Page 4 of Bond of a Bewitched Highlander

"'Tis madness! He would never do that." An icy chill passed over her. "Did he write that in the missive?"

"Will told me he did," Corran said.

"Why did Will nay tell me himself?" Betrayal lashed at her.

"He feared you would run away."

Indeed, she probably would have. Her thoughts spun, searching for logical objections. "Since he's an earl, he would nay wish to marry anyone below another earl's daughter."

"Ha. You're nay a hideous nobody. Your great beauty is known far and wide. Besides, you two already know each other." Kieran grinned.

"Do not speak of it! I hardly remember it anyway." Her memories of that night were choppy and indistinct. Had she drunk too much, or had the witch given her a potion? Her focus had been getting far away from Brodie, to keep the witch from murdering him. Fear for his life had almost driven Elsea insane. She frowned, trying to recall. 'Twas all mist and fog. The earl had given her sherry to drink at her cousin's wedding banquet. She remembered little after that. Somehow, she had ended up at his castle, not too far from where the wedding had taken place. Then she had woken up in his bed.

The earl had made himself scarce. The next day, his servants had put her into a fancy carriage and conveyed her back to Kincreag. Will had not challenged the earl, for she had told him she'd decided to go with him. Besides, a chief alone, without the backing of another earl or high-ranking aristocrat, did not challenge an earl unless he wished to lose everything.

"Well, the dashing earl must remember that night," Kieran said. "And wishes to make you an honest woman."

Elsea narrowed her eyes. She did not wish to see Talnaroch's smug face ever again, much less marry him. 'Twould be hell on earth.

Shouts echoed from the guard tower, followed by the clanging of the portcullis being raised.

"Sounds like he's here." Corran strode away, Kieran following.

She rushed after them toward the stable's entrance and peered out. 'Twas indeed Talnaroch with his stylish, cropped tawny hair and affluent Lowland clothing along with a large garrison, 'haps forty or fifty men. Her heart rate increased.

"Plague take the man," she muttered.

Chapter 2

The groom and stable lads hurried to help with the visitors' fine horses. Elsea could not cross the bailey now without the Earl of Talnaroch seeing her.

Her stomach ached with nerves. She was not ready to face him, nor would she ever be. Saints! If she could escape these walls with her horse, she would disappear.

Where would she go? South to her aunt's, where her mother now was? Or west to her cousins, the MacElraths' holdings?

With jittery hands, she latched the door to Freya's stall and slid underneath it so that no one would suspect she was inside.

"What am I doing?" she whispered. Hiding like a frightened child? 'Twas madness, but she had to think. Talnaroch's arrival was not only mortifying but also a shock. She didn't wish to see that knave. Ever. On the surface, he was handsome, sure, but he was the one man she wished she had never met. She did not blame him for her breakup with Brodie; she blamed Wilona MacRae. But Talnaroch was the reason Elsea could never face Brodie again.

Talnaroch had treated her no better than a tavern wench. Why would he suddenly wish to marry her? It made no sense.

In the dark stall, she petted Freya and listened as the men unsaddled and brushed the newly arriving horses, then brought them into the stalls to feed them. She wished they would hurry so she could go inside without anyone seeing her.

"We'll nay be here long," a stranger said outside the stall door. "His lairdship wishes to leave at first light."

"What's the rush?" The voice belonged to Randall, one of her brother's guards.

Elsea stilled, trying to hide her presence.

"Business," the man said evasively.

"What sort?" Randall said in a secretive tone.

Elsea frowned. Did the two men know each other?

"We're paid well for our silence on the matter." The stranger's words were barely audible over the noise of men brushing and feeding horses.

"How much?"