Highland Avenger by Hannah Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

pleasure out of causing trouble for the Lucettes, I have no idea. I have e’en wondered if Amiel owed them something, some debt. Claud once told me that he held a wee bit of land the DeVeaux badly wanted, something he found greatly amusing. Amiel might have promised them that land in exchange for their aid.” She laughed, a short, harsh sound holding little humor. “He may have e’en promised them me.”
    “Why would the DeVeaux want you?”
    “My kinsmen tangled with the DeVeaux twice in the past and won each time, even gaining some land and coin from the family. All unforgivable sins in the eyes of the DeVeaux. From the moment I stepped upon French soil they kenned who I was and I ken weel that they watched me. The few times I traveled anywhere outside the Lucette lands I was verra careful, and made sure I was weel guarded.” She quickly covered her mouth with her hand as a powerful need to yawn overtook her. “Pardon.”
    “Wheesht, we stopped because we needed to rest; ye far more than I. Yet here I am making ye answer question after question. Stay,” he ordered as he stood up to fetch some blankets.
    Arianna gave in to the urge to watch him this time. He moved with an easy grace, one that hinted at the strength and agility held in his tall, lean body. He was, she decided, a pure pleasure to watch. She wryly thought that he probably had to beat the lasses away with a stick. And, from what she was beginning to recall about the MacFingals, she doubted he bothered. The old laird, Sir Brian’s father, had bred himself a small army of bastards and rumor implied that the sons, legitimate and illegitimate alike, were just as profligate. This was not a man she should be sighing after, she told herself firmly. If she ever dared to soften toward any man ever again, she would be certain he understood that she demanded constancy. It was often said that the MacFingal men were incapable of it.
    Brian gently pushed her aside when she reached for the blankets he had brought her. “Ye need to rest, m’lady,” he said as he made them each a very rough bed with the blankets. “It is important that ye regain your strength as quickly as possible.” He frowned when he saw that she had put away the remains of their meal while he had spread out the blankets and he pointed at the crude bed he had made for her. “Sleep.”
    She rolled her eyes and moved to the blanket spread over the hard floor. The two meager beds he had made were set very close to each other but she decided she would say nothing. Instinct told her that this was not a man who would force himself upon her. She did not ignore the possibility that he might attempt a seduction since she was a widow and close at hand, but Arianna was not worried about succumbing. If she was foolish enough to do so, however, she was no maid who could be forced into marriage to save the family honor. She was a widow of three and twenty.
    The hard floor was not softened much by the blanket he had spread out for her. Arianna struggled to hide a wince as she settled herself down and pulled the second blanket he had left for her over herself. Despite the weariness that pulled at her mind and body, she stared wide-eyed at the flickering light of the fire dancing over the ceiling of their little cave. This was the first night in years that she could recall not bidding good sleep to her boys. Her arms ached to pull them close for that last kiss of the day.
    Arianna knew that the Lucettes had thought her acceptance of the boys very odd, even considered it proof that she was not good enough for their son and heir. It had not really troubled her. From the moment the boys had been given into her care, she had loved them. The fact that she had suffered no jealousy over Marie Anne being their mother, over the fact that her new husband had a somewhat sordid past, should have told her a lot about her feelings concerning her husband and marriage, but she had ignored the whispers of caution that had