The Knight and the Dove Read Online Free PDF Page A

head moving in disgust.
    “Pen giving you trouble again, Eddie?”
    Eddie nearly growled. “My sister has never been able to control her. Has it in her head to work up in the kitchen, she does.” His voice was filled with offense. “She’s even working on her voice, trying to talk like a lady, no less. I tell you, Mic, that girl’s in for trouble if she don’t start to recognize ’er betters.”
    Mic clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll handle her, Eddie.” The younger man started to walk away but stopped. “The peddlers are in.”
    “So I see. At least it’s old Elias,” Eddie observed, referring to the man with the dark beard. “He’s fair.”
    Mic moved in the direction of the wagon, but Eddie went back toward the creamery. With Pen acting up, he was behind schedule. He decided to brook no more of her high-minded airs or her talk of the kitchens. With a disgruntled frown, he moved inside.

     
    “Thank you, Elias,” Megan told him sincerely. She had awakened a half mile outside the walls of the keep and walked in behind the peddler’s cart with the men, but now she took the time to thank herrescuers before moving toward the castle. Megan had found them all kind to a fault, and since she didn’t know what kind of reception she would receive from the inhabitants at Hawkings Crest, it was a little hard to leave them.
    But as usual Megan was made of stern stuff, and with a smile that encompassed them all, she moved rather stiffly toward the main entrance. It was a waste of time. The guards questioned her without listening to her answer, and Megan, knowing she looked even worse than when the peddlers found her, was not in the mood to argue her way inside.
    She moved around the keep for a good 20 minutes, impressed with its cleanliness and order before spotting what appeared to be an entrance to the kitchens. A man, looking less austere than the front entrance guards, stood close by. Megan gathered her courage to approach.
    “Will you please take me to Lord Bracken?” Megan asked calmly but felt a fool at the man’s look.
    “Be away, woman. Return to your work.”
    He gave Megan the cold shoulder, and in disgust she stomped off around the corner of the building. She hadn’t gone ten steps when she collided into something huge, or was it some one ?
    Megan’s eyes slowly rose, and she looked up into the face of the largest man she had ever seen. She stumbled back in fear against a stone wall, her mouth opening and closing in panic.
    “Lord, B-B-Bracken?” She managed to stutter, but the giant only stared at her, an unreadable expression on his craggy face.
    Megan inched her way along, the giant turning with her, his eyes spearing her. When she had a clear shot, she ran. She never looked back to see if she was being followed, but ran behind the creamery and stood asking herself what to do next.
    Megan stayed still for a long time, gaining her breath. It was tempting at this moment to join the peddlers. She was willing to do almost anything to escape this foreign keep and the antagonistic stares of its inhabitants, but she wasn’t welcome at Stone Lake, so where would she go?
    Megan decided to circle the building, thinking to inquire of Bracken with someone inside. Before she could open the door, a person came charging out. He was a good-sized man with a harried look, one that didn’t improve upon spotting Megan.
    “Why aren’t you inside?”
    Megan blinked but managed to say, “I need you to take me to Lord Bracken.”
    “Oh, heaven help me!” the man burst out, startling Megan into speechlessness. “Why must I be saddled with uppity female servants?”
    Before Megan could draw a breath, she was grasped firmly by the forearm and taken inside.
    “You must be new, so I’ll give you some time to familiarize yourself. Have you worked the creamery before?”
    Rage boiled up inside of Megan, who thought she would not be able to stand one more second of this. She was tempted to stomp on the man’s