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As she found her lightest silk, Violet peered into a shtness of her eye and the flushed appearance of her skin, she guessed shehome in wet clothes had not been wise, but she’d been unsettled by her conversation with the Highlander Curse his arrogance The stranger had been so certain he would be her father’s champion when he did not even know the path to her keep

Wrapping the fragile silk about her hair and neck, she hid some of the evidence of her fevered skin and hurried out of the chamber

“How is his allery with a small torch in one hand and a kitten cradled in the other

“Bitter and brooding,” the older wo the torch before them like a beacon to illuminate the keep’s treacherous ays and narrow stairs

Inna had been with Violet since Violet’s o, so she ell versed in reading the moods of the keep’s master Every resident of Caladan looked to the lord’s cups like a weather vane to see which way hisan old raid by the English, Violet’s father had changed froht to a harsh, withdrawn tyrant

“We e to put a hand over her heated skin beneath the neck cloth The itching had not subsided and, if anything, had only increased “We leurs and the minstrel she hired Perhaps they will remain with us a few days until he is in better spirits for entertainht play a tune on your lute He always enjoys your songs”

“Ach,” Inna gruray kitten closer as she stepped over astair on their way down to the hall “You mean my music puts him quickly to sleep”

“Then I should say the rest of us enjoy the effect your ballads have upon him” Violet squared her shoulders as they neared the entrance to the great hall

And stopped short as the sound of boo through the rafters It was not a sound Violet had anticipated on a day when her father had been left to sup alone at his feast of gathering

Unless… Dread pooled in her belly

Hurrying, Violet stepped over the threshold in tiest hlander she had sent away at the riverbank

She stifled a gasp

The sight of the warrior lord had an ireat Scots chieftain looleaht, dusty froarments beneath the mail was apparent The sleeves of his tunic had been embroidered heavily by a skilled needle, the patterns of exotic beasts and interwoven swords apparent even though the color of the thread was no different than the pale shade of the tunic itself And though the lower half of the warrior’s body was hidden by a trestle table, Violet spied the hilt of a heavy, Frankish sword at his side, a weapon that would have been prized by any knight

Even his aspect appeared fashioned for war His broad forehead and straight nose for expression emulated by the shape of uide for the rowth of beard hid the specifics of his jawline, but she suspected that, too, was squared and unrelenting His hair, at least, gave him some appearance of humanity The dark locks fell to his shoulders without the knotty, matted quality that marked most men’s hair

Aye, he was an i man if only for the fierceness of him But even that did not explain the sudden blaze of heat in Violet’s skin, a distinct warle under her neck cloth to the spreading fire along her breasts and over her belly Her disco her confused and distracted when she needed to focus on this new development

“This is hter, you ant to welcouest”

The Highlander turned to her, fixing her with his icy blue stare Impossibly, her skin heated further She felt the flush creep slowly from her neck up to her jaw and over her cheeks She could not think about where else the heat crawled, for it was most unseemly

Silently she cursed Morag’s herbs and herself for requesting the by the hearth behind the dais Inna followed by a few paces