Free Rowan's Lady by Suzan Tisdale

swollen
face. Unruly auburn hair framed her face and cascaded down her shoulders. Guilt
enveloped him for having treated her so harshly before.
    He thought she looked vaguely familiar but he was
having a difficult time placing her face with a memory.
    Arline however, knew him. Good lord! she
thought to herself. ’Tis him .
    She had never known his name but his face had been
permanently burned into her memory. Theirs had been a very brief encounter in a
dark hallway seven years past. He had come to thank her for helping save the
lives of his friends, Angus McKenna and Duncan McEwan. Nothing else had
happened other than the stranger thanking her for what she had done.
    It had been his beautiful face and dark brown eyes
that taken her breath away back then. Time had done nothing to lessen the
affect he had on her.
    He still wore his dark brown hair long, past his
shoulders. His face, though seven years older now, was still beyond handsome.
If anything, time had only added to his good looks. Arline felt her legs grow
weak as his dark brown eyes stared up at her.
    “This be Lady Arline Lindsay,” Daniel explained.
    “It be Lindsay no more, Daniel,” Arline corrected
him.
    Daniel gave her a thoughtful nod. “Aye, I heard
what Blackthorn said in the hallway, m’lady. But ye no longer be married to the
whoreson, so I think we can call ye a Lindsay again.”
    Arline supposed it was better than being referred
to as the former Lady Blackthorn and decided now was not the time to argue it
further.
    Daniel turned back to Rowan who continued to stare
at Arline. “She be the one that helped Angus and Duncan back in ’47,” Daniel
explained. “She was married to Carlich Lindsay. Do ye remember now?”
    Rowan’s eyes grew wide with surprise. He
remembered. She had been younger then and not quite as skinny as she was now.
She had saved Angus and Duncan from hanging. Angus was the chief of the clan
that Rowan had fostered in, the clan MacDougall. Duncan was married to
Aishlinn, Angus’ eldest daughter. To this day, he and Duncan remained as close
as brothers.
    Had it not been for Lady Arline Lindsay, Angus and
Duncan would be dead. Rowan had told her seven years ago that he would be
forever in her debt. Now, it seemed, he was beholden to her again.
    His face suddenly turned ashen with embarrassment.
“Me lady, please, forgive me,” he began.
    She stopped him with a wave of her hand. “Do no’
worry it, me laird. There is no time now. Ye must away this place now!”
    Rowan stood, looking perplexed and torn. Frederick
stepped forward to speak. “Rowan, there be no time fer explanation. But we must take Lady Arline with us. Blackthorn has annulled their marriage and is
casting her out this night. Without escort or even a horse.”
    Rowan blinked in disbelief. “Ye canna be serious,”
he exclaimed. Although he had known Garrick Blackthorn for many years and knew
him to be a selfish bastard, this bit of news shook him.
    “Aye, I am,” Frederick said.
    “Nay,” Arline interjected, finally pulling her
eyes away from Rowan. Had circumstances been different, she wouldn’t have
minded staring at him for say a few short decades. “I canna go with ye! Garrick
is sending a man back at any moment, to escort me from the keep. If he returns
and finds us both missin’, we’ll no’ be able to survive this night!”
    Arline made her way to the closet and pulled out
the dress, cloak and stockings she had made for Lily. She had no time to think
about the pain shooting down her side or her legs. Quickly, she made her way
around the wall of men and to the bed. “I was plannin’ on taking Willie--” she
corrected herself quickly, “Lily, away this night. I found a way out just last
night!” She explained her plan to the men as she carefully drew back the
blankets and began to dress Lily.
    “There is a secret corridor that leads to a set of
hidden stairs. Ye’ll take those to the bowels of the castle. There is a metal
gate at the end.