied to the latch on the shutter had been snapped.
    Excitement burst through her. Finally! She had him. It was a game between her and Lachlan. Known for his ability to get in and out of anywhere without being seen, he’d been surprising her for years—and she’d been trying to catch him.
    Trying . Unsuccessfully, at least, until now. A rare smile turned her mouth. The feeling that filled her chest was so foreign she almost didn’t recognize it: happiness.
    Moving swiftly to the ambry door, she pulled it open. “Hello, Father.”
    Calling him Father had started out as a jest to make him feel old—he’d just turned forty to her twenty—but she knew it wasn’t just that anymore. The man her father had called a bastard, brigand, and pirate was much more of a parent to her than her own had ever been.
    She heard a very un-fatherly curse before the big warrior materialized from behind her gowns. He scowled, although for a man with the war name of Viper there wasn’t much behind it. “How did you know?”
    She folded her arms across her chest and quirked a brow the way he did to her. “You don’t expect me to tell you all my secrets, do you?”
    Many people who knew him would be surprised to see how easily his mouth curved into a smile. The mean brigand with the black heart had changed, though he’d probably die before admitting it. He had a reputation to uphold after all.
    “Not bad, little one. If all my men were so easily trained, my job would be a hell of a lot easier.”
    She grinned. Then realizing that she might actually be beaming, she sobered. “As much as I look forward to our little family reunions, I’m assuming for you to have risked climbing through that window your reason for being here is important.”
    He nodded and motioned for her to sit. She sat on the edge of the bed and he took a seat opposite her on the stone windowsill. He shot a meaningful glance to the door. She shook her head. “My cousin and Sir Henry are still in the Hall.”
    He nodded and continued. “Carrick plans to make an attempt on the castle tonight here along the east wall.” He gave her a dry look. “I know it goes against your nature—God knows it’s against your mother’s—but try to stay out of danger and not go running toward it, will you?”
    She laughed. “I’ll do my best, and I appreciate the warning. But I hope the earl has a good plan. The English are tired of Bruce taking back all of his castles—they’ll not give up one of their most important without a fight. I don’t have to tell you how well defended it is.”
    “Nay, I had a devil of a time—” He stopped, his eyes narrowing. “If that’s a trick to try to get me to tell you how I got in, it isn’t going to work.”
    She blinked at him innocently, which he didn’t believe for a minute.
    “Christ, now I know where she got it from!”
    Her brows drew together questioningly.
    “Your sister. Christina gives me that look every time she’s done something naughty—which seems to be a daily occurrence.”
    Joan couldn’t prevent the tiny pinch in her chest. She’d never regretted the decision not to return to Scotland with her mother after Lachlan had rescued her—Joan had chosen her path and knew it was a solitary one—but she did regret not knowing her young half siblings. She had three now: Erik, who would be five in a few months; Christina, who was three and a half; and Robbie, who was almost eighteen months.
    “You know what the Bible says: ‘as ye sow, so shall ye reap.’ ”
    Lachlan shook his head with a sigh. “That’s what your mother says.”
    She smiled.
    He told her what he knew of Edward Bruce’s plan to take the castle, which in her opinion—and