A Gentle Feuding Read Online Free PDF Page A

laddie.”
    “I’ll be raiding then, as Father promised. That’ll be enough adventure to keep me out of trouble.”
    “You sound as if you look forward to raiding,” Sheena said, shocked.
    “Raiding the MacKinnions, yes. I’d give anything to meet The MacKinnion himself.”
    Sheena gasped. “Are you daft, Niall? He’d chop off your head. He’s a mean one, and no mistake.”
    “I dinna believe all the stories about him.”
    “He’s a thieving murderer! Have you forgotten six of our clan have died these last months?”
    “And a like number of his clan, no doubt, since Father was honor-bound to raid them, as well. But you canna deny he’s brave, Sheena, the bravest man we know of.”
    “I dinna deny he’s bold, but you dinna have to be praising him.”
    “I respect his courage.”
    “Respect him all you like, just pray you never meet the man, or you’ll be respecting him from your place inside a coffin.”
    Sheena finished her bath, left the pool, and wrung out her hair to braid it. As she donned her clothes, Niall spoiled the pleasant day by announcing, “Cousin William returns today.”
    Sheena’s eyes closed in dread. “Are you sure?”
    “Aye.”
    “You’ve got to stay close to me, Niall. Please. If he finds me alone, he’ll start his threats again.”
    “You managed to avoid him after he threatened the MacKinnion match.”
    “Aye. And fortunately Father decided on The MacDonough while Willie was away, and ’twas arranged ’afore he returned.”
    “You want Sir Alasdair then?”
    “Better him than William. But I’m no’ married yet,” she pointed out. “There’s still time for our cousin to cause trouble. I fear he’s very bitter and would do it for spite.”
    “Why don’t you just tell Father?”
    Sheena shook her head firmly. “William would only deny it. He’d say I wanted revenge for some imagined slight. Father might believe him, for he knows I despise William. And he trusts him. William was Mother’s favorite cousin.”
    Sheena could have bitten her tongue. Why had she mentioned their mother? She had died a few days after Niall’s birth, and he foolishly blamed himself. It upset him to talk of her. Sheena had never been close to her mother, being her father’s pride and joy, but Niall had never known her at all.
    “I’m sorry, Niall. Come on, we’d best be getting home ’afore the sun gets much higher.”
    They had just safely reentered the tower house and gone around back to the kitchens when the commotion started. The patrol returned at a tearing gallop with an unconscious prisoner. Word spread through the house like quicksilver that the man captured was a MacKinnion.
    That night, Dugald Fergusson was in his glory. He had a MacKinnion in his dungeon who could be ransomed for the return of all the Fergusson livestock taken that summer. Just in time for market, too. It would be a prosperous year after all.
    Killing the man was never considered. That would be suicide, bringing the whole MacKinnion clan down on them. To kill a man in a fair fight was one thing. To kill a prisoner was something entirely different.
    Sheena slept that night with no thought for the man in the dungeon. William MacAfee was on her mind—and she was conceiving ways of avoiding him while he was a guest in the tower.
    Niall slept not at all, for he could think of nothing else but the man in the dungeon. A MacKinnion, a real live MacKinnion!

Chapter 5
    J ames MacKinnion woke with a terrible ache in his head. There was a bump the size of an egg on the back of his skull. His eyes opened, seeing nothing but blackness. He decided to keep them closed against the pain. It was too much effort just yet to wonder where he was, or even if he might be blind. But the ache throbbed so badly that he couldn’t drift back to sleep. Slowly, he became aware of things.
    The coldness against his cheek was hard earth. The smell around him was stagnant. The tickling over his bare knees was from bugs, or worse. He sat