Lords of the Highlands by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Highland
Published: 2017-04-30T05:00:00+00:00

“MY GOOD MAN, your cook is improving.” Edward Murray, Earl of Hennessy, sat to Alasdair’s right during the evening meal. The squat man, a Lowlander who fancied himself English, had attended university with Alasdair in Edinburgh. Edward had holdings in the Highlands and was passing through on his yearly inspection of them.

“I’m glad to hear it.” In truth, Alasdair was so distracted he could hardly hold a coherent conversation, or taste the delicious beef roast Cook had prepared. His encounter earlier in the day with Gwyneth was still impressed like a searing brand on his memory.

The moment she entered the great hall, he knew it, and his eyes followed her with a will of their own. How lovely she was, enigmatic. Innocent-looking, yet with a depth of passion he could hardly fathom. Small and soft and affectionate but with an inner strength of steel.

He yearned for her by his side, now and always, to take her meals with him so that he might enjoy looking into her eyes and talking about nothing in particular. He wanted her close enough that he might touch her anytime he wished. He would make her smile and laugh as she had during their lovemaking. She needed happiness and he would do everything in his power to provide it.

“I say, is that Lady Gwyneth Carswell?” Edward watched her with bulging eyes, his jaw slack. “What is she doing here?”

Alasdair experienced a moment of silent shock. Edward knew who she was? “She is in my employ. Why? What do you ken of her?” He hated the way Edward gaped at her.

The man covered his mouth with a napkin and coughed as if the astonishment of seeing her had near strangled him. He took a long swig of ale.

“I know her family well.”

Alasdair sensed he was about to learn more about Gwyneth than he’d ever expected to. “Is that so?”

“Indeed.” Edward lifted thin brown brows. “I wonder, did she ever marry?”

“Aye, to Baigh Shaw.” The fiendish whoreson.

Edward’s pale eyes rounded. “So she found someone to marry after all. Shocking.”

Alasdair frowned. “Why would it be shocking that she marry?”

“You don’t know?”

“Mayhap you should enlighten me.” Alasdair ground his teeth, his mood growing darker.

Edward leaned forward and lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Well, you see, a few years ago at a masque in London, she placed herself in a most compromising position with a higher up peer, the Marquess of Southwick to be precise. He escaped to the continent, and she was left carrying his bastard.” Edward cringed melodramatically.

Numbness settled over Alasdair. It was much better not to think or feel.

“A tragedy really,” Edward went on. “Her father disowned her and sent her, I believe, to live with relatives here in the Highlands. But that would not be you, would it? I had no idea you were related to the Earl of Darrow.”

Alasdair barely shook his head, unable to comprehend what all of this meant. Rory was not Baigh Shaw’s son, but some English marquess’s? Of that he was glad, strangely.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.