Sarah Gabriel by Keeping Kate Read Free Book Online Page A

growled. “Every goddamned night.”
    Hearing that, her heart pounded, her knees nearly gave way. She said nothing in reply, turning her head as Grant waited.
    “So be it,” he hissed. “Remember, I offered you mercy.” He let go of her so suddenly that she rocked with it. His boots disappeared from sight, the iron door clanged open and shut, and she heard the furious thud of his retreating footsteps.
    Standing there, Kate flexed her cold, stockinged toes. Her shoes had been taken earlier, along with her plaid arisaid. All she wore was the shabby green dress, simple stays, chemise, and petticoat that she had worn as the laundress.
    Her silver chain and pendant—one of the fairy crystals of Duncrieff—had been taken from her, too. Her father had plucked the crystal from the rim of the golden Fairy Cup at Duncrieff Castle for her to wear. Her sister, Sophie, had been given one, too, in a small family ceremony to mark the privilege for both of them. According to clan tradition, each child identified with the Fairy’s Gift—extraordinary abilities inherited from an ancient ancestress born of the fairy folk—was given a crystal to keep with her or him. Without the protection and enhancement of the little stone, Kate knew that her inborn gift could become unreliable or even disappear altogether.
    MacCarran blood held a trace of fairy, diluted over the centuries. In recent years the magic had appeared rarely in the family. Both Kate and Sophie had inherited magical talents from their fairy ancestress, abilities that could affect not only their lives but the lives, luck, and well-being of the entire clan.
    Kate sighed, lowering her head. She had often questioned her own gift, even the truth of the family legends. Now, without her little crystal necklace, she felt defenseless and frightened.
    Katie Hell, she thought, would not so easily charm her way free of this.
     
    “How long has she been standing there?” Alec demanded in a low growl, gazing into the dungeon cell. “And who the devil ordered it?”
    “She’s been standing there since last night,” the sergeant answered. “Colonel Grant’s orders, sir.”
    Alec swore under his breath. He should have come earlier, but Wade’s damned documents and tasks had delayed him.
    Standing in the dark cell, the girl looked like a wisp,a shadow of the girl he had seen before. He frowned to himself, watching her through the barred door. Her back was turned, and he could see that chains and fetters held her upright. She was shoeless and unkempt in the drab green gown, and her hair cascaded down her back in loose waves in a dingy tangle that he knew would be golden ripe in sunlight.
    She wavered a little, straightened, hair rippling, feet shifting in the straw. Her weakness was obvious, but Alec also saw the steely will inside of her. The sight was heartrending.
    Guilt had tormented him ever since he had called the guards into his tent after discovering the girl going through his papers. When she had been whisked away for interrogation, he had not been able to follow immediately. Once free, he had ridden northward in a grim fury. Even his ghillie had complained of the pace—and Jack MacDonald enjoyed a little madness now and then.
    Alec, by nature, did not.
    Dear God , he thought as he looked at her now. She appeared frail and harmless—had he made a terrible error in having her arrested? How could she be the wanton described by so many officers, the virago depicted in the broadsheet? Somehow, this fragile, determined waif was the laundress, the notorious Katie Hell, and the dazzling young woman at the king’s court all at once. But how, and why?
    Some said it was fairy magic, he remembered wryly, but that was nonsense. The girl had added something to his tea, pilfered documents, lain in his bed with him.She was a schemer, a spy, a hellion, worse. Nothing fantastical about any of that.
    Yet he remembered the passion he had felt for her, the comfort of holding her in his arms,