Free Moon Awakening by Lucy Monroe Page A

to let go, but they did not move.
    "What is the matter?" Lachlan asked Drustan.
    "The English lass is being stubborn about getting out of the boat."
    Lachlan turned to her, his frown fierce. "Do not try my patience."
    "You don't have any," she muttered.
    "If that were true, I would not be waiting for my apology."
    She didn't respond to that bit of arrogance. She couldn't. She was too busy trying to make her fingers obey her.
    "Come here," he barked, his gaze searing her.
    Her body jerked and her fingers finally unbent from the seat. She shot to her feet, grateful for his brusqueness, but with no intention of telling him so.
    Drustan's hand was still outstretched, but she ignored it, swaying toward Lachlan. He reached into the boat and grabbed her by the waist with both hands, then lifted her as if she weighed nothing. He set her on the ground, frustrated anger emanating off of him in waves that buffeted her overwrought emotions as powerfully as the water had crashed against the boat's bow.
    She turned away and her attention was caught by the horses. They appeared no worse for their journey across the channel. She wished she could say the same. In order to return to the Sinclair holding, she would have to go back the same way. Sick at the thought, she barely stopped herself from praying she would remain captive until the end of her days.
    "How far to your holding?" she asked Lachlan without looking at him.
    She got no answer and sighed. "I am sorry for being difficult about getting out of the boat."
    When she received no reply to that either, she looked back to see if Lachlan was still behind her.
    He was, a strange expression in his gold-rimmed eyes. "You're wasted on Talorc, English."
    She shook her head, not knowing what he meant.
    "Aye, you are."
    Cait made a sound of distress, but when Emily's gaze found her, she could see no reason for her friend's upset.
    "My home is there," Lachlan said, drawing her attention back to him.
    He was pointing and Emily followed the direction of his finger with her eyes, then gasped at what she saw. A sheer cliff rose fifty feet in the air and on top of the cliff was a huge stone castle that looked worthy of a king.
    "It's massive," Cait whispered, her voice filled with awe as she came to stand beside Emily. "My brother's forces will never make it inside."
    Emily had to agree. She didn't think the king of England would have much luck in a siege against the Balmorals.
    "What we have we hold," Drustan said arrogantly, laying a proprietary hand on Cait's shoulder.
    "Except Susannah," Cait pointed out.
    "Rest assured, whatever mistake led to her mating with Magnus will not be repeated with you."
    "I should hope not. I have no desire to mate with my brother's blacksmith," Cait said teasingly.
    Drustan did not smile at the joke. If she hadn't thought it improbable, Emily would have said he looked severely offended by the remark. But even a too-serious Highlander had to realize Cait's words could have been nothing but a jest.
    For no reason she could discern, he turned his glare from Cait to encompass Emily as well.
    "How many live within the castle walls?" Emily asked, trying to turn the topic, her mind still boggling at the size of the castle atop the cliff.
    "Think you we would give secrets like that away to our enemy?" Ulf asked, his contempt flaying her.
    Emily's emotions teetered on the edge of an abyss as deep as her fear of the water. "I am not your clan's enemy."
    She'd spoken in a whisper that was barely audible, but Ulf laughed deridingly. "You say that after the insults you leveled against our clan? You are our enemy right enough. Not only are you the wife of the Sinclair laird, but you are English. That makes you our enemy twice over."
    The words poured over her like acid, burning and destroying what was left of her emotional well-being.
    She'd been met with almost nothing
but
hatred since coming to the Highlands. Ulf's words told her that she would be despised even more amidst his