Page 15

She stared at him, their eyes connecting, and he saw her lips part just a little, and a tint of color brush over her cheeks.

The feel of her, warm and strong, and so feminine against him, in his arms, set a fire seething deep within him.

But her eyes widened in recognition, and the moment of heat between them was replaced by fear.

“Get off me!” she said through gritted teeth as she pushed him away. He let her go.

She breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling. He knew she was trapped between him and the pulpit, but he didn’t want her to run off before he could talk to her.

“Who are ye?” he asked.

She lifted her chin. “Not a prostitute.”

He frowned. “Who?”

She pursed her lips for a moment in an expression of a suppressed anger. “Not a whore,” she said through gritted teeth.

He remembered the sting of her slap and rubbed his cheek with a smile.

“Aye. Ye made that clear. But then, again, who are ye?”

She straightened her shoulders even more and clutched the base of her throat in a nervous gesture.

“My name is Rogene Douglas,” she said after she glanced down. “I am James Douglas’s distant cousin.”

He raised his brows. “James ‘Black’ Douglas?”

She nodded.

“I fought with him several times for the king, just last year, in the Battle of the Pass of Brander.”

Her eyes burned. “The Pass of Brander? That must have been quite a battle…”

Something was so different about her. “Why would a woman be so interested in a battle?” he asked.

She made her face appear impartial again. “You’re mistaken,” she said. “I was merely being polite.”

And that accent… He’d never heard anything like that.

“Do ye come from the Lowlands, then?”

She nodded. “Yes. My home was raided in the war, and I fled to clan Sinclair, who are my relatives on my mother’s side. On our way, we were robbed, and my bodyguards were killed as well as my maid.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “How did ye end up in my cellar, then?”

She swallowed, and the blush deepened on her cheeks. “I don’t know. I was knocked unconscious. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and there you were, with a torch, staring at me.”

He narrowed his eyes, studying her face. She was knocked unconscious? Was it a band of Mackenzie men who attacked them? Surely not.

“And then you called me a whore,” she said. “I thought you wanted to rape me.”

He blinked. The woman certainly must be a highborn, talking to him like that.

“Suppose I believe ye, Lady Douglas. And I dinna say that I do. But suppose I do, why were ye so interested in the Bible? Can ye read?” He glanced at the book. There were no pictures, just letters. “Or were ye merely fascinated?”

Her face twitched, as though in uncertainty, then she cocked her head. “I can read. I know it’s unusual for a woman, at least in this day and age, but I can. I also can write and calculate.”

“Do ye understand Latin, then?” he said.