The Ghost (Highland Guard 12) by Monica Mccarty Read Free Book Online Page A

coming. How could she have not heard that one of Edward’s most important commanders in the north, accompanied by at least two hundred men, was headed to Carlisle?
    This was exactly the type of information Bruce was counting on her to uncover. That she hadn’t—and Edward Bruce’s men had been surprised—could well have been a disaster. Had Randolph not arrived when he did, the king’s last remaining brother might have been taken or killed, and Joan would have considered herself responsible.
    This was the first time she hadn’t learned of something this important beforehand. Were the English keeping Pembroke’s arrival a secret for a specific reason, or were they just being more careful with information?
    Neither was a promising development.
    Joan knew that the English were determined to uncover the well-placed spy who was feeding information to the Scots, but as women were beneath their scrutiny, she’d never felt the threat of suspicion—which didn’t mean she wasn’t careful. She always took care not to appear too interested in the war or politics, not to ask too many questions, and not to show any loyalty to the land of her birth. She tried to appear just as “English” as her cousin—although Alice’s blood was every bit as Scottish as hers. You would never know it by looking at her or listening to her. Alice had fully embraced her adopted homeland and regarded Scotland as a rough “backward” place filled with “rebels” who must be conquered and civilized.
    Alice shivered. “Can you imagine what might have happened if their plan had succeeded? We could be some barbarian’s hostage right now.” She gasped as if something had just occurred to her. “Do you think they would have ravished us?”
    Good Lord, she sounded almost excited by the prospect. There was nothing romantic or exciting about having a man force you—nothing. But her beautiful cousin liked to be the object of male desire and thought their lust flattering. Joan knew differently.
    Though a few years older than her twenty, Alice seemed far less mature. Joan had always been older than her years, and with everything that had happened since her mother was imprisoned, it sometimes felt as if she were Alice’s mother rather than a young woman near her own age.
    Though Joan wanted nothing more than to shake some sense into that silly head, she pretended to take the question seriously. “I suspect they might have. We are fortunate indeed that Sir Aymer’s man figured out their plan. Who was he? Perhaps we should thank him for saving us.”
    Her tone must have been more curious than she intended. Her cousin’s gaze seemed to narrow just a little. “I don’t know. My husband didn’t say. But I don’t think that will be necessary. Besides, I doubt Sir Richard would like it. He watches you like a hungry hawk.” She frowned disapprovingly. “You need to be more circumspect, cousin. People are starting to talk, and it reflects poorly on Henry and me.”
    Joan tried not to choke on her tongue. Good Lord, that was the guilty cast as the accuser. Alice’s rampant promiscuity was equaled only by her husband’s, although Alice was fiercely jealous, whereas Sir Henry couldn’t have cared less with whom his wife shared her bed—much to Alice’s irritation. Her cousin seemed to equate jealousy and possessiveness with love. Joan had seen the fallacy of that with her parents.
    Joan lowered her eyes as if embarrassed. “Sir Richard is leaving soon.”
    “Good,” Alice said, standing from the chair she’d been seated at while Joan helped her with her jewelry. “I do not begrudge you your flirtations , cousin, but I do not like to hear you the subject of unflattering rumors.”
    In other words, she didn’t like Joan being the focus of attention—even negative attention. That Joan had always been content to be in her cousin’s shadow was the only reason Alice had taken her as a companion and tiring woman. Joan had never made herself a