Free Highland Fire (Guardians of the Stone) by Tanya Anne Crosby Page A

blood of my father into my bed.”
    “Would that you had decided sooner!” she dared to scold him. “But I did not kill your father, Aidan dún Scoti . Your people cursed an innocent child.”
    Hearing the name her kinfolk called him, the Scot from the hills, Aidan grimaced. By the sins of sluag, he was no bloody Scotsman! “Aye,” he argued, “though your father did—in cold blood I might add. If, in fact, your life has been accursed, mo chroí , you may blame Padruig Caimbeul, not my kin . ”
    Illuminated by the rising flames, her violet eyes seemed to deepen to a shade this side of black. “I never said I blamed your kin.”
    “And yet you do?”
    The question was a challenge. They both knew very well that there was enmity between them—enmity that stemmed from circumstances far beyond this moment—beyond any words that had ever been spoken between them.
    Her eyes glistened by the light of the fire, but she dared to lift her chin. “As you blame me?”
    That too, was a challenge.
    The bonfire grew brighter, crackling in the twilight.
    Aidan was well aware that now that he had arrived, those of his kinfolk who had avoided the celebration before were drifting into the circle. They were watching him and his bride. Even the children looked to their chieftain for direction, for if these guests rose up against them, he would be the one to lead his warriors to their defense.
    But this was no warrior standing before him.
    She was a woman... a woman unlike any he had ever known.
    She looked like an English loving Scot, sounded like a Scot, but her eyes gave him a feeling of kinship that he should not in good conscience share with a woman whose father had committed such atrocities upon his clan.
    And yet... he had agreed for her to become his wife. At some point, he must find a way to put aside their differences and embrace her... for the good of all.
    Unless he truly planned to kill her for her father’s sins... and what true justice was there in that? Revenge, although he had certainly entertained those notions, were not the reason he had agreed to this union. It was not his duty to conquer. It was his duty to protect the stone, and the best way to accomplish that was to stay out of petty wars.
    He gazed across the fire at her companions, wondering if their treatment of Lìleas were somehow a trick, a scheme to pluck at his heartstrings... for despite his resolve not to be affected by the lass, he sensed her torment just the same. It weighed the air around them like a black cloud... invisible but there... like Una’s visions—things he could not see with his eyes, but he could certainly feel them.
    “Why did you agree to wed me?” he asked suddenly, needing to know.
    She peered up at him, her violet eyes reflecting the bonfire. Tiny flames danced in her gaze. “I could ask the same of you?” she countered. And once again, her chin lifted defiantly.
    She was a quick little temptress with a depth of knowing in her eyes that unsettled him. But verra well, he would play her game if he must. “And to your mind... what would be the acceptable reply?”
    “For peace,” she professed without hesitation.
    Aidan nodded, suddenly at a loss for words, for while he wished to say the same, he had not brought her here for that reason. Vengeance was never truly his motive, he reassured himself once more, but somewhere inside a fire cooled at her answer. And yet her presence here at Dubhtolargg was only assurance that her father would not bear arms against them, so long as he valued his daughter. If he did not value her, then they held no advantage at all. She was simply a viper in their midst, spying for her Da and for David mac Mhaoil Chaluim.
    Could he afford to trust her?
    If she spoke the truth… could he wipe the bitterness from his heart and take her at her word? After all, she was right; she was not her father.
    Aidan felt the scrutiny of his clansmen acutely. As his brother had done, they would treat his bride as he