Possessed by the Highlander by Terri Brisbin

Author:Terri Brisbin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Highland
Publisher: 0
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

T he dark stones of Broch Dubh loomed ahead, at the top of the steep path. The road from the village climbed through the hills and led to the gate of the formidable castle. In spite of its name, it was not simply a tower, it was a castle with four towers and what Duncan had described as several acres of yards surrounded by high, thick protective walls.

’Twas almost as forbidding as its laird, the Earl of Douran, by reputation the Beast of the Highlands, Connor MacLerie. Marian remembered his name being discussed when she approached a marriageable age and the reactions of her mother and other women to it. Her mother trembled in fear as she recounted the story.

When his wife could not or did not produce a son and heir for him, her mother said in a hushed whisper, he threw her down the stairs of the tower, killing her. The woman’s screams, damning him, were heard by everyone in the castle, as was her terror as she fell nigh to fifty feet to her death. And when she lay broken and dying on the cold stone floor, he’d fled, refusing to even have a mass said for her eternal soul.

Pray God, her mother had urged as she made the sign of the cross on herself, that he never comes calling here about you.

Marian found herself shivering now, from her own terror at the story of the Beast. Even as someone who kenned the inaccuracies that a reputation could contain, she found it difficult not to fret over meeting a man who carried such a one as that.

“Are you chilled, Marian? Do you need a cloak?” Duncan asked from his place at their side. He rode his horse next to the cart where she and Ciara rode.

“Nay,” she said. “’Twas just an odd thought passing.”

“He is not a beast.”

Marian turned and looked at him, surprised by his guess. “How did you ken?”

“When you have been faced with it for years, you can see the change in someone’s eyes and their face when they think of it. The story has been told so many times, and details are added to make it more horrifying than it was.”

That it mirrored her own situation seemed to elude him when he said the words, but then she saw the recognition of it in his own expression. She tried to remember how many details had been added to her own story and not hold the ones she’d heard about the earl against him.

“When you meet Jocelyn,” he added. “You will see the untruth of it in her eyes. Although she believed I was bringing her to her death, she would never leave his side now.”

Marian watched as the first of their escorts passed through Broch Dubh’s massive portcullis and into the main yard. Regardless of the late hour and the darkness of the night, many waited there for their arrival. Ciara climbed up on her lap and Marian felt the nervous shivering of her little body.

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