Page 80 of The Highlander's Promise

She didn’t smile.

He leaned down. “I have a job for you. How do you like that? Are you ready to go upstairs?”

She nodded, her movements like a hummingbird’s, her eyes sunken like warm stones dropped in a snowdrift.

“Well, let us see. I’m going to place great trust in you. You will need to obey me completely. Can you do that?”

Again, the anxious nod.

“Stand up, then,” he encouraged in a kind voice. “Here, let me help you. Careful, you’ll be a bit wobbly on the stem for a moment. Better?”

She stared up into his face, her sharpened features wary. No trace of the plump, mouthy Highland wench he’d taken from Town Blair.

Town Blair. Carson Town. Myra Carson…Myra Annesley. Tenred.

Thomas.

Thomas.

The letter.

“Very well.” He turned and pulled a long robe from a peg. “Put this on. You may follow me upstairs to my rooms to be cared for by my servants until you are well enough to be of use. It shall be just in time, too, I think, with such important visitors en route to Darlyrede House even as we speak. Why, just look at you, poor bird, having traveled so far from your home to seek work. Set upon by bandits, were you not? They have infested our wood, I’m afraid.”

Searrach pushed her arms through the sleeves without question.

Yes, she would do.