Love Wild and Fair by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page A

condition?”
    “Stone wi a slate roof, and put back into shape because of the wedding. There’s a kitchen, and a parlor downstairs, and a bedroom on the second floor. There’s also a small stable wi two loft rooms. That’s about all there is to A-Cuil.”
    “It’ll do,” said Ruth. “How long a ride?”
    “A good hour up into the hills,” replied Ellen.
    Ruth smiled. “I shall convince Mistress Cat to go there, and then I will go to Glenkirk, and tell the earl. In a quiet place, away from the rest of the family, they’ll settle their differences.”
    Ruth was as good as her word. Persuading Cat that she would be happier if she could get outdoors more, now that summer was coming, and assuring her that A-Cuil was a good distance from Glenkirk, she sent the girl off. Ellen had been sent on to air the house and bring in food supplies. She had begged her young mistress to allow her to accompany her. Lonely, Cat had agreed.
    A-Cuil was set high in a pine forest on a cliff that gave a view of Glenkirk, Sithean, and Greyhaven far below. It was hidden and quiet. For several days Cat prowled, restless, through the woods around her. At night she slept deeply in the big bedroom. Ellen, in the trundle, slept by her side. They had been there ten days, and Cat was beginning to feel safe.
    With a bad storm about them that night they retired to the bedroom. Building up the fire, they ate a supper of toasted bread and cheese, and drank slightly hardened cider. Neither minded the lightning that crackled ominously about them, or the rolling peals of thunder. Suddenly the door flew open. Ellen gave a shriek of terror. The earl strode in.
    “Yer brother’s in the kitchen, Ellen. Is there a place ye both can sleep?”
    “The lofts over the stable, m’lord.”
    “Run along, then.”
    “No! Dinna leave me wi him, Ellen.”
    Ellen looked helplessly at her young mistress. Gently, the earl took the serving woman by the arm and escorted her to the door. “Dinna come near this room unless I call you. Do ye understand?”
    “Aye, my lord.”
    The door closed firmly behind her, and she heard the bolt slam home. Padding down the stairs, she found her brother and led him off to the loft rooms in the stable. “Is he very angry wi her, Conall?”
    “Aye,” said her brother calmly. “He’s going to beat her.”
    “Never!” gasped Ellen. “He’s mad for her!”
    “Still,” replied Conall, “he’s going to beat her, and a good thing too. She’s a wayward lass to have run from him like that. If he’s nae the master in his own house from the first, he’ll always have trouble wi her. That’s no marriage for a man.”
    “If mother and I had known that he’d hurt her, we’d nae have let him find her.”
    “Sister,” said Conall patiently as if explaining to a child, “he’s not going to hurt her. He’s just going to gie her a wee beating to help her mend her manners.”
    Ellen shook her head. She knew Cat Hay better than all of them. After all, she’d raised her. The earl was about to find out that beating his bride would never tame her.

Chapter 6

    C AT Hay angrily faced the Earl of Glenkirk. Carefully he spread his wet cloak over the back of the fireplace chair and removed his damp linen shirt. He sat down. “My boots, Cat!” They were the first words he’d spoken to her.
    “Go to hell!” she spat at him.
    “My boots!” His green-gold eyes narrowed and glittered dangerously.
    Her heart pounding wildly, she knelt and drew his boots off. I’m not afraid of him, she thought. But why was her heart beating so quickly? Standing up, he caught her by her long hair. Wrapping it around his hand, he drew her face to his. Grasping the top of her shift with his other hand, he ripped it from neck to hem and pulled it off her. “I warned ye once that if ye ever defied me I’d beat ye!”
    And before she could protest, he’d pushed her onto the bed and brought his riding crop down cruelly on her buttocks. She screamed her