The Husband Hunt Read Online Free PDF

the bad dreams away."
    "Does it? Well, has it ever been washed?"
    "Of course," Catriona said, deeply offended.
    "Perhaps we could find a replacement for it. Something prettier to suit you."
    "It's embarrassing to admit this, but the fact is, I'm prone to nightmares. Angus and Dugall used to swear up and down that my screaming in the night made their blood run cold. That's vervain sewn in the hem, by the way, not dirt."
    Olivia took a deep breath. "Angus and this Dugall—they
slept
with you?"
    "Aye. Well, being the only female, I was given the loft. The sounds carried, you ken. The farmhouse was barely bigger than this room, and we all coveted the fire on a winter night."
    Olivia felt suddenly faint at the enormity of the task she was about to undertake. "This Angus and Dugall— they were children, then?" she asked hopefully.
    Catriona snorted. "Only in terms of mental ability." She sat up, frowning at the look of horror on her champion's face. "I didn't
sleep
with the bastards. My uncle did possess some sense of morality." Though not much, Cat reflected fondly.
    "Well, thank God for that." Olivia sat down on the edge of the bed, her brow furrowed in a frown. "How many men shared your home, dear, if I may ask?"
    "Ten when I lived with Uncle Diarmid. Twelve or so in James's castle. Retainers, most of those. A damned useless lot, as far as I'm concerned."
    Olivia blinked, obviously unable to visualize anyone of the weaker sex living in the midst of this manly congregation. "And your mother did not object?"
    "She was dead by then, but when she was alive, no male ever crossed her doorstep except for the fathers bringing in their sick children. My mother never let another man touch her after she bore me."
    Olivia was quiet for a moment as if she guessed that there were a few pertinent details missing from this explanation, but she could not figure what they might be. Or perhaps she did not want to know. "When did you meet Lionel, dear?"
    Cat leaned back against the fluffy, down-filled pillows; both of them were relieved at the change in subject. "Four years ago, I think. At my brother's castle, the very month I had moved in."
    "Would this brother be James?" Olivia asked, her frown deepening. James was the only name she could retrieve from her memory of Lionel's conversation about his Scottish relatives, and she wasn't sure, but it did seem as if there had been a vaguely negative connotation to the name.
    "He's the fourth earl now," Cat confided. She struggled modestly beneath the coverlet to change into her nightclothes. "He went off to war about a month or two before Lionel did." She paused, tossing her smock expertly onto the chair. "I'm that sorry he's gone."
    Olivia forced a smile and pretended not to notice the undergarment sailing through the air. "But James returned."
    "Aye, but he wished that he hadn't. The girl he planned to marry died of fever while he was off fighting for the Sassenachs."
    "That is sad." Olivia's face reflected compassion; loss was something she understood too well these days.
    "Worse even," Cat said, "was that she died giving birth to the baby he'd put inside her before he left."
    Olivia could not speak for a moment. There seemed to be little of life that Lionel's lovely cousin had not witnessed. "What happened to the child?"
    "Her parents whisked her away to parts unknown to raise. James searched for months but came back with a broken heart and no daughter to love."
    Olivia released a sigh, staring across the room at the fire. "I can imagine. I learned that I was carrying Lionel's baby right after he left, too, but I miscarried in the third month. I am still bereft."
    "But you can have other children. In time, I mean."
    "Not Lionel's," Olivia said, lowering her gaze. "Oh, goodness, I don't want to start crying now."
    "At least you've withstood your grief better than my brother. He's dead drunk all day long, and he berates everyone in sight. He's losing all his lands, too, from gambling and foolish