Page 41
At once, Broden was tense and alert. “What’s happened?”
Kendra rushed forward, snowflakes still covering her cloak, her boots leaving wet tracks on the plush carpet. She pushed her hood down, exposing reddened cheeks, and wide, worried dove-gray eyes.
She was breathtaking, and he feasted his ravenous gaze upon her, longing to ensnare her in his embrace and plunder her sweet mouth. His focus dropped to those tantalizing lips, and the tiniest smile twitched at the corners.
Ah, she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“We need to speak with ye.” She turned a gimlet eye on Narcissa. “Alone.”
He’d never seen Kendra behave in this manner. So coldly and rudely to someone she’d not been introduced to. Well, he’d been on the receiving end of her sharp tongue and blistering glares, but they had a history together.
She was in a high fettle, and none of his friends denied her assertion.
Something was drastically wrong.
Narcissa drew herself up, giving Kendra a scathing assessment from head to toe, undoubtedly finding her wanting from her haughty, pinched expression.
“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Apparently, she’d decided the newcomers weren’t going to slit her throat or raze the house. “How dare you traipse into my home with your muddy boots, dripping snow all over my floors, and rudely dismiss me?” She turned her wrathful gaze upon Broden. “Broden, are you going to permit this inexcusable insult by this riffraff?”
Kendra didn’t back down. If anything, she set her delicate jaw firmer, steely resolve in her unrelenting gaze. “Lady Montforth, I presume?” she queried, her tone as frosty as the outdoors, as she removed her gloves.
Narcissa condescended to lower her chin a fraction in acknowledgment though her nostrils flared as if she smelled fresh manure or offal.
Until now, she’d kept this side of her personality subdued.
Broden’s already low opinion of her plummeted further.
He’d believed her vain, pampered, and cosseted, a woman accustomed to having her way, and one who appreciated and lauded her elevated status. But this haughty termagant had the audacity to look down her nose at the woman he loved.
Narcissa had best have a care.
Insult Kendra, and there would be consequences.
Eyebrow raised, Kendra, in turn, took Lady Montforth’s measure.
Though her expression remained impassive, contempt darkened her eyes to the color of the sky before a tempest. “We’ve ridden for two days straight in that hellish weather outside, bringin’ news of utmost import to Broden. News that is confidential and urgent. So ye’ll excuse us for no’ mincin’ words or wastin’ time with niceties.”
One of the men concealed a bark of laughter with a strangled cough. Likely Wallace.
“You dare address Lord Montforth by his given name?” Narcissa demanded, all outraged self-righteousness. “Your impertinence is beyond galling. Know your place, impudent chit.”
“As I’ve kent Broden since I was a wee lass, I’ll continue to address him as such.” Kendra didn’t flinch under the countess’s snide disapproval. “Now, if ye’ll excuse us? We’ve urgent matters to discuss.”
Narcissa turned a frigid eye upon the new arrivals before defiantly jutting her pointed chin upward. “I’m not leaving unless Lord Montforth directs me to.”
Kendra’s eyebrows shied higher, and her mouth went tight when Narcissa sidled closer to Broden and placed her hand on his forearm, almost possessively.
What was this?
She’d never touched him before.
In fact, she avoided him whenever possible.
Directing a pointed look at Narcissa’s hand, Kendra brought what Broden knew to be a carefully bland gaze to his. Her eyes fairly shouted for him to explain.
His eyebrows practically touching, his attention shifted between the women.
“Narcissa, please ask Morris to see to refreshments for everyone. And plenty of them.” If they’d ridden as hard as Kendra vowed they had, they were undoubtedly famished. “Hot tea for Miss MacKay, and somethin’ more substantial for the gentlemen.”
