The Groom Wore Plaid: Highland Weddings

The Groom Wore Plaid: Highland Weddings by Gayle Callen Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: The Groom Wore Plaid: Highland Weddings by Gayle Callen Read Free Book Online
Authors: Gayle Callen
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Historical
were hard there for them, andthey’ve returned home to start over. Gregor is working in the smithy.”
    “Kathleen and Gregor,” Lady Aberfoyle mused, as if concentrating on the names. “I do not remember their story. But then after all, seldom did members of our clan have to escape poverty for a dangerous journey to the colonies.”
    Maggie barely held on to a pleasant expression when the woman was proving that nobility did not mean civility or manners. Maggie could have said she’d never heard of any of her clan departing for the colonies, but she’d only be rising to the countess’s bait. Owen gave his mother a warning frown on Maggie’s behalf.
    He seemed protective of Maggie, but what did that matter? The proof would be how he handled her confession.

C HAPTER 3
    A fter dinner, Maggie slipped away from the great hall, and then the towerhouse. She just needed to clear her head and breathe fresh air and not have any expectations. She would wait until the evening to have a private conversation with Owen.
    She wandered from workshops to stables to barracks, and everywhere she went, strangers stared at her. Everyone knew she was a McCallum, and certainly, they would be curious about her. Only a few crossed themselves if they thought she wasn’t looking, frightened by her eyes. Though she was here to stop a feud, two centuries’ worth of bitterness weren’t going to end immediately.
    As she walked past the smithy, she could feel the heat of the fire the blacksmiths worked over all day long. She paused near the wide entrance and watched as a burly, aproned man, his face red and perspiring, used tongs to hold a glowing piece of metal in the fire.
    “Eh, you, what are ye doin’?”
    Startled, Maggie turned to find another man bearing down on her. He, too, wore an apron over his barrel chest, and his curly hair was almost as red as his perspiring face.
    “I’m simply watching,” she said, taking a step away from the door.
    “Ye could get hurt lingerin’ here,” he said. He came to a stop and eyed her suspiciously. “I’ve not seen ye before.”
    “I’m Maggie McCallum,” she said, using her surname deliberately. She wasn’t going to hide who she was.
    His brows lowered. “McCallum. Ye’re to marry Himself.”
    He brazenly looked down her body with skepticism.
    “Ye’re being very rude,” she said.
    “And ye’re a McCallum.”
    As if the two things equated.
    “My sister told me about ye,” he continued.
    “Your—” She broke off, suddenly seeing the resemblance to another in his short stature and red hair. “Ah, your sister Kathleen,” she said with surprise. Kathleen had been so polite and sunny, as opposite her brother as possible. “Ye must be Gregor. Ye’re practically as new here as I am.”
    He took a step toward her, fists on his hips, and spoke with angry defensiveness. “My family’s blood is in this very soil. I was born here.”
    “Ye’re right, of course,” she said. Starting her own mini-feud wasn’t going to help. “I didn’t mean to offend.”
    “Ye’ve offended just by bein’ here,” he grumbled.
    “Then I won’t bother ye again.”
    She turned away and began to walk, feeling his angry stare as if it were a dirk piercing the middle of her back. And suddenly, she couldn’t stay in the courtyard, where escaping the dozens of censorious looks would prove impossible. How could one marriage possibly undo centuries’ worth of hatred?
    She passed a training yard where men fought with swords. She’d seen no firearms and she knew why—the British government had passed a Disarming Act after the uprising, and continued to pass more, attempting to remove all firearms from the Highlands. But many clans had imported rusty old weapons from the Continent and turned those in for the money, while hiding their own in case they had to defend their land against the British. Certainly they weren’t going to display their weapons in front of a McCallum.
    And with that thought, she

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