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Lily darted her eyes about the tunnel in search of so the stein to adizing about which of Lily’s own body parts to pummel with it She tried to stall "And you are the neife in question, I suppose?"

"Aye " Rowena turned the full force of her gaze onto Lily, and beao,

Lil’, there’s the clever cat who bewitched Lochiel I ’m to be the neife " An eerily serene smile smoothe d her features "Once I rid myself of the cat, aye?"

Lily smiled back, and it was a true s and steady, and spied his eyelashes beginning to flutter She suddenly saena for what she was A weak, conniving brat whose petulance had deteriorated into so evil

She sent up a silent thank-you for all thoseat the local Y Lily had gone to the gyuilt than pleasure, but she now realized that with so ird her, she could eat a peevish little monster like Rowena for breakfast

"Rid of …me?" Lily stood and her smile became radiant "I don’t think so "

Uncertainty flickered in Rowena’s eyes, fueling Lily’s burgeoning confidence But first Lily had to satisfy her curiosity She understood why the girl ht want John dead, but that didn’t explain the man spotted in her rooms

"Before you have at me with your cup, Rowena, please do tellin the castle?"

She was momentarily taken aback "You’ve seen the MacKintosh in my rooms, eh? Your wee spy, I suppose " Rowena kicked John with her slippered foot, and with a toss of her blonde ringlets asserted, "The MacKintosh is long fled from the castle If you or Robert or any other of your arriors had hoped to capture him, you ’re too late"

"But what on earth could the MacKintosh man have to do with your plot?"

"He ’s as well served by the boy ’s death as I Though he ’s eager to spill the blood of the father besides He reckons some Cameron lands to be his own If the son turns up dead, and the father too, then what bedlam, aye? Whilst the clan sorts itself out, the MacKintosh will take what land he will " Then she trilled, "Easy as you please "

Lily had to laugh "You’re a di, but recklessly stupid wasin her steadied, and her anger attained a levelheaded focus "I oes out theif your husband-to-be is ?"

"Oh," Rowena purred, "the MacKintosh has vowed to make any such…inconvenience worth irls like this, with their effortless prettiness and blithe flirtations She studied Rowena, and it struck Lily that she had so those types of females never had to rely on Self-reliance was Lily’s currency This freshly realized confidence suth in her, and before her head knehat her body was doing, she launched herself over John ’s liure and hurtled into Rowena

The blonde went down like a rag doll She was thin but her body lacked hy h-pitched wheeze like a collapsed bellows as she hit the stone stairs This time Lily moved quickly, and she at once pinned Rowena’s arms and squeezed her wrists until the pewter tankard slipped fro into the darkness below

"A nighean na galla!" Rowena hissed "You ’ll nay get the better of me The MacKintosh has a man after Lochiel even now He’s likely dead, and you ’re soon to follow If Ewen ’s not to beto no one"

"You knoell as I, Rowena"--Lily dug in her nails for eets the best of Ewen And besides," she added through clenched teeth, "it looks as if I ’ve already gotten the best of--"

Wrenching her torso, Rowena yanked an arm free and jabbed her elbow into Lily’s ribs She cried out, her arrip on Rowena, who quickly rolled out fro under her skirts as she went Lily sprang to give chase, leaving the torch perched along the stairs in her haste

The woly impermeable darkness Very quickly it became impossible to see, but Lily’s eyes still instinctively opene d wide, searching for soht She was forced to rely on her other senses, and could tell fro on her

They hit the botto to the pitch of the floor that their eyes were now completely blind to Lily stepped on the he the wall She sensed Rowena’s arian dubh Lily flailed in the blackness, grasping a handful of Rowena’s skirts, her fingers and nails struggling for purchase on the slippery satin, when she felt the slice of a blade along her foreare absence of feeling, instantly replaced by a sizzling pain and the war her arm