How to Ensnare a Highlander (The MacGregor Lairds) by McLean Michelle

Author:McLean, Michelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled, Scandalous, historical, historical romance, romance, enemies to lovers, protector, forbidden love, Highwayman; Highlander; Scottish Rogue; Kidnapped by a Highwayman; Restoration England; Outlaw
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Elizabet watched Jack ride off with a sinking heart. Her real life beckoned. One that included familial obligations, rules, and etiquette. Most definitely not a dashing highwayman who could set her blood to fire with a mere brush of his lips. Jack would live only in her fantasies now. Perhaps she should take to riding around in carriages full of treasure and see if she could instigate another meeting. Though she’d probably succeed in encountering only an outlaw with no sense of honor and gallantry. Jack was a breed unto himself. Any other highwayman she might meet would mean only danger or death for her.

Jack had left her in the dark of night near the main road within sight of a respectable inn. He’d given her more than enough money to hire a carriage and keep the innkeeper from asking too many questions. He’d promised he’d watch her from the tree line until she’d safely entered the inn, protecting her still. But, of course, he couldn’t accompany her all the way to her home. Or risk being seen at all.

Arriving home in the wee hours of the morning had garnered the expected reaction. The sleepy butler had taken one look at her and sent a squealing maid running for her mother. And then all hell had quietly broken loose.

Elizabet knew her parents wouldn’t be happy about what had happened but she’d assumed, hoped, that their anger would be aimed at the man who’d taken her. Not that she wanted Jack in trouble, but he wasn’t there and knew how to keep himself out of harm’s way. She probably should have known better.

Her mother ushered her straight to her room and closed the door before anyone else could enter.

“Tell me quickly. Are you…harmed?” she asked.

Elizabet frowned. “I was shot but my arm—”

“No, no,” her mother said, waving that away. “I mean…are you…intact?” She whispered the last word as if it were filth coating the inside of her mouth, her face flushing red in the light of the candles.

The temptation to tell her mother that her maidenhead remained intact despite enthusiastic willingness on her part to depart with it burned strong. But the wild look in her mother’s eye held her tongue. Barely.

“Yes, Mother. Aside from my arm I have not been harmed in any way.”

Her mother heaved a great sigh of relief, and Elizabet resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Gunshot wounds, those were fine. Bullets could enter her as long as a man didn’t.

“And your arm is healed now?” her mother added.

“Yes, Mother. It’s fine.” At least her mother showed some concern over her health, virginity aside, however minimal.

“Well, we’ll have the doctor take a quick look. Just to be sure.”

She opened the door and invited in the doctor, then sent the maids scurrying in all directions, bringing hot water, linens, food, and tea. Elizabet’s surprise at the fuss her mother raised quickly evaporated when she remembered her main value as their ticket out of the poorhouse. In her mother’s mind, at least.

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