Free My Tempting Highlander (Highland Hearts #3) by Maeve Greyson Page A

make it right.”
    “Aye.” Ronan accepted the quest with a nod. Icy rain streamed down the sides of his face and trickled down the back of his neck. He shook free the dark folded plaid tucked over one shoulder and hooded it over his head.
    Once more he glanced first to the right then to the left. Men and women clutching the round cloth shields over their heads splashed about, backs bent against the weather as they went along their way. Ronan squinted against the rising wind and rain, weaving in and out among the crowd bustling down the walkway. How the devil was he to find the woman? Was he even going in the right direction? He edged his way to the side of the path, imperceptibly lifted his chin, and snuffed in several deep breaths.
Damn this blasted weather
. He’d play hell picking up her scent in all this rain.
    A waist-high wall made of the smoothest stone Ronan had ever seen caught his eye.
Higher ground. Aye
. He stood a better chance of spotting Mairi from higher ground. Slinging the wet plaid back over one shoulder, Ronan hoisted himself to the top of the wall.
Much better
. Now he could see well over the throng of busy people.
Och and be damned.
Why the hell were there so many milling about? He nay remembered so many people bein’ in the streets the previous night.
    Ronan slowly edged along the top of the wall while scanning the area. Mairi was searching for her lost wolf. Ronan shook with a bitter chuckle. Little did the woman know, her lost wolf searched for her as well. Shrubbery. A thicket of trees. A bit of meadow. If Mairi kept her search focused on where an animal might hide, she’d seek those places first. Ronan stretched taller and looked for just such places.
    Aye. There she is
. A dark blue behind and the bottoms of a pair of muddy shoes protruded out from under a canopy of glossy dripping leaves. Ronan squinted through the rain.
Aye and for sure.
He was certain of it. He’d know that sweet arse from any distance.
    Ronan hopped down from the wall. Uncertainty stopped his steps. How could he convince her to come home? He slicked the rain from his eyes and looked up and down the street again. Eliza said Mairi didna trust people nor allow them too close. What would make her trust him?
    A cacophony of high-pitched yapping interrupted Ronan’s plotting. The insistent
yap-yap-yap
hammered a simple plan of attack into place. What better way to win Mairi over and make her forget the wolf than by giving her another dog? Ronan pushed through the ornate black metal gate to the tiny enclosed yard and strode up the path. A trio of hopping fuzz balls, ridiculous puffs of gray black fur dotted with beady eyes, glistening noses, and pink tongues pawed and bit at the glass separating them from Ronan.
    Ronan eyed the pups. A bit on the small side, but perhaps a wee beastie would melt Mairi’s heart even quicker. Ronan rapped on the glass, shielding his eyes as he strained to see deeper into the house.
    A sour-faced woman of advanced years wobbled into view. A pair of bigger mops of yipping fur bounced around the woman’s feet and the base of her cane as she hitched her way to the door. Her eyes narrowed behind a smudged pair of wire-rimmed spectacles cocked at an angle on the bridge of her nose. She glared at Ronan through the glass, her scowl deepening as she eased the door open the barest bit. “Aye?”
    Ronan pointed to the smaller dogs still yapping and ricocheting off the glass. “The wee dogs.” Ronan tapped on the glass in front of the darkest, fiercest pup. “Would ye consider partin’ with one o’ them?”
    The woman frowned and thumped the handle of her cane against a white square of parchment stuck at the top of the glass. “Is that no’ what the sign says? Can ye no’ read?”
    Irritation prickled hot against the cold damp hairs at the base of his neck. Of course he couldna read. He had scribes and monks for such menial tasks. Ronan rapped on the glass in front of the bright-eyed little dog’s