Highland Vow Read Online Free PDF Page B

with a handful of weeds and grass. It had taken some effort on her part, but she had finally pulled from him the name of a woman—Isabel. She had felt her heart break as he had told her of the love he had for this woman, of the deep bond they shared. Then, as he told her more and more about the woman, Elspeth’s hurt had begun to change to puzzlement and eventually to anger at Isabel and even some at Cormac for his blind devotion. Isabel’s four husbands were a subject he obviously did not want to discuss at length, but she was determined to bleed out of him every morsel of information that she could.
    “Aye,” Cormac nearly grunted his reply as he built a fire.
    “Four dead husbands?”
    “Aye.”
    “Four times wed. Four times widowed.”
    “Aye.”
    “And such short marriages,” she murmured as she walked over and sat down across the fire from him. “Such an ill-fated lot she was married to.”
    Cormac briefly looked up from the oatmeal he was mixing to glare at her. He knew what she was thinking. Others thought it, too. Four husbands and all dying, strangely and quickly, the longest-surviving one not even marking two full years of marriage. To his shame, even he had found himself wondering, doubting, but he would quickly shove that disloyalty aside. Isabel needed sympathy and support, not suspicions.
    “Aye, all weak or foolishly reckless,” he snapped, handing her some bread.
    Or as blind as you are , Elspeth thought as she took a bite of the bread. “No children?”
    “Nay.”
    “So, four weak or reckless and, obviously, seedless husbands. Unless ’tis Isabel. She could be barren.” Elspeth heartily hoped the woman was, for although she did not really believe in bad seeds, a child raised by such a woman could easily become as twisted as its mother.
    It had struck Cormac as odd that Isabel could share a bed with four men—five if he included himself—and never quicken with child, but he was not about to admit that. He wanted to tell Elspeth to shut up, to stop gnawing at this particular bone. She was doing too good a job of building a case against Isabel, much better than any other had. Others had blatantly accused Isabel and called him a fool for not seeing the truth. Elspeth went at it step by slow step, gently yet persistently, yanking answers from him at every painful step. She was reviving all his doubts and he hated it.
    “Who can say?” he muttered.
    “Who indeed. Weel, with no bairns to inherit, she must now be quite a rich woman. Wealth can be such a comfort.”
    There was a definite touch of sarcasm in her voice, but he struggled to ignore it as he handed her a share of the oatmeal and some cheese. “She isnae poor or landless, though she didnae gain it all.”
    “Of course not,” Elspeth murmured as she accepted the rough wooden bowl full of oatmeal. “There were undoubtedly some other males in the late husband’s family whowould take quite a bit. Lands especially.”
    “But they always want it all. ’Tis they who have spread such vicious lies about Isabel, trying to make a sad tragedy sound like a crime.”
    “I see. Did they e’er find the murderer of the mon ye were accused of killing?”
    “Once I kenned I was free of pursuit, I fear I gave no thought to it. They must have or I wouldst still be running.”
    “Or dead. So they must have finally listened to Isabel’s claims of your innocence.”
    Elspeth watched him closely as she spoke. She inwardly sighed when he was suddenly unable to meet her gaze. It was as sad as it was infuriating. Right from the beginning, Cormac had refused to see the truth about dear Isabel. He obviously knew she had done little if anything to help him, yet he found some reason to explain away that betrayal. It was not going to be easy to open his eyes. Elspeth feared he had either ignored the truth or explained it away for so long he would not recognize it if it fell on him. Isabel was a madonna to him, a beautiful victim, a tortured soul used by