Some Like It Wild by Teresa Medeiros Page A

favor. There was no reason for her to doubt Munroe’s words, no reason for her to have faith in him.
    Her hand trembled ever so slightly as she rolled up the broadsheet and slipped it into the pocket of her skirt. “If you don’t mind, sir, I’ll hang on to this so I can recognize the rogue should our paths ever cross. If this man is half the villain you say he is, then I pray you’ll find him and take him into custody very soon.” She slipped her arm back through Connor’s, smiling up at him. “Are you ready, darling? I do so love dining al fresco in the morning.”
    Connor returned Pamela’s smile with a grin of his own. He’d bested the redcoats numerous times in the past few years, but never felt such a fierce rush of satisfaction.
    They were turning away from Munroe and his men when the colonel’s hand shot out and ripped away Connor’s jabot and collar, revealing the faded rope burns that marred the side of his broad throat.
    Munroe’s lip curled in a triumphant sneer. “And just how do you explain those marks, my lord ?”
    Connor lightly touched his fingers to the scars, his nostrils flaring in an aristocratic sniff. “My valet must have tied my cravat too tightly.” Plucking the jabot from Munroe’s hand and drapingit around his own neck, he inclined his head in a polite bow. “If you’ll excuse us, gentlemen, our picnic awaits.”
    Leaving Munroe frothing at the mouth with rage, they turned and strolled toward the castle as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Sophie fell into step beside her sister, casting a wistful look over her shoulder at the gawking soldiers.
    They were halfway to the gatehouse when Munroe shouted, “You won’t be able to hide behind a woman’s skirts forever! I don’t care if you’re calling yourself a marquess or a duke or the Prince Regent himself, if you ever set foot in the Highlands again, as God is my witness, I’ll see you hanged! ”
    Connor inclined his head toward Pamela, speaking softly so his words wouldn’t carry on the wind. “One word from you, lass, and he would have seen me hanged today.”
    “And just where would I have found another Scotsman with a thick neck and a thicker skull to impersonate the duke’s son?” She cast him a sideways look from beneath her lashes. “Besides, you just don’t seem the sort to drown a litter of kittens in a bucket.”
    “If you must know, I’m rather fond of kittens. But don’t tell anyone. I’d hate to spoil my reputation.” As they passed beneath the gatehouse, he scowled up at the tower. “So just how did you convince Brodie to let you pull this incredibly foolhardy stunt? After I strangle him with my bare hands, I’d like to know how sorry I should be.”
    Pamela gave Sophie a pointed look. She responded with a feline smile.
    “Ah,” Connor said. “So what did she do? Promise to marry him and give him a cottage full of wee bairns?”
    Sophie shuddered. “I should say not. But I did offer to teach him all the words to ‘Haughty Maude, the Banbury Bawd.’”
    Pamela stole a worried glance over her shoulder, where Munroe and his men were staging their reluctant retreat. “Do you think he meant what he said? That he would see you hanged if you ever set foot in the Highlands again?”
    “I think we’d best leave for London as soon as Brodie can find that spineless coachman of yours and drag him back here.”
    As Sophie went ahead of them into the tower, Connor tugged at Pamela’s arm, urging her to a halt in the cool shadows of the doorway. He braced his forearm against the stone arch above her head, shamelessly using the muscular wall of his body to imprison her there.
    “Now that I’ve seen you act with such skill, lass, how will I ever know when you’re telling the truth?”
    Her lips may have trembled at their proximity to his but that didn’t stop them from curving in a wistful little smile. “You won’t.”
    She ducked beneath his arm and lifted the hem of her skirts to proceed up