Heir to Sevenwaters Read Free

and looked up, realizing that the man who had seized me had been the very one whose arrival at Sevenwaters I had been keenly awaiting since my cousin Johnny had sent word that he would be here for the wedding. I could think of better circumstances under which I might have met him.
    “Aidan!” I said, smiling awkwardly. “Welcome back! I was thinking about something else and you scared me. So Johnny’s arrived?” I’d been really foolish. All of Johnny’s men wore gray cloaks, the better to blend in with the hues of the forest. Both Aidan, whom I knew, and the other warrior, who was a stranger to me, wore them. Both had the facial markings, tattoos around the eye and nose suggestive of particular creatures—Aidan’s a lark, the other man’s a fox—that were worn as both mark of individuality and badge of brotherhood by every member of Johnny’s war band.
    “We got here not long ago,” Aidan said. He was regarding me quizzically, and I wondered if he had actually forgotten me since last spring, when he had come to Sevenwaters as part of my cousin’s escort and had seemed to take a particular interest in me. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Is everything all right?”
    He was just as good-looking as I’d remembered: tall and broad-shouldered, with a strong-boned face, well-kept brown hair and friendly eyes. He was by far the most handsome of all Johnny’s men, I thought; at least, all of them whom I’d met. My cousin was a leader of elite warriors. He ran an establishment that offered training in all aspects of combat, and his personal guards were the best of the best. As my father’s heir, Johnny spent part of every year with us at Sevenwaters and always brought a complement of five or six guards with him. The other man was staring at me. I must answer Aidan’s question. I opened my mouth to do so, but the dark man spoke first.
    “This has to be one of Johnny’s multiplicity of female cousins—the blinding red of that hair confirms it. Now, which one is it? Not the baby; not the seer; not the eldest, whom we already know. And the crippled one’s at Harrowfield. This can’t possibly be the young lady getting married tomorrow. I deduce it’s the one you’ve mentioned more times than is altogether appropriate, Aidan. What did you say she had a talent for? Oh, that’s right, housewifely skills, washing and cooking, that kind of thing.” He gave an ostentatious yawn. “Forgive me, but I can’t imagine anything more boring.”
    He might as well have smacked me in the face. I struggled for a response.
    “Cathal!” Aidan had flushed scarlet. “Please ignore my friend,” he added, turning toward me. “I keep trying to train him in the social niceties but thus far he’s failed to grasp them.”
    “We’re warriors, not courtiers.” Cathal spoke with studied weariness. “One doesn’t need social niceties on the battlefield.”
    “You’re not on the battlefield, you’re a guest in the home of a respected chieftain,” I snapped, unable to control my annoyance. “We do maintain a basic level of good manners here. Perhaps my cousin was so busy giving you a run-down of our personal characteristics that he neglected to mention that.”
    Cathal looked through me.
    “Clodagh, I’m mortified by my friend’s rudeness,” Aidan said, offering me his arm. “His name is Cathal and, like me, he’s from Whiteshore. Johnny left him back on the island last year, and perhaps that’s where he should have stayed. We’re so sorry if we’ve upset you.”
    “Speak for yourself,” said Cathal.
    I wasn’t sure I wanted to introduce myself to such a disagreeable individual, but I was the daughter of the house, and if this was Aidan’s friend, unlikely as that seemed, I had better at least go through the motions. “I’m Clodagh, third daughter of Lord Sean and Lady Aisling,” I said tightly. “Welcome to Sevenwaters. I’m surprised to see you down here.” The lake shore was at some distance from the