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Meg was afraid, and she was angry

She admitted it to herself She was afraid of what her father had said to Gregor, of what they had said together She was angry that he had felt able to discuss things with a near stranger, and yet he could not speak of thehter She had done all he asked of her and ht him here, no easy task, and then he had sent her from the room like a child It would not do

It would not!

Meg glanced down at the bundle of thick pages she held in her hands Old, faded sketches of the glen, so vistas of mountains and cloud, others s on the hillside, or rain striking the burn’s surface All of theinal, the product—or so she had always believed—of an exceptional soul He had captured all that was special about this place, he had laid his heart bare with every line, every stroke

Meg did not believe that someone who had once drawn so exquisitely was entirely devoid of feeling After all, she had seen his pain last evening, as they waited upon the crest of the road that overlooked the glen She could understand why he had resisted returning, why he had not wanted to coer his, he was no longer the laird, and that must hurt

“Although you would not knoas no longer the laird,” she ain and even cracking it open a fraction “Look at them! They still think of him as their chief”

Meg knew she would be a fool to believe there was anything of the boy who had drawn these pictures in the grior had becohtest part of her to soften toward him And she was all the more determined to remain aloof because she kneould be so easy to succumb to him That ht in the parlor had reinforced it

He found her co and enjoyable, he looked at her with eyes that told her she was attractive to hi to take that step closer was very te

“Remember, you are no more than a thorn in his side,” she re so he really didn’t want to do”

“A thorn in whose side?”

Meg ju in the open doorway, her black eyes ith curiosity

“I was talking to myself, Alison It is a bad habit and one I should learn to curb”

“Aye, ye are aright there The Captain asks ye to co”

Meg’s slim eyebrows descended and her eyes narrowed suspiciously “Come down to him? Why is that?”

“Ye’d best ask hie”