Caelen's Wife: Book One - A Murmur of Providence (Clan McDunnah Series 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Caelen McDunnah. More handsome than she remembered, to be certain, but he stunk like a drunkard in dire need of a bath.
    “Incident?” she asked her brother as she looked up at him. “Ye make it sound as though ’twas nothin’ more than lads out to have a good time.”
    “Fi,” Brodie said, his tone laced with an unspoken warning.
    Fiona pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin before turning her attention back to Caelen McDunnah. “What do ye have to say fer yerself, McDunnah?”
    Caelen looked as stunned as he did baffled. “Who are ye?” he finally managed to ask.
    With a disgusted grunt and a shake of her head, Fiona removed her full-faced helm and tucked it under one arm. Her long blonde hair was plaited around her head, but some of it had come loose. Tucking loose strands behind her ear, she introduced herself. “I be Fiona McPherson. Chief of Clan McPherson.”
    “Fiona,” Caelen whispered softly before giving a slight shake of his head. Even after all these years, just hearing the name spoken made his chest tighten with guilt.
    “McPherson,” Fiona replied. “ Chief of the Clan McPherson, ” she repeated in case he missed it the first time.
    “But yer a woman?” Caelen said, still quite surprised.
    Kenneth stepped forward to explain the situation to him. “Aye, she be a woman, and the chief of Clan McPherson. Has been fer nearly two years.”
    Through his quite ugly hangover and pounding skull, he vaguely remembered hearing that a woman had been made chief of the McPhersons after her husband’s death. But that was about all he knew. No one had mentioned that she was a very comely lass, what with her blonde hair and big green eyes that near twinkled with anger. Or that her name was Fiona. He would have remembered that name.
    “Ye reived seventeen sheep from our lands last night, McDunnah,” Fiona accused. “I want them back.”
    Caelen felt his eyes widen and he turned to Kenneth. “I’ve been gone a year. Pray tell things are no’ so bad we’ve taken to reivin’ sheep?”
    Kenneth furrowed his brow and shook his head. “Nay, all be well, Caelen. We’ve no’ revived any sheep.”
    Caelen was relieved to hear it. He had left Kenneth in charge this past year and knew him to have a good mind for money.
    “The only reivin’ we’ve done,” Kenneth added with a smile, “is the cows we stole from Brent Kilcannon, like we do every year at this time.”
    Caelen laughed aloud. Brent Kilcannon was his brother-in-law, married to Caelen’s youngest sister. Each year, by way of an anniversary gift, Caelen and his men would reive some ten to twenty head of Kilcannon cattle only to return them days later as a gift. ’Twas something they’d been doing for more than five years now.
    “He sends his regards, as does yer sister, though she was no’ near as kind about it as Kilcannon,” Kenneth laughed along with Caelen.
    “I can imagine what she said,” Caelen laughed. “She probably questioned our level of maturity and sanity, aye?”
    “Aye, ye could say that,” Kenneth chuckled.
    Caelen was about to tell Kenneth to send Margaret a bolt of the fine burgundy silk he’d brought back from Inverness, as way of begging forgiveness, when his sentence was cut short — and nearly his life — when a blade sailed through the air. It landed in the mantel, dead center between Caelen and Kenneth.

    R udeness begat rudeness as far as Fiona was concerned. Caelen and his man had apparently forgotten that she stood just steps away, lost as they were in their own conversation.
    Fiona counted to ten and cleared her throat. The two men continued to laugh and reminisce, completely ignoring her. Before Brodie had the chance to stop her, she withdrew the McDunnah dirk and bit of cloth tucked into her belt and fired.
    Right between Caelen McDunnah and the man he called Kenneth.
    Her aim was true. The dirk landed dead center of the two men, impaling the bit of cloth to the thick mantel. Fiona resisted the