Love Wild and Fair Read Free

happens in the courting, I plan to make Catriona my wife. Remember that.”
    “Aye, aye,” assented the Master of Greyhaven, but his wife felt a little shudder at her nephew’s words. Why, he loves her already, she thought, surprised. He has probably felt this way towards her since childhood. First he will woo her gently, but if that does not work, he will woo her harshly, for he means to have her. Oh, my innocent daughter! I hae best teach ye what I know before your impatient lover loses his patience and fills your belly wi his bairn.
    She heard her nephew speak again.
    “I will tell her myself of this change. She must not know that we ever discussed it.”
    When Patrick reentered the hall, Catriona was dancing with his brother, Adam. Taking his younger sibling’s place, Patrick finished the dance with her. She was flushed, and laughing. It was all he could do not to tumble her there and then, so strong was his desire. He caught her hand and, drawing her away from their families into the privacy of a little alcove, told her, “I hae been thinking that perhaps we should nae wed until sometime next year. When I left Glenkirk ye were a little girl. I return to find ye a lovely woman. I am anxious to make ye my wife, sweetheart. But I realize ye don’t really know me. Would ye mind if we took the time to know each other?”
    For the first time that evening she smiled at him. “Nay, my lord. I would like that. But what if we find we don’t like each other?”
    He cocked an eyebrow. “Do ye snore, Catriona? Or perhaps chew the betel nut of the East?”
    Laughingly she shook her head in the negative.
    “Do ye like music, and poetry, and the melodious sounds of foreign tongues? Do ye like riding out in the misty quiet of a spring morning, or beneath a border moon on an autumn’s evening? Does the first snow of winter delight ye? Do ye like bathing naked in a hidden stream on a hot summer’s day?”
    “Aye,” she whispered softly, and for some reason her heart beat quickly. “I love all those things, my lord.”
    “Then, my dear, ye should love me, for I love those things also.”
    Catriona’s thick dark-golden lashes brushed against her flushed cheeks and the little pulse in her throat quickened. My first breach in the ice, Patrick thought, and pressed his luck further. “Will ye seal our bargain wi a kiss?” he asked.
    She raised her head, and her leaf-green eyes gazed at him a moment. Closing her eyes, she pursed her rosebud mouth at him. Gravely he touched her lips with his.
    “Thank ye, Catriona,” he said gently. “Thank ye for yer first kiss.”
    “How did ye know?”
    “Innocence has a beauty all of its own, my love.” He stood. “Let me escort you back to your guests.”
    When they appeared in the hall, Heather noted with relief that her daughter no longer looked sulky and her nephew looked content. He’ll win her over, she thought. And looking on Glenkirk with a woman’s eye, she said softly to herself, “Oh, my Cat! What a lovely adventure awaits ye!”

Chapter 2

    F IONA Leslie lay on her bed, musing about her cousin Patrick, the Earl of Glenkirk. She thought how very much she would like to be his countess. Instead, that milk-and-water virgin Catriona Hay was to be his wife! Ridiculous!
    Fiona knew that there had once been talk of a match between her and Glenkirk. Then Grandmam had interfered, and she’d ended up married to that weak fool Owen Stewart. How she had hated the old lady for that. Grandmam had known it.
    Owen had been sickly and, though eager for his lush, seventeen-year-old-bride, unable to consummate the marriage. It didn’t matter at all to Fiona, who hadn’t been a virgin since thirteen. She’d quickly found what she sought on her husband’s estate.
    His name was Fionn, and he was a huntsman. He was big and brutal with no sexual refinements, but when he pushed himself into her, she thought she’d go mad with delight. Then the impossible happened, and she miscalculated.