Free Grasso, Patricia by Love in a Mist

looked up at the sun riding high in a cloudless blue sky. She knew that forever afterward, the midday sun would remind her of the day she finally met her father.
    "Maybe we should have left our belongings at the tavern," Odo remarked, remembering what had transpired at Ludlow Castle.
    Keely shook her head. "If Robert Talbot refuses to acknowledge me, we will return to Wales."
    "Are you certain?"
    "My mind is set."
    "I hope that earl we robbed doesn't live nearby," Hew said, glancing around nervously. The tavern's proprietor had already informed them that all of England's nobles kept residences in the Strand, London's most elite section.
    "Harbor no fears on that account," Keely told them. "I've invoked the Goddess's power for your protection."
    "Too bad you didn't ask her to make us invisible," Hew muttered.
    "Why, cousin," Keely said with a smile, "I never thought of an invisibility shield."
    "No dallying," Odo said. "Time to meet your father, little girl."
    Keely paled at his words but nodded. She was as ready as she'd ever be. Together, she and her cousins entered the duke's mansion. Surprisingly, no one stopped or questioned them. Inside the main foyer, servants hurried past them while a couple of men-at-arms stood near the wall on their left and talked together.
    When they tried to enter the great hall, a servant blocked their path and demanded, "Who goes here? What is your business?"
    "We want the duke," Odo replied.
    "Is there a problem, Meade?" a man's voice called from inside the hall.
    Meade glanced over his shoulder and said, "No, Your Grace." Turning back to the three intruders, he snapped, "The duke has guests and cannot be disturbed. Now, get out!"
    Keely's heart sank, and her bottom lip quivered in her valiant struggle to control her aching emotion. She was being turned away. Again.
    "We've traveled many miles to see his high-and-mighty," Odo growled at the man.
    "We aren't leaving, you turd," Hew added.
    Keely stifled a nervous, horrified giggle. "You mean toad," she whispered.
    "He means turd," Odo said.
    "Take your doxy and leave," Meade ordered, pointing a finger toward the door, "or I'll call the guard."
    "Call all the guards you want," Odo said, lifting the hapless servant by his neck and flinging him into the hall, where he crashed on the floor.
    A woman screamed.
    A man cursed.
    A third voice boomed, "What is the meaning of this?"
    With Odo and Hew marching in front of her and blocking her view, Keely walked into the great hall. The scene wasn't exactly as she'd envisioned, but she'd made it inside.
    "Are you the Duke of Ludlow?" Odo demanded.
    "Yes."
    At that, the Welsh giants stepped aside, and Keely found herself standing only inches before a powerfully built, middle-aged nobleman. His startling violet eyes and thick ebony hair matched hers.
    "Are you Robert Talbot?" Keely asked in a small voice.
    The nobleman paled, and his eyes clouded as though he were caught in the midst of remembered pain. "Megan?" he asked in an aching whisper, one of his hands reaching toward her. "Is it you?"
    "My name is Keely," she told him. Oh, why did he seem so tortured? He had, after all, deserted her mother.
    Duke Robert shook his head as if to clear it. His imagination was playing a cruel prank on him. Megan had been dead these past eighteen years.
    "Where did you get that?" the duke asked, dropping his gaze to the dragon pendant, glittering against the crisp whiteness of her linen blouse.
    "My mother gave it to me," Keely said. Her hand shielded the pendant. It was her mother's legacy to her, and she'd rather die than let anyone take it away, sire or not.
    "And where did she get it?"
    "My sire gifted her with it," Keely told him, her violet gaze locking meaningfully on his. "Eighteen years ago."
    "What is her name?" the duke asked, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
    "Megan Glendower."
    "Does your mother still live?" he asked, unable to mask the eager, hopeful tone in his voice.
    Keely shook her head. "She's been dead