The Countess by Claire Delacroix Read Free Book Online Page A

attendance. There could be a thousand reasons for his delay!”
    Iain folded his arms across his chest. “Truly, Duncan, I always believed you made a better bard than a leader, and this day, your tales prove me aright.”
    Duncan had had his fill of the insolence of Cormac’s son.
    â€œIt matters not what you think of my leadership,” he declared hotly. “I was chosen by Cormac and I am chieftain, regardless of your displeasure with the situation. ’Tis your duty to your father to support his choice. ’Tis your obligation to follow or leave, not to breed dissent among our numbers. We are weaker divided and you know it well.”
    â€œWe are weaker poorly led.”
    â€œYou would be weakest rashly led. For then you should all have to be buried and there would be none to do the labor.”
    â€œI say we attack by nightfall, and make good our claim.”
    Duncan leaned closer, his words hot. “And what of the army who comes to enforce the lady’s deed, which grants her the land?”
    â€œWhat deed?” Iain was visibly shocked.
    â€œShe carries a deed, granting her title to Ceinn-beithe.”
    Glances of consternation were exchanged at this news and the men gathered closer. Iain frowned and stepped back, his features pale, although Duncan had not realized he had such respect for the law.
    Duncan warmed to his theme, feeling the shift in Iain’s support. “You would be murderers then and traitors under the king’s own law, hunted men unwelcome at any court.” He poked a finger into Iain’s chest. “Even Dugall, King of the Isles, with his lack of affection for King William, would not rush to embrace a man upon whom he could not rely.”
    â€œWe should seize the deed and shred it,” Iain protested stridently. “That way, there would be no tale of it forevermore.”
    â€œDestroying the deed will not remove the lady’s claim, just as killing her party will not make their right in the law any less. There will be heirs, upon that you may rely, just as you may be sure that there was never a deed that existed without another to secure its claim.” Duncan gave Iain a scathing glance. “Even you could not hope to kill them all and live to tell the tale.”
    The two men glared at each other.
    Duncan took a step closer and lowered his voice. “Would you be mocked for all your days as a warrior who could not win his will from women without bloodshed?”
    Iain’s face darkened as the men began to chuckle.
    â€œCunning overcomes strength,” Gillemore declared gleefully.
    Though Gillemore’s taste for proverbs could be annoying, Duncan welcomed this one.
    â€œThey will leave by the morn, by midday at the latest,” Duncan informed his men. “No noblewoman will endure what she will undoubtedly see as harsh conditions. These are women raised in soft circumstance. We have but to wait to see Ceinn-beithe our own.”
    The men nodded and stepped back, appeased. Iain spat in the grass and strode away, his manner convincing Duncan that he had not heard the last of this trouble between them.
    * * *
    By dawn, Eglantine had persuaded herself that barbarian men possessed no allure whatsoever. That it had taken her the better part of the night to reach this conclusion was irrelevant, in her estimation—the important thing was that she had seen to the root of her own weakness and corrected the matter.
    On their arrival, she had been troubled, tired, challenged and facing only the first of the obstacles arrayed against her. And she was irked that their guide, having seen them to this wild place, had disappeared into the hills. It had not been easy to ensure her company was settled, given the inclement weather and the trials of both Alienor and Esmeraude. And there had been pledges to extricate from all involved that they not reveal her true name to anyone.
    Siting a camp was not the easiest task, particularly