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"I will see to her," Severn said, trying to relieve his older brother of at least one responsibility

Rogan nodded, and Severn reined his horse away Severn knew all too well how his sister felt, for he, too, had felt the weight of his family's hatred of the Howards on his shoulders Over the years he'd watched the Howards kill his family one by one He'd seen his older brothers killed, his father and stepony when his first wife and later his beloved second wife had been held captive by the Howards

Since the birth of Zared, the only girl born to their father, the faether to protect her Froile and as vulnerable as a ferines They had spread the news that a seventh son had been born

After Zared's ed by the Howards, Zared had been raised by her six older brothers They raised her as they would have another brother, dressing her as a boy, giving her her first shen she was four, laughing when she'd fallen off horses Never had they allowed Zared the luxury of believing herself to be a weak, delicate female

But now the brothers see raised her as a male Zared acted as independently as any boy of seventeen She felt that if she wanted to leave the castle grounds, she had that right She strapped a sword to her belt, hid a dagger in her boot, and thought she could protect herself from an army of Howards

Both Severn and Rogan had tried to reason with Zared Asand skillful eapons, she was, in fact,to say about Zared, but then Liana seeht

"How could you raise her with a sword in her hand and then one day tell her to sit in the solar with her sewing and think that she would be content to do so?" Liana had asked "She is the hardheaded know-it-all that you have raised her to be"

Severn grian ought to take a hand to his wife Her tongue was too sharp by far

So now, as if he and his brother didn't have enough to worry about, they had constantly to see about Zared, to make sure she had not taken it into her head to wander about the fields alone

As Severn's horse clattered across the drawbridge he set Zared away fro watched constantly by the enemy Howards, and hoin hian of his plan, and all that was left was telling Zared He sht of Zared's reaction For all that she dressed as a boy and swaggered like one, she had a girl's way of showing her pleasure over the ss And Severn knew that what he had planned would give his little sister pleasure

Of course, first he had to tell Liana what he intended She would, no doubt, give hiht better than Rogan does," he ht his brother an had said when Severn told of his plans for Zared Ask a woman? "I shall tell her," he said firmly as he dismounted and started up the stairs to Liana's solar

Zared stood to one side of the doorway, her cheek against the rough stone and silently watched Liana's woled and whispered to one another while sliding dresses of gorgeous silks and velvets over their heads Now and then Zared could catch a whispered word as they talked about the hter when she heard Ralph's naan had recently hired, and never had apast him made her heart beat faster and the blood rush to her face