A Gentle Feuding Read Free Page A

crofters who wanted to fight did—and died. Those who didn’t fight were spared.
    Jamie tarried at the scene of his vengeance, waiting for Dugald Fergusson to come if he dared. He burned crofts that could be seen from the tower battlements, but his band of men was large, and he knew Dugald couldn’t afford to respond. It was really a challenge for vengeance, meant to humiliate his enemy. Once his men were satisfied with victory, he withdrew.
    The feud was on again. Jamie was not pleased by it. He had enough troubles at home without bothering with the faraway Fergussons. The Fergussons had wanted this, and so it was.
    But on the long ride home that day, Jamie was not planning future raids. He was thinking of a beautiful girl in a secluded glen, a mystical maiden with skin like pearl and hair of darkest flame.

Chapter 3
    June 1541
Angusshire, Scotland
    S heena Fergusson stared out over the battlements of Tower Esk, gazing at the peaceful moor, her thoughts anything but peaceful. An early riser by nature, she watched the dawn sky brighten and challenge the pink heather below, and chafed because she was forbidden to leave the tower house, not even for a short brisk ride, not even with a dozen retainers riding beside her.
    It wasn’t fair. But nothing was going right these days, and all because The MacKinnion had decided, last month, to break the truce that had existed for two years. For two peaceful, carefree years Sheena had been allowed the freedom she had known as a child. The first of four daughters and Dugald Fergusson’s favorite, she was always treated with thecare of a treasured heir until the long-hoped-for heir finally arrived. After Niall was born, she was still the favorite daughter—but just a daughter.
    Strange, but she had never resented Niall. She had loved her little brother from the day of his birth. Six years old, a true hoyden, and spoiled terribly, she had been fascinated by the boy baby after the uneventful births of three sisters.
    Their love surprised everyone. By rights, Niall should have been closest to his sister Fiona, for they were only a year apart. Yet it was Sheena he tagged after, Sheena he looked to for amusement, Sheena who gave him the love he needed as he grew from a wee bairn to a young lad. They were inseparable even now. Sheena was nineteen, long past a marriageable age, and Niall was only thirteen and still quite childlike most of the time.
    During a moment of great maturity, Niall had agreed with their father that Sheena should stay within the tower walls. It was no longer safe in the countryside during the day. That was the most galling: the MacKinnions were the only clan to raid by day. All others, including their own, rode under cover of night. But the MacKinnions, ever bold, struck during daylight.
    The fear that had prevailed this last month was disgusting, bringing all kinds of changes into Sheena’s life—the loss of freedom, the threat of marriage, too many arguments. The fights with her sisters were nothing new, but the fights with her father were tearing her apart. And why must theyfight? Was she wrong to want to marry a man she loved? Was it her fault she had yet to fall in love?
    Oh, there had been talk, when she was a child, of a marriage that would create a powerful alliance, but that had stopped two years before, and she had assumed she would be allowed to have a love match. Her father had even said as much. He had taken her side every time her sisters pleaded with him to force her to marry so that they, in turn, could marry. Every one of them had her husband picked out already and was eager for marriage, even fourteen-year-old Fiona. They had had no problems finding love matches that were also powerful unions. Sheena had not had their luck.
    But Dugald Fergusson had refused to rush Sheena. Nor would he allow any of his younger daughters to marry before she did, which would shame her. Now all that was suddenly changed. Now it was imperative that she choose a man