LORD OF DUNKEATHE by Margaret Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

particular attractive, but she seemed less impressed with the beautiful Lady Joscelind than the others.
    "If that's a Scots noble, we'd be doing their peasants a favour ruling their country," Lord Chesleigh's daughter continued, raising her slender hand in a languid, yet graceful, gesture before she let it drop. "And who'd want to stay here anyway? The people are such savages, and the weather! My father tells me it rains nineteen days out of twenty."
    It was bad enough the vain creature had disparaged Uncle Fergus. Now she was disparaging Riona's country, too?
    Glaring at the beauty, Riona marched toward the little circle.
    "But if Sir Nicholas chooses you, you'll have to live in Scotland," the sickly looking young woman simpered, likewise not seeing Riona bear down upon them.
    The other women did, and if Lady Joscelind had been less determined to express her opinions, she might have realized something was amiss.
    "Only a part of the year," she smugly and obliviously replied. "We'll be spending a great deal of time at court."
    "England is welcome to you," Riona snapped as she came to a halt behind her. "We don't want you here."
    "Of all the impudence!" Lady Joscelind exclaimed, whirling around in a blaze of silk and thick perfume to meet Riona's glare with one of her own. "How dare you interrupt our conversation?"
    She waved her away. "Be about your business, wench, and be glad I don't have you punished for your insolence."
    "Oh, aye?" Riona replied, raising her brow as she crossed her arms, ignoring the other women who exchanged shocked or wary glances. "You think you wield such power over me?"
    "If I don't, somebody here must, impudent wench."
    "I answer to no one here, except Fergus Mac Gordon Mac Darbudh, Thane of Glencleith."
    Lady Joscelind smirked. "So you belong to that comical fellow, do you? Well, go tend to him, then."
    "My lady, do you not know who I am?" Riona asked, her voice low and firm and full of contempt.
    Lady Joscelind's smooth white brow furrowed with annoyance. "I neither know, nor care."
    "You should."
    Lady Joscelind's cheeks turned pink, but her haughty demeanor didn't alter. "Whoever you are, you hussy, I am Lady Joscelind, the daughter of Lord Chesleigh, and you had best remember that."
    "I am Lady Riona of Glencleith."
    "Lady Riona?" the beauty scoffed, running a scornful gaze over Riona's garments. "I don't believe it. You're nothing but a servant."
    "Whether you believe it or not," Riona replied, "Sir Nicholas and his steward know that it's true."
    Lady Joscelind's eyes narrowed with suspicion, yet when she spoke, she was still scornful and dismissive. "If you are who you claim to be, I assume you've come here to meet Sir Nicholas. You think you stand a chance of impressing him?"
    "As it happens, my lady, I've already met him. And so have you, although you didn't know it." Riona smiled without mirth. "I don't think you made a very favour able impression."
    Lady Joscelind's jaw dropped, then indignantly snapped shut. "I should think I'd remember being introduced to Sir Nicholas."
    "I didn't say you'd been introduced. I said you'd met him."
    Riona spotted Uncle Fergus coming toward her with Fredella in tow. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should join my uncle, whose family have been thanes and chieftains here since before the Normans existed."
    She started to leave, then turned back. "Oh, and I'll remind you that Sir Nicholas holds this land by the grace of Alexander of Scotland, not Henry of England, so if there's a court he and his wife should attend, it's that of Scotland. That's provided he even
    picks you, of course," she finished with another smile that suggested she found that highly doubtful.
    Then, she swept away from the Norman ladies, leaving Lady Joscelind to wonder how and where she'd met the lord of Dunkeathe.
    Riona wished they hadn't come here. She wished Uncle Fergus had never heard of Sir Nicholas's plans to find himself a wife. Most of all, she wished the king had never invited the