Chapter Two
East Dunbartonshire
Glasgow, Scotland
Mid-March 1260
The wretched manrode his horse forward and forced her and her maid Linet to stop. All Kendra Graham hoped to do was enjoy the warmth of the morning on her ride through the countryside. Having been cooped up most of the winter, now Kendra wanted to be outside. With the many difficulties she’d dealt with over the past months, she needed the solace only the outdoors would bring.
Even though the day had warmed enough, the sun remained behind dismal clouds. Still, it wasn’t completely unpleasant—until she was intercepted by her horrid neighbor. Kendra sat upon her mare and raised her face to the sky with a hasty prayer that he wouldn’t detain her. She didn’t want to make idle chatter with the nefarious Lord Ellish Heatherington who’d stopped her just at the pass that led to her family’s land. There was no way to reroute around him and as much as she would like to ignore the man, she couldn’t be rude.
“Mistress, I am surprised to find you out here alone. Should you not have an escort?” The aged man had dark wavy hair with gray-streaked throughout. His face was marked with holes and sparsely covered by whiskers. Though he was garbed in expensive materials, she thought he appeared much like the warlord he professed to be.
“Good day, Lord Heatherington. As youcan see, I am not alone and have my maid with me. Our escort rode ahead and I should like to catch up to them. If you shall excuse me.” Kendra tried to revert her horse to round him, but Heatherington blocked her path. Sky Dancer, her usually sweet-tempered mare, snorted and twitched her brown tail. She was just as displeased to be held up by the horrid man.
Her maid glanced at her with fearful eyes and Kendra tried to ease her by putting a small smile on her face. Linet always hid whenever Heatherington was near. The man had made unpleasant advances toward Linet and many times Kendra had intervened. Heatherington was a scoundrel and a knave. She disliked him immensely.
Heatherington continued to prevent her from moving around him as he directed his horse to block her as he ogled poor Linet. “My offer still stands, Mistress, and I shall be happy to take your maid off your hands. I hear you are in need of coins… Perhaps if I doubled my offer? She would make a good addition to the maids at my fief.” His grin widened with odious snideness.
Linet gasped and her blue eyes rounded at her. Kendra hoped she didn’t fall off her horse in a faint, but graciously, Linet shifted her horse to hide behind her.
Kendra wasn’t in the least threatened by the knave. On many occasions, she’d dealt with him and he’d always acted somewhat respectfully toward her since he hoped to make her his wife.
“My Lord, you cannot purchase my maid. Regardless of how much coin you offer, I will not sell her into servitude.” She disbelieved he’d learned about her family’s coin shortage and that he had the indecency to mention it. Was the fact that they were practically destitute common knowledge?
“I say, that is rather disappointing but alas, it matters not because she shall soon be in my home.” He feigned a pout but then his grin widened. “Mistress Kendra, I profess that you are as beautiful as I remembered. Your hair must be spun from gold and your eyes are as pretty as a bluebell. A man would be rewarded beholding such beautyeach day and I am delighted to be such a man.”
Kendra wondered what he meant when he said Linet would be a member of his home. But with his obtrusive words, she scoffed under her breath at the man’s forwardness. He always spoke expressively and poetically but his words were far from complimentary. They were meant to be pretty, but his tone made them ugly and his voice even grated her every nerve. She never allowed his false flattery to turn her head. There was nothing she could use as a retort to his overly poetic words, and she tried her best not to glare at him.
“Are you as gleeful as I am by our forthcoming wedding?” Ellish bowed his head. “I shall invite all the peerage. At least those who have not instigated my wrath. It will be a grand event and perhaps I will even invite our king to attend. What think you of that?”
Kendra tried not to look daggers at the man, even as she knew his words were nothing but lies. “We are not betrothed, My Lord, so I bid you to cease any arrangements. As I have told you repeatedly, I will not marry you.” He was the last man she’d ever marry. Heatherington knew how she felt about him because she had for the past two years rejected his numerous pursuits with every excuse imaginable.
Still, he’d persisted.
“I am gladdened to announce that yestereve your father finally agreed. Why, only yestereve he accepted my bride price of ten pounds. Now, we can forget this madness and get on with our marriage. I plan for our wedding to occur at the end of the spring season and then you will finally be mine.” He grinned with a wicked tug of his lips and continued to ogle poor Linet. “As will you.”
Was that true? How could it be? Would her father actually betroth her to such a detestable man? Even now, in spite of his state of mind, he had to understand that Heatherington was not only arrogant and vile in thought and word, but that he was also the most unattractive man she’d ever looked upon. His thinning dark hair always appeared damp, his chin weak, his body lean with nary a muscle to show for hisprowess at arms, and worse, he was well over two scores in age. Besides his dubious looks, he was known to be quite vile with a temper and cruelty toward his servants. She could only imagine how he would treat his wife—a wife she’d never be, she vowed. Kendra had done her best to rebuff his advances, but the man wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She had always hoped to marry a man the complete opposite of Ellish.
“Surely, you speak falsely, my Lord. My father would have told me if he made an arrangement with you and he swore not to.”
He snickered. “Did he now? I lined your father’s coffer well for your hand and I expect your submission,” his tone turned from sweet to sour.
Submission. Kendra’s stomach flipped and she thought she’d be ill. Somehow, she suppressed the urge to gag. Her father wouldn’t do such a wretched thing without conferring with her. God, she hoped he hadn’t, and for ten measly pounds? Being bartered for so little made her sick to her stomach. She peered ahead and hoped to see her father’s soldiers, but no one was there.
“I must go before Papa sends the sentry after me. Good day, Lord Heatherington.” Overwrought, she yanked on her horse’s reins. Unused to such harsh treatment, her mare reared onto her hind legs. Kendra grabbed Sky Dancer’s mane tightly and managed to keep her balance to avoid falling off. Surprised, to see her horse’s legs pinoining around his head, Heatherington moved out of her way. Good. Kendra leaned over her horse’s neck and rode hell-bent toward home.
“You don’t think he’s telling the truth, do you?” Linet asked when she caught up to her. Her maid’s long auburn tresses whipped at the breeze of her movement.
Kendra turned to look at Linet and noticed the tears in her pretty blue eyes. “Lord, I hope not. And worry not, Linet, because I would never give you to Heatherington no matter how many coins heoffered for you. Let us ride on and I’ll find my father and ask him.”
Linet was her only friend, the daughter of the maidservant and the steward of their manor. She had lived in their home since the day she was born and had been Kendra’s ever-present companion for most of her life.
Inside the gate, they dismounted and waited for one of the grooms to take the horses. Linet stood beside her, silent and pensive. Kendra shifted her gaze about the baily and wondered where everyone was. At this time of day, there was always activity—men emptying carts from the fields, guards standing about jesting or discussing the day’s events, and children running amok with their mothers chasing after them. But today it was eerily vacant. It was quiet too and only the sound of the wind whipping the pennons atop their manor could be heard.
“Where is everyone?” Linet asked and drew closer to her. “Is there trouble?”
