Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter One
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 1990, 2008 by Hannah Howell
Previously published in 1990 by Leisure Books under the title Elfking’s Lady.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
First Zebra Mass-Market Paperback Printing: November 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4711-7
ISBN-10: 1-4201-4711-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-0794-4 (eBook)
ISBN-10: 1-4201-0794-1 (eBook)
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Printed in the United States of America
Chapter One
Scotland, 1500
Astonishment froze the handsome, young man’s face when the sturdy horse he had mounted buckled beneath him, collapsing and sending him tumbling to the ground. For a moment he simply stared at the white stallion nimbly rising. Brushing himself off as he too rose, he glared at the small figure who sat not far away laughing helplessly.
“Brat,” he said affectionately, a grin beginning to shape his mouth. “When did ye teach the beast that trick?”
“While ye were tasting the wicked life in Aberdeen, Leith.”
Leith grinned as he lay down next to his sister, his arms crossed beneath his head. “Aye, and a hearty taste I had too.”
“Wicked, wicked.” Aimil sighed, but her aquamarine eyes sparkled with laughter. “What would Aunt Morag say?”
“Please, Lord, that I will never ken,” Leith remarked feelingly as he sat up. “We had best be headed back. The day wanes.”
“Och, must we? I have seen naught but the inside of that place for the past month.”
“’Tis safer, what with the MacGuins raiding again. I shouldnae have let ye persuade me on this jaunt. Not even when ye do look like a wee beggar boy. We might pass unseen, but that stallion of yours would surely catch the eye.” He clasped her hand in his and led her toward their horses. “Now tell me about this wedding that all talk about.” He saw her pale. “Oho…is that the way of it then?”
“Aye. I ken I must, but I cannae abide the thought of it. I dinnae even like Rory Fergueson.”
Neither did Leith but he refrained from saying it. “I shall talk to Father.”
“I dinnae think it will do any good. This marriage has been set since the cradle. I may be his kin, but he is sore anxious to be rid of me.”
There was little to deny for Leith knew it was sadly true. Since the day Aimil had begun to look more like a woman than a child, their father had ignored her. Not only was Leith confused by their father’s attitude but his two elder sisters and two younger brothers also were as was most everyone else in the clan. Any attempt to broach the subject with their father, however, met with silence or fury. Now he was about to give Aimil in marriage to a man about whom some very unsavory things were said.
“I will still talk to him. Has he given ye any reason for the marriage?”
“Aye, ’tis time I wed,” she replied somewhat bitterly. “And that it was a promise to an old friend.”
“That isnae good enough. If ye must wed a man ye dinnae want, father can give you a damn good reason why. Even if it was set while ye still rocked in your cradle.”
Aimil smiled at her brother’s anger. Leith was much like their father. He could bark orders and expect immediate obedience. Unlike their sire, however, he felt a reason should be given if it was asked for. She knew his anger and determination did not mean that she would be released from marrying Rory Fergueson, but it was comforting to have an ally. At least he might force their father to better explain the why of it all.
An alliance had been her first thought for though they were far from poor the Mengues were a small clan and were often targeted by the MacGuins. That theory had been dispelled for an alliance already existed as far as she knew. Her sisters’, Giorsal’s and Jennet’s, marriages already attached the Mengues to the MacVerns and the Broths which had greatly added to the Mengues’ strength. She did not believe that marrying Rory Fergueson would make any difference at all except to make her life miserable.
Leith felt an urgency to get home and not because it was growing late. He knew that their father was well aware of the man Rory had become. Just as Leith could not understand his father’s attitude toward Aimil, the prettiest and most personable of his daughters, so too was he unable to understand how their father could think of marrying her off to such a man. The more Leith thought of his favorite sibling in the hands of Rory Fergueson, the more determined he became to put a stop to the marriage.
Whatever plans Leith may have begun were lost as horsemen bearing the MacGuin colors burst upon the quiet glade. Young Artair MacGuin wondered what young fools had so unwittingly placed themselves in the path of his raiding party’s
