This Heart of Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

England since their betrothal? He might have taken the opportunity to get to know Velvet gradually, and she might even have fallen in love with him, or, at the very least, learned to like him.
    Alex shook his head to clear it. The girl was betrothed to him and would be his wife whether they liked each other or not. It was proper that a father matched his daughter to suit himself, and that the daughter did her parent’s bidding unquestioningly. Once she was his wife Velvet would bear his children uncomplainingly, and do his bidding without question as she had done her father’s. That was a woman’s lot. Women needed a tight rein or else they ran wild. God only knew his sister, Annabella, was proof of that. He need have no regrets that he had neglected Velvet. It was enough they were betrothed.
    Oh, he had visited Italy and France where the men often made fools of themselves over the women they loved; but that was not a Scotsman’s way. A woman was made for a man’s comfort: to bear his bairns so that his name might not die, to give him pleasure, and to warm his backside on a frosty night. His own mother had been a sweet and biddable woman who had openly adored his father and willingly done all that Angus Gordon had asked. With such an example to follow Alex wondered why Bella was so headstrong, but then that was Ian Grant’s fault. If his brother-in-law had taken a switch to Bella’s backside at the beginning of their marriage, she’d not be so forward today.
    Alex didn’t intend to make that mistake with his young wife once they were wed. He didn’t actually hold with beating a woman, for he considered himself a civilized man; but he fully intended to impress upon his bride immediately at the start of their union that it was he would be master here at Dun Broc, and in every other aspect of their married life. He would never be ruled by his woman.
    His amber-gold eyes strayed to the miniature he now heldin his hand. Damn, but she was a beauty! This latest portrait showed dark auburn curls tumbling about soft shoulders and a budding young bosom. He smiled to himself. Her beauty was just another advantage to be enjoyed. He would write to Adam de Marisco tonight and send the message south tomorrow with one of his own people. He would follow his own messenger within the next few weeks since there was no use in delaying. The lass would be fifteen on the first of May, and although at the time of the betrothal the wedding had been set for the summer of Velvet’s sixteenth year, that would now have to be changed. His father’s untimely death made it imperative that he marry immediately. He needed a son and heir now! It was past time to claim that which had been promised to him that sunny English summer of 1578. Alex smiled with self-satisfaction at the thought of the lovely girl who would soon grace his house, while about the towers of Dun Broc the last snowflakes of winter capered madly in the wild wind in silent celebration of what was to come.
    The prospective bride was not nearly so welcoming of her proposed future. To begin with she could not even remember having a betrothed husband, since she had been so young when the match was formally made, the contracts signed, and the event celebrated. Staring at her beleaguered Uncle Conn, her mother’s youngest brother, she angrily shouted her frustration with the topsy-turvy muddle her complacent life had suddenly become when the messenger from Dun Broc had arrived.
    “Betrothed husband? What betrothed husband? I do not understand this at all, Uncle! I have no betrothed husband!” Velvet de Marisco looked furiously at Lord Bliss as if he were personally responsible for her high dudgeon.
    Aiden St. Michael put a restraining hand on her husband’s velvet-clad arm. “Let me, Conn,” she pleaded softly.
    He was openly relieved to have her take over. Velvet in a temper was far too much for him to handle.
    “Velvet dearest,” said Lady Bliss quietly, “perhaps you do not