Highland Steel (Guardians of the Stone Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

to defy the Butcher and refuse to bathe. However, the tub, filled to brimming with steaming water, held more appeal to her at the instant than sacks full of gold—far more, since she had little use for gold.
    After having stood for hours in the freezing mist with a noose wrapped about her neck, she felt an ague in her bones that she wasn’t at all accustomed to. Still, she hesitated, testing the water with a hand, conflicted.
    They dragged Broc to the gaols, but at least he was still alive.
    Still it gave her a pang to know that simply because she was born a woman they had given her a warm bath and Broc Ceannfhionn a cold, damp cell.
    Mere seconds later and they might have both been meant for the other side of the sod—both saved by the Butcher, though gratitude in the same breath as the Butcher’s name somehow left a bitter taste in her mouth.
    Frowning, Lael turned away from the bath to inspect the room, wondering whose it could have been. It was not large, nor was it fine and the wind whistled through cracks in the ancient stone.
    The laird of this demesne was dead, slain in battle by her brother. Rogan MacLaren had been a cruel man. He had tortured and threatened his own nephew—Lìli’s son. And then he’d forced Lìli to wed Aidan with the intention of murdering him. And this he had apparently devised with David’s blessings. To Lael’s way of thought that alone should have ensured Aidan would take up his sword in defense of Keppenach. But her brother had chosen not to, and for the first time in twenty some years, they’d parted ways.
    Never in Lael’s life had she felt more alone than she did this instant.
    Along the north wall, there was but a single narrow window fitted with bars. The shutters were closed now, but the chamber remained drafty. The room itself was barren but for an odd bed made of timber. The mattress too was old and filled with boiled straw, but at least there was a mattress. She spied a coffer in one corner—one she recognized, much to her surprise.
    She went over to inspect it and found that it was, indeed, the same ornate chest Aveline of Teviotdale brought to Dubhtolargg when she came to serve as Lìli’s maid—with all the pomp of a queen, and bearing more coffers than Lìli herself. Later, they learned that Aveline was Rogan’s mistress, sent to spy upon Lìli for her lover. Though instead of counting her good fortune to be away from the tyrant, the dafty had wept buckets until Aidan allowed her to leave in order to bear Rogan’s babe here at Keppenach. And then she’d vanished—to where was anybody’s guess. They only knew she was missing because Aveline’s father sent riders to inquire over his daughter’s whereabouts. Alas, the last anyone at Dubhtolargg saw of Aveline was the day they left her at Keppenach’s gates. And here was further proof she arrived—the coffer she’d once nearly slapped Sorcha’s hand simply for touching. Luckily for Aveline she did not, for Lael was in a mood that day, and she would have to slice off the girl’s hands at her wrists for the insult. It could not bode well for Aveline that all her worldly possessions were here, but she was not.
    Lael stood, peering about the room, examining it with new eyes.
    Aveline’s prison?
    But why? The girl had been a slave for Rogan. She would have done anything the lout asked of her. Hadn’t she abetted him, after all?
    Even more curious now, Lael bent to open Aveline’s chest and found it filled with clothing and baubles. Another chest—also belonging to Aveline, she presumed—was filled with more baubles, ribbons, a brush, a comb and a mirror.
    Lael’s fingers brushed over edges of the comb and the mirror, testing the sharpness of the metal. Stripped of all her daggers, these might well be of use if it became necessary. She lifted up the mirror and swung it. The muscles in her forearm clenched as she considered how hard the blow must be dealt in order to pierce the skin. The edges were far too