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“Are you going to help Lady Meg?” she asked Gregor now, in the proud Highland ave favor to no man

He met her eyes without resentiven him her tincture, he had seemed much better The fever had left hi to do with the whiskey he had drunk and everything to do with returning good health Shona was so was grateful enough not to question her ways

“I a’s thoughts “Why don’t you tell me what you know?”

Shona searched his face a moment, as if she would draw the truth out of hi, accompanied by a smile, and she settled back beside her husband

“My Kenneth ay,” she began siinia I dinna know if I would ever see hiain There was no money, so I took work as kitchen maid in the house of the Duke of Abercauldy Because I was clean and clever, I rose above that station quickly When he brought his bride ho her room tidy Lady Isabella had auburn hair and a temper, and I dinna believe she was hed in his face, and she ue, in front of his tenants, in front of his servants

“Mabbe that hy he found her so fascinating Most women, I had heard, feared the duke Isabella dinna And yet she should have feared him There were stories of other women, whispers of women who had come to the duke’s castle and then vanished ’Twas said that one of them screamed for hours, locked away in so she was found dead, below the north tower”

“The same tohere Isabella fell,” Kenneth murmured

“Or was pushed,” Shona returned grimly “Aye, she should have feared hi such a man I saw him strike her once, when she had pushed him too far Another time, he locked her in her rooer she was in Too strong-willed by far, do ye see? She laughed in his face, driving hiave her pleasure, to see him lose control It was as if she had won the battle”

“Did he love her? Or was it all about winning?”

Shona’s fingers entwined with those of her man “He watched her She frustrated hi to discover her secrets, so that he could own h

er entirely Is that love, Captain Grant? If so, ’tis no’ the kind of love I know Theher affection, the more she resisted hi But then, so was he They see pain upon each other”

“So it was a game between them?”

“Aye, a strange, unhealthy game”

“And she died…how?”

Meg shifted uneasily, and Gregor looked at her She appeared tired, there were shadows beneath her brilliant eyes, and her skin was chalky with exhaustion He wanted to brush his finger along her cheek, cup that delicate curve with his calloused palm He wanted to lean in to her and close his otten about the Duke of Abercauldy and his difficult wife…