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Whatever Gregor’s real motives, he held a physical attraction for her she si are that, clever and practical as she was, she had never really had a passionate love She had realized early on that theat her door all had their eye on her inheritance and not her person, and so she had kept her feelings locked away She had not allowed herself to engage the hurt by falling in love with any of them

Only the dreaor had stolen her heart, and he hadn’t been real Maybe that hy she had allowed herself that one indulgence, because it was a figination A pretend passion, a safe love

The real Gregor was very different

She should have found him as unattractive as the rest, and yet he had been the one to crack her hard, protective shell He did indeed make her feel as she had never felt before, as if there were new directions her life could take, that the things she had only previously experienced in dreaht actually be possible in real life

He is only wooing you because he wants Glen Dhui The voice was coldly insistent, but Meg shook her head “Then why did he say he would sign away his rights to the glen?” she asked aloud, her voice a little wild “Why do that, if all he wants from me is Glen Dhui?”

Meg could speculate as to the answer Was it sih for him to live here? To be here? Or did he hope to persuade her to negate such a document later on? Did he think that he could work on her, e her mind?

An osprey flew above the loch, floating on air currents, a dark shadow against the blue of the sky Meg watched it dip and soar, wishing she could so easily escape her own proble together till one of thes as land and property, and trying to guess at each other’s thoughts, when the h?

The stark truth was that Gregor had promised to protect her

In these uncertain tierous place, it was more than many brides were promised by their husbands-to-be

Meg slid down fro on the smooth, brown stones She twisted the reins around a convenient fallen tree branch that had been washed up on the shore, and walked to the water’s edge, gazing out over the loch Wild duck floated on the glassy surface, keeping a wary eye on her Glen Dhui dozed beneath the su bad could ever happen here

The general had asked her if she wanted to stay, to live in Glen Dhui all her life Of course she did! But Meg knew many women did not have that option They wed, and they moved away So it would have been with Abercauldy And yet if she wed Gregor, she would reo on as before

Of course it would change! she told herself impatiently She would be his wife, and he would always be there He would be a part of the glen, and of her, just as she would be a part of hior

You could e of convenience! What of that?

In name only, when her body heated and hu here alone on the loch’s edge, Meg kneas important to be honest with herself Even if she kept her own counsel with her father and Gregor, she must not keep the truth from herself

She wanted him