Bond of Passion Read Online Free PDF Page A

why Adam hasn’t, except he is still so besotted by her.”
    Angus Ferguson nodded in agreement with his sister’s assessment. The daughter of a neighboring laird, Elizabeth Kennedy possessed a great beauty that was matched by an equally great lustful nature. Although warned by his siblings against her, the young earl had been taken in by her exquisite fair face and delightful playful manner. He had begun to court her, thrilled that she would bestow her kisses upon him. His siblings were wrong. Jealous. They had to be, for when he had declared his affections for her she had responded with delight. At twenty-three he became the happiest man in all of Scotland.
    And then one afternoon he had come upon her lying in the autumn heather, her beautiful breasts bared to the sky, and three young lads were taking turns servicing her lusty nature as she laughed, teased, and encouraged them in their endeavors. He had watched, fascinated, unable to fully comprehend what he was seeing. His Elizabeth. The lass he loved and wanted to wed was nothing better than a common whore. He struggled to disbelieve the evidence of his own eyes, but how could he? The labored grunts of the men using her, the cries of pleasure she made, finally slammed into his consciousness, forcing him to accept what he was seeing.
    With a roar of fury he made his presence known. The three men gaped in shock, but then, recognizing him, jumped up and fled. Her mouth bruised with the kisses of others, sloe-eyed Elizabeth Kennedy had beckoned to him, smiling a slow, seductive smile. At that moment he had wanted to fall on her and fuck her until she was dead. He had believed her a virgin. He had been so gentle in his wooing of her. To see other men enjoying what he had denied himself was galling. But instead he had dragged her up, taking her home to throw her at her father’s feet, disclosing her perfidy.
    The little bitch had attempted to lie, claiming that the earl had misunderstood what he had seen. She had been set upon and raped, Elizabeth Kennedy told her father. Lord Kennedy’s face had grown pale as he listened to his daughter, but it was quickly obvious that he believed the Earl of Duin. What Angus had wondered at that point was, did Kennedy really know about his daughter’s character? The older man’s face now grew deep red in his uncontrolled fury as, reaching for his cane, he grasped his daughter by her long unbound hair and beat her until her screams shook his hall. He ceased his punishment only when his weeping wife begged him to stop.
    Lady Kennedy had escorted her wayward daughter off, while Angus Ferguson tendered his regrets to the Kennedy laird that he had had to bring him such unpleasant news. “I canna possibly consider Elizabeth for my wife now, knowing and seeing what I have this day,” he told him. Kennedy had nodded his understanding. Two months later Elizabeth Kennedy was wed to one Adam Douglas, delivering a bairn seven months afterward. A weak man, Adam Douglas basked in the knowledge that he was wed to the loveliest woman in the borders, and ignored the gossip about his wife’s many lovers.
    Angus Ferguson never forgot that at the age of twenty-three he had been betrayed by a beautiful woman and made to look the fool. Everyone, he later learned, had known of the Kennedy lass’s proclivities but him. He had been taken in by a fair face just like any damned green lad, and he should have known better. After that, he had avoided the topic of marriage, amusing himself with a variety of lovely mistresses, for mistresses were supposed to be beautiful, and only briefly faithful. The volatile nature of a mistress was no threat to his pride.
    He met with the laird of Rath at Bothwell’s castle of Hermitage. Robert Baird had been totally honest with him. Aye, his oldest daughter was a virgin, an obedient and good lass, but she had not beauty to recommend her. But it was his duty to find her a husband, and not just any husband. Annabella, the laird