Betrayed by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page A

and inviting.
    The young man flushed beet-red, and with obviously gritted teeth he reached up and set her upon the pavement. “How old is this wench?” he demanded of Fiona.
    “Ten,” she replied. “Why do ye ask?”
    “She is not ten,” he muttered balefully. “And if she is, she is possessed by the demon of a well-versed courtesan.
Ye
would not believe the things she said to me as we rode down the ben.”
    “Jeannie!”
her elder sister said, scandalized by the young man's words. “What have ye done? And what did ye say to James Gordon?”
    “Only that when I was older I wanted to lay with him,” Jean Hay replied sweetly. “He is verra bonnie, is he not, Fi?”
    ‘Jean Hay, ye will remain chaste until I find a good husband for ye,” her sister said in her most severe tones.
    “Oh I don't mean to be his mistress like ye will be the laird's mistress,” Jean said blandly. “I mean to marry Jamie-boy one day, Fi. I think he will make a grand husband!”
    “I'd never wed a bold baggage like ye!” James Gordon declared.
    “Aye, ye will,” Jean told him calmly. “When I finally get my titties grown, ye'll not be able to resist me, Jamie Gordon. Just ye wait and see.” She smiled sweetly at him.
    ‘Jean Hay,” the laird said sternly, “ye'll behave yerself, or I will personally paddle yer skinny little rump. I can see ye'll need to be kept busy while yer in my custody, and busy I shall see yer kept. Now, follow along after Giorsal, who will show ye yer chamber. If yer hungry tell her, and she will bring ye food.”
    “Thank ye, my lord,” Jean said, not in the least put off by the scolding she had received. “Good night, Jamie darlin’,” she said, and hurried after the maidservant carrying little Morag.
    Rolling his eyes to the heavens, James Gordon disappeared toward the stables, and only when both of them were out of earshot did the laird burst out laughing. “He has not a chance against her.” He chorded.
    “’Tis not a bad idea either, unless, of course, in the next four years either of them falls in love with another. Would ye accept James for yer sister Jean, Fiona?”
    “If he learns to love her, aye. I’ve never known Jeannie to behave so boldly,” she said apologetically.
    “She knows what she wants,” he told her with a smile, leading her into the house. “Still, she will have to obey me while she lives under my roof. How old was she when yer father died?”
    “Five,” Fiona said, “but she remembers little about him. Ye see, he was disappointed when I was born, but I was his first child, and he loved me in his strange way despite the fact that I was not the son he so desperately desired. I think he felt a wee bit of guilt for the manner in which I was said to have been conceived. I was born nine months to the day my parents were married. I think he always believed I was the result of his rape of my mother, and I may have well been.”
    “Ye know the
whole
story?” the laird asked, a trifle shocked.
    “Aye,” Fiona nodded. “Flora and Tarn were my mother's personal servants since her childhood at Hay House. They hated Dugald Hay with all their hearts for what he did to my mother. Because he loved me, they made certain that I knew his sins, for they did not want me growing up estranged from my mam. But my father was not so loving of any of his other daughters. Each one was a reminder to him that unless he sired a son on my mam, he could not have the glen. We kept my sisters out of his sight as much as possible,” Fiona told the laird. “If any of them came too close to him, he was just as apt to beat them for their mere existence as for any fault they might have. He slapped Anne so hard once that she lost a tooth, but she was young and another grew in its place, praise God! Jeannie and Morag, beingthe youngest, hardly knew him at all, and are not used to men in their lives. I think ye'll take some getting used to, Angus Gordon.”
    He laughed again, escorting her into the