Taken by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader with android os TXT) ๐
Read free book ยซTaken by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader with android os TXT) ๐ยป - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Angeline Fortin
Read book online ยซTaken by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader with android os TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Angeline Fortin
โI kent that ye were well educated.โ
โDid you go to school?โ
โI was trained for a knighthood but since I do hae mine own property, I was well-tutored on how to manage it.โ Thoughtful silence fell as he stroked his thumb idly over her knuckles. โWere yer parents supportive of such a change?โ
โNot really.โ All through those years at school, her parents and Tyrone had been there, trying to guilt-trip her into living her life for them, making them more money. The modeling. The appearances. It had been all been her parents and Tyrone. Pressing her. Pushing her. Each time she had given in until she couldnโt any longer. โBut I was done with it before I ended up here,โ she said to Laird. โI had finally put my foot down. No more cameras. No more celebrity. No more having people tell me where to go, how to dress or what to eat. I wasnโt going to bow to their expectations anymore.โ
โDid it work?โ
โI donโt know.โ
She had been whisked away from her time before she had a chance to find out. On the other hand, there was no chance of continuing that life here, so in a way she had succeeded. Scarlett almost laughed at the irony. She should have been careful what she wished for. Sheโd wanted freedom and sheโd gotten this. Somewhere the fates were mocking her. โMaybe Iโll never know. What about you? Youโre going to be in trouble with your father, no doubt.โ
Lairdโs lips pressed into a thin line. โMayhap. My wishes align wiโ his no more than yers did wiโ yer parents. Like ye, I dinnae live the life I haโ wanted.โ
He paused, as if surprised by the confession and the truth behind it. It seemed he didnโt like the life he led any more than she did. โIโve always done my duty but Iโve spent years at loose ends. Father wills me to be a soldier, a courtier but this disnae please me.โ
Scarlett cocked her head. โWhat would please you?โ
Their dark tent was cloaked in silence as James contemplated the question heโd never been asked. โTo see my holdings grow.โ Again it was a surprise but James felt the truth in those words. โIโve held my own land since birth yet Iโve noโ known the satisfaction of toiling wiโ my own hands, of making it my own.โ
โHow would you do that?โ
โExpand Dunskirk. Add to the existing pele tower and bailey until it is a force to be reckoned wiโ in the borderlands.โ His burr was soft but full of conviction. โIt could be a grand, bonny castle.โ
โI can imagine just how it should look.โ
James raised a brow. โCan ye now?โ
An impish smile tilted the corner of her mouth as if she were privy to something he was not. โYes, I could draw you a picture of exactly how it should be.โ
โI may hae ye do that and we shall see if yer vision matches my own.โ
โI bet it will,โ she said smugly.
Some of her words and terminology had been nothing but gibberish, though that was nothing new when speaking with Scarlett, but not for the first time, James got the impression that Scarlett was hiding something from him. Something far more important than the state of his keep.
Everything about her was a mystery but he could get no answers from her โ at least on matters of more import to their relationship than her life on stage. Despite hours of conversation, he knew little more about her than he had before. Oh, he had learned more about the person she was beneath the surface but not the hard facts that would help him make some sense of her and her presence in his life.
It was all nothing, but it meant something.
What a complicated lass she was, he thought, looking down into her golden eyes. They were as direct as always, charged with vitality and fortitude.
Who was she really? From whence had she come? How could she know so much about some things, yet so little about others?
He couldnโt fathom how such a determined lass so assured of her own opinion and cleverness might ever be compelled by another to do something beyond her own will.
She was not an innocent when it came to matters of the flesh. Was she married? Widowed? Was the Tyrone she had called to for aid at Dunskirk her husband? A lover?
He might never know the answers when she refused to respond to his queries on the matter, but if he were honest with himself, James knew he was less and less interested in knowing.
34
The raw beauty of the area was as stunning to Scarlett as when she first arrived in this time. Endless hills of green with a touch of burnt umber and bronze that hinted at the coming fall. One after another they rolled as far as the eye could see with little to break the picturesque landscape. A small village in the distance. A church spire or two.
There was nothing around her that Scarlett recognized, nothing at all that reminded her of modern day England. No landmarks, no roads.
Nothing.
From the fringes of the latest encampment, sheโd been able to watch the cannon fire at measured intervals upon a castle about a mile or two to the east. It was just four towers connected by curtain walls. It had taken less than an hour before the portcullis was raised and the Scottish troops entered the keep.
It was not at all like she imagined when first hearing about the โinvasionโ of England. But for Norham and that excruciating five day siege, the castles of northern England were giving in to the Scottish forces without much of a fuss and it left Scarlett
Comments (0)