Rowan's Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

heart.
    Curses! What had she done to deserve such agony?
Had she not always done her best to be a good and dutiful daughter? A quiet and
acquiescent wife? Never a day passed that she did not say her prayers. She did
her best to always put others’ feelings ahead of her own. She had sacrificed so
that her sisters could eat and have a decent roof over their heads.
    Her sisters were one of the main reasons she had
agreed to marry Garrick. Her father had threatened to take them away, never to
be seen or heard from again. There was no doubt in her mind that he would have
done just that. So she had acquiesced and married Garrick Blackthorn.
    If the Good Lord had ever seen fit to give her
children, Arline thought they would have looked like the innocent babe sleeping
next to her. Auburn ringlets, thick lashes and alabaster skin. If a stranger
were to see the two of them together, they would probably assume the babe was
hers. No one would be the wiser.
    Arline began to worry again over what would happen
if Willie’s father could not pay the ransom. What then? Garrick had proven time
and again that he was not a man to be toyed with. There was no doubt in
Arline’s mind that he would have no compunction about killing the child. If not
for the sheer amusement of it, then simply to punish the little girl’s father.
    Guarded heart be damned. Arline could not let that
happen.
    She was guarding her heart against loving a man. A child was an all together different story. A child, this child, was an
innocent. It wasn’t her fault that men were fools.
    Mayhap, this was God’s way of making up for the
fact that Arline would never have children of her own. He had put the child in
Arline’s life for a reason. Arline was meant to keep the child safe.
    Her mind began to race with different
possibilities and scenarios for stealing the child away from Garrick. Disguise
herself as a servant and tuck the child into a sack, slinging it over her
shoulder? Or mayhap hide in one of the many wagons that came and went from the
keep? Nay, a bold, daytime escape was far too risky.
    There had to be a way out of this castle.
    It was treacherous ground she trod upon. If she
failed, Garrick would probably kill them both.

Three
    Rowan Graham lounged peacefully on the ground
propped up on one elbow, his long legs spread out and crossed at the ankles. He
gazed into the campfire, only half listening to his men. His mind, as well as
his heart, was back at his keep with his four-year-old daughter, Lily.
    Rowan and ten of his men had been gone for more
than a sennight, hunting red deer to add to the winter stores. He did not enjoy
being gone from his daughter for more than an hour, let alone a week’s long
hunt. The hunt and being away from his daughter had played hell with his
nerves. Tomorrow could not come soon enough. He missed Lily. She was all he had
left of Kate.
    He could not help but think of Kate whenever he
thought of Lily. Lily was like her mother in many ways. Stubborn, adorable,
beautiful, adventurous. She had successfully wrapped Rowan around her wee
finger the moment she was born. As the days and years progressed, the hold grew
tighter.
    If he had his druthers, his life would be decidedly
different.
    He would not be chief of his clan, Clan Graham.
His wife, Kate, would still be alive. He would not have lost his mother,
father, and youngest sister, and countless others, to the Black Death. He would
not feel so insufferably alone. And Lily would not be an only child.
    The Black Death had destroyed so many lives, his
own included. It seemed that no one or no clan had been left unaffected by it.
Not a day went by that he did not curse that damned disease.
    While Rowan reflected on his life and what he wished he had, his men were proudly discussing the number of deer they’d killed
and how glad they would be to return home on the morrow. Many of the men were
married and talked anxiously about needing the company and warmth their wives
offered. Rowan