Dreamer's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

cluttering things up with particulars she didn’t need to know. She wouldn’t care at all for the things he’d had to do to survive as he had crawled away from the well, unable to bury his mother, unable to find his siblings, unable to feed himself save with what he’d been able to catch and kill with his teeth—
    â€œYet here you are,” Anna continued briskly. “Accompanied by some waif of a girl who looks as if she’s never in her life had a moment of instruction in deportment.”
    â€œShe’s been sheltered,” he conceded. “But what of you? Surely you haven’t been swathed in mourning garb for the past twenty years.”
    She drew herself up. “The shock was not insignificant, of course. In spite of that, I did press on.”
    He imagined she had. He thought it might not be inappropriate to suppress a shudder at the thought of a life with the woman in front of him. She was lovely and titled and all the things he’d once thought he needed to be happy. Now, he suspected his life would have been an endless procession of evenings spent socializing in clothes that itched and shoes that were too tight.
    â€œI’m surprised you haven’t pressed on to the altar,” he said before he thought better of it.
    â€œI’m still sorting through all the offers,” she said shortly. “And there are at least a dozen.”
    And that, Rùnach supposed, was the absolute truth.
    â€œYour face is scarred,” she said, scrutinizing him with a frown.
    â€œIt was much worse, believe me.”
    â€œYou also seem to have become a bit rough around the edges.”
    â€œBlame your cousin,” Rùnach said, deciding abruptly to throw Soilléir to the wolves in order to spare himself. “I’ve been his guest.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “So I heard earlier this morning. I wonder why he couldn’t bring himself to inform me of that fact?”
    â€œPerhaps he thought that telling anyone I was alive would put my life in jeopardy.”
    â€œHow utterly ridiculous,” she said with a snort. “Who would want you dead? Well, save me, of course, when I found out you’d been in hiding all these years. Who else would possibly care?”
    He smiled. “No one, of course. But you know your cousin. He tends to be overly cautious from time to time—”
    â€œHe’s a fool,” she interrupted, “with an overinflated sense of his own importance in the world. Now, get rid of that mousey wench and we’ll proceed with our original plans.”
    â€œAnna—”
    â€œRùnach,” she said, steely-eyed, “don’t be difficult.”
    â€œI’m not being difficult,” he said. “I’m on a quest.”
    She blinked, then laughed, a tinkling thing that he might have found attractive a score of years earlier. He didn’t find it attractive at present.
    â€œYou are a silly boy,” she said, reaching out to pat his cheek indulgently.
    Well, he was certainly no longer a boy and he was sure he’d never been silly. He sat back against the table and held on to its edge, tapping his fingers against the underside of it, beginning with his pointer finger and working outward and back inward. It occurred to him, as he used it as a way to control his temper, that he hadn’t had to resort to that in twenty years—or been able to use his hands to do so, as it happened.
    His life had changed, indeed.
    â€œI’ll arrange for supper,” she continued. “Grandfather is still out hunting grouse, or so I understand, not that he would make an effort merely for you anyway. I’ll see to it all, as usual. We’ll have dancing.”
    â€œI think—”
    â€œYes, you have managed the like in the past and I imagine you’ll do so again occasionally in the future, but your input is not required now. Be prompt. That is the limit of your responsibilities