As High as the Heavens Read Online Free PDF Page A

guessing that this Duncan Mackenzie was the Stewart twin.
"Pray, what's special about this man to make him `the
finest piece of man flesh'?"
    "Och, he's every woman's dream-tall, dark of hair,
with the finest pair of green eyes ye'll ever hope to see,
and so braw and big." Janet's mouth curved in dreamy
ecstasy. "He's most comely to look upon too. And his
voice ... well, it's so warm and mellow it would melt
the snow on the mountains."
    "He sounds most pleasing." Heather shot Beth a covert
grin. "Mayhap he'll stay and visit a few days, and we'll
have the pleasure-"
    "Look, look!" Suddenly oblivious to the pouring rain,
Janet ran from the shelter of the stairway and over to the
crenellated battlements that topped the tower. "Is it? Is
it him?" She squinted out over the countryside.
    Politely, Heather leaned as far from the stairway as she
could and, for her efforts, was rewarded with a torrent
of cold raindrops in her face. With a sputter, she leaped
back within the relative shelter of the stairway.
    "Who? Where?" she called out to her cousin.
    "There." The girl pointed down the muddy road leading to the tower house. Just crossing the curving stone bridge that spanned a frozen stretch of bum were the
mist-shrouded forms of two men on horseback.

    "I'd know those proud, broad shoulders anywhere
and the braw way he sits his horse," Janet cried. "It's
Duncan. Duncan's here!"
    Still seemingly unaware of the water streaming from
the skies, Janet gathered her skirts, turned, and hurried
to Heather and Beth. Her unbound, curly red hair hung
in wet ringlets, clinging to her face and shoulders. Rain
coursed down her cheeks and dripped from her nose.
    "Come, I must prepare myself to greet Duncan. It isn't
often he visits us. I want to impress him with how much
more a woman I am now than when he last saw me. He's
certain to need a hot bath, what with the discomforts
of the journey, and I must hurry if I'm to set all aright
before he arrives."
    "Then I'll not disturb ye in yer preparations." Heather
stepped aside to let Janet pass. "There'll be plenty of time
to visit further, I'm sure, once ye've had yer fill of this
Duncan Mackenzie."
    Aye, Heather added silently, let him bear the brunt of
Janet's attention. It was more than gladly relinquished.
Three months. Surely she could bear Janet, Duncan
Mackenzie, and the Highlands for three months.
    The girl smiled, nodded, then brushed past them and
scurried down the stairs. Beth grinned at Heather.
    "I'd say ye've yer hands full with that one."
    "And which one are ye speaking of?" Heather asked
with a soft chuckle. "Janet or this Duncan Mackenzie?"
    Beth cocked her head, her sparkling gray eyes gleaming with mischief. "I haven't decided. Mayhap one, mayhap
both. Either way, though, I'd wager ye're in for a rough
time of it."

    Heather had no interest in awaiting the arrival of the
two Highlanders. She already knew, even without Janet's
added verification, that Duncan would be handsome.
She had spent enough time with Colin Stewart to have
briefly fallen under that special influence of piercing,
jade green eyes, chestnut brown hair, strong nose, and
stubborn jaw to know whereof Janet spoke.
    But she was equally aware, for all his fine education
and airs, the most noble of the two brothers was selfcentered, arrogant, and lacked any depth of character.
How much less impressive could the Highland-raised
brother be, reared in nearly total isolation from everything that truly mattered? In the end, what counted
wasn't braw looks and trappings, but the heart and mind
of the man. And, odds were, not much good ever came
out of the Highlands.
    Though her own mother had been of the Highlands,
Heather nonetheless considered herself a Gordon through
and through. And the Gordons, who had risen over the
centuries to become the predominant power in the northeast of Scotland, weren't natives to the Highlands or
indeed even to Scotland itself. Of Norman