To Marry A Scottish Laird by Lynsay Sands

Author:Lynsay Sands
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance, Warrior, Scotland, Highlander, Love Story, Scottish Higlander, Romance, Knights
ISBN: 9780062273574
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-06-23T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

JOAN TURNED SLEEPILY ONTO HER BACK, her eyes blinking open when she rolled off her pallet and onto the cold, hard wooden floor. For one moment, she wasn’t sure where she was. The ceiling overhead wasn’t the straw ceiling of the hut she’d grown up in, or even the branches of trees as it had been during her journey.

Sitting up, she peered about the room and then relaxed with a wry little smile. It was Cam’s room in Sinclair Castle. She’d slept on a pallet on the floor rather than in the crowded bed with her aunt and cousins.

All three of her relatives had protested when she’d asked a servant for a pallet, horrified that she would even consider it, but she’d assured them she would rather sleep on the floor on a pallet anyway. It was what she was used to after all, she’d pointed out. Besides, the bed, big as it was, was a bit crowded with the four of them in it. She suspected that was the only reason they’d relented in the end for they’d been pressed up against each other with no room to move. She was sure it had been more comfortable with just the three of them in it. Certainly, she’d been more comfortable on her pallet, though she did regret not getting to enjoy the comfort the bed offered.

Pushing off the furs that had kept her warm in the night, Joan quickly got up and glanced to the bed, eyebrows rising when she saw that it was empty. Her aunt and cousins had already risen to meet the day, it seemed. She wondered briefly why they hadn’t woken her, but then was grateful for it. It had been late when Cam had returned her to the room last night, she recalled, a smile curving her lips at the memory.

Her first day at Sinclair had gone well. Meeting his family had not been as bad as she’d feared. At least they had not screamed in horror and cast her out. That was good, especially considering what her mother had done, Joan thought, recalling the conversation she’d had with her aunt after Lady Sinclair had left them alone in the room. She’d waited until her cousins had laid down to rest, but then had joined Annabel where she’d sat by the cold hearth and had asked her to tell her about her mother. Her aunt had been kind, but the long and short of it was that her mother had been a jealous cow who had tried to rob her aunt and uncle and had kidnapped Aunt Annabel with the intent of killing her.

Oh, Annabel had assured her that she didn’t think her sister truly would have killed her, but Joan was equally sure she would have. Her true mother sounded a horrible woman, which just made her even more grateful that Maggie Chartres had been the one to raise her. She just wished she could tell her that. There were many things she wished she could talk to her mother about, but that wasn’t possible.

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.