Rowan's Lady Read Online Free PDF

ran it through Willie’s auburn locks. The child’s night
dress was dirty and tattered. Led to the conclusion that the child had been
taken from her home in the middle of the night, Arline shuddered at the mental
images that flashed through her mind. Images of a night time raid, women and
children screaming, men shouting and fighting. Willie, terrified and crying,
wrenched from her mother’s bosom, stolen away to be held for ransom.
    What horrors must her mother be going through
right now? If this were her child, Arline knew she would be sick with
worry if not already mounted, armed to the teeth, and on her way to retrieve
her daughter from the clutches of a most cowardly, brutal man.
    Arline shook the dreadful thoughts from her mind
and took a closer look at the nightdress. It was a simple gown but made of a
fine muslin fabric with tiny silk bows at the ends of her sleeves and the hem.
The dirt and tears on the nightdress suggested mayhap a long journey or perhaps
it had been torn during the raid. Another thought entered her mind, one she did
not like to think. Perhaps the child was not properly cared for. Perhaps she
was sorely neglected, her parents not interested or capable of caring for her.
    Gently, Arline guided the child to the bed. “Up ye
go, sweeting. We’ll get ye warm and in the morn, we shall break our fast and
talk then.” Arline lifted the child into the middle of the bed and wrapped the
blankets snuggly around her.
    There was no doubt the child was exhausted. Red
rimmed eyes, blotchy cheeks, heavy eyelids stared up at Arline. “What if the
mean man comes back?”
    Arline’s stomach tightened at that thought.
Certainly it would be a day or two, mayhap more, before the ransom was paid.
She tried to convince herself that Garrick would not return until Willie’s
parents had paid the ransom.
    Arline added another log to the fire, grabbed the
poker and prodded at the coals until the log caught. “Ye needn’t worry about
him coming back,” Arline told Willie. At least not until tomorrow.
    Garrick was probably above stairs, in his
quarters, with his leman, Ona. Aye, Arline knew all about the woman, or at
least of her existence. Though she had never met her, she knew that Ona was the
woman to whom Garrick had given his heart. And as far as Arline was concerned,
Ona could have it. Arline wanted no part of her husband’s heart or, for that
matter, anything else he had to offer.
    From what she had learned from the servants, Ona
was breathtakingly beautiful, with dark hair and eyes the color of the ocean.
Nothing at all like Arline with her unruly auburn locks and green eyes. Where
Ona was petite yet buxom, Arline was tall, slender and lacking the curves her
husband apparently admired.
    ’Twas all the better, Arline supposed. Let Ona
keep the fool happy and satisfied. I’d gladly take me freedom over a husband.
    With the fire adequately banked, Arline stood,
slipped off her robe and laid it on the chair next to her bed. She blew out the
candle and paused beside the bed as the light from the fire washed the room in
warm light.
    Willie had finally succumbed and was fast asleep.
Her little thumb was still between her lips and she had a lock of hair twisted
around her finger.
    Arline slipped into the bed and snuggled next to
the sleeping babe. She took great care not to disturb the sweet cherub. Arline
rested her head in the crook of her arm and watched the child sleep.
    Try as she might, she could not keep her heart
from feeling sympathy for this child. The invisible shield she had constructed
months ago, the one meant to protect her from disappointment and heartache, was
being chipped away, one sweet baby breath at a time. Arline tried to convince
herself that there was no harm in feeling something for this innocent babe. But
her heart warned no good would or could come of it. As soon as the child’s
father paid the ransom the babe would be gone. And Arline would be left alone
again, with a gaping hole in her