Bride of the Solway

Bride of the Solway
Joanna Maitland

If Cassandra Elliott does not escape from the Laird of Galloway, she'll be forced into marriage or confined to Bedlam! Desperate, she turns to Captain Ross Graham, and begs for help in a most unladylike manner.Fleeing across the Solway, Cassie and Ross cannot be distracted by a desire as wild as the Scottish hills. When Cassie is kidnapped, Ross realizes exactly what this spirited, seductive woman has come to mean to him…but will he find her in time to tell her?

He needed to listen for their pursuers. In fact, Ross thought he could hear something. Closer than before.

“The Laird of Galloway should be dead and damned to all eternity,” Cassie raged. “He would be well served in hellfire. For he is the very devil—”

“Miss Elliott. Hush! I think I hear horses!”

She ignored him. “And if he burns, it will—”

Ross had two choices. Silence her by brute force, or…He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

JOANNA MAITLAND

was born and educated in Scotland, though she has spent most of her adult life in England or abroad. She has been a systems analyst, an accountant, a civil servant and director of a charity. Now that her two children have left home, she and her husband have moved from Hampshire to the Welsh Marches, where she is reveling in the more rugged country and the wealth of medieval locations. When she is not writing, or climbing through ruined castles, she devotes her time to trying to tame her new house and garden, both of which are determined to resist any suggestion of order. Readers are invited to visit Joanna’s Web site at www.joannamaitland.com.

Bride of the Solway features characters you will have met in My Lady Angel.

Bride of the Solway

Joanna Maitland

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Prologue

London—Wednesday, 22nd June, 1815

R oss gritted his teeth and started for the door. Once through it, he might just have a chance of breathing again.

‘Captain Graham.’ Julie’s beloved voice was full of concern.

Ross turned back to her, slowly, trying to school his features into mere friendliness.

‘Pray do not leave us, sir,’ she said quietly. ‘There is so much still to discover. And so much to thank you for.’

He shook his head at her, forcing a smile. He found he could not speak.

‘And you must have so much to say to your friends here.’ She nodded in the direction of their hostess and her escort, talking together in the far corner of the room, sharing thoughts so intimate that they had brought a slight blush to the lady’s cheek. There stood a man whose love was returned, Ross thought. A fortunate man.

‘Most of all, my dear friend,’ Julie continued rather earnestly, ‘I should like you to know Pierre, to have him esteem you as I do.’

She was looking past Ross as she spoke, her eyes searching the room before fixing on a point beyond Ross’s shoulder. He knew, without turning, that her eye had lighted on her lover. The sudden softening of her glance and the glow of her complexion betrayed the depth of her feelings for the man.

Another shaft of pain stabbed deep into Ross’s gut.

Swallowing hard, he steeled himself to act the part of the gentleman and friend, the part he had been forced to play for months now. Yesterday, he had had hopes of winning her. No longer. All that was left was pride.

He bowed slightly to her. ‘Mademoiselle, I am at your service, as ever.’

Chapter One