The Conquest Read Free

sees me?”
    Elspeth snorted. “Rhiannon, most any woman would give their soul to have your beauty. Your hair is like silk, and your eyes are so unique.”
    “I was once called a witch because of my eyes.”
    “Your eyes are unusual because one seldom sees such a color. Ye are an unrivaled beauty and ye shall make your future husband weak at the knees, this I promise.”
    Some of the trepidation she’d been feeling left her. “What if he is displeased with me in the bedchamber?”
    Elspeth closed her eyes and muttered something unintelligible under her breath. “Ye will drive us both crazy if ye do not quit fretting about such things, Rhiannon. Soon ye shall meet your intended and the mystery will be over. And remember, any woman would love to trade places with ye, even if her intended looks like a toad.”
    “My mother was beautiful and yet my father locked her away,” Rhiannon said absently, stepping into her shoes.
    “Aye, I have heard the stories, lass.”
    “How could he vow to love and protect her and yet imprison her? She did nothing to deserve such a fate—save for the fact he loved another. That is why she died so soon, Elspeth. At the time it happened, I was too young to understand the truth. When Father took Deirdre as his bride months later, my heart turned to stone, and I never trusted him again.”
    As usual, whenever Rhiannon thought of her mother, a mixture of melancholy and anger washed over her. Her mother had been such a docile creature who had loved her husband, and in return had endured horrible atrocities at his hands. And all because he had fallen in love with another woman. And now her father would force Rhiannon into an unwanted marriage.
    Oh, the irony.
    “Do not fret about the things ye cannot change, Rhiannon. If ye are at peace with yourself, then all else will fall into place.” Elspeth gathered up the drying cloth and soap. “Come, we have dallied long enough, my dear.”
    “Promise me this, Elspeth. If de Cion is deplorable, and I have no desire to marry him, will ye flee with me?”
    Elspeth took Rhiannon’s hand in her own. “Of course. Ye have been like my own daughter, even though ye are but seven years younger than me. I’ll never leave ye. Not ever. If ye take one look at de Cion and feel he is not the one for ye, then by God, we shall run as fast and as far as our feet will carry us.”
    Touched by her friend’s devotion, Rhiannon embraced her tightly and kissed her cheek. “Thank ye for leaving everything behind to go with me. I know it must be hard, especially leaving someone ye love.”
    Putting her at arm’s length, Elspeth frowned. “I love no one but my family and ye.”
    “No one else?”
    “Aye, no one.”
    Rhiannon opened her mouth to ask about Antony when a bell sounded in the distance, making her heart jolt in trepidation.
    Elspeth’s eyes widened. “Dear God, your betrothed has arrived!”
     

 

Chapter 2
     
    Adelstan Cawdor followed Laird MacKay beneath the giant portcullis of Castle MacKay. The immense wooden fortress with a large stone tower sat high on a hill overlooking the coastline, a formidable stronghold that had spent the better part of a century defending itself against the Danes.
    A good thing he had come as a guest.
    Indeed, he had received a most warm, if not exuberant, reception. Laird MacKay had personally ridden out to meet Adelstan and his men, a wide smile on his face as he bade them welcome. However, that same smile thinned considerably the moment he learned Adelstan had come in place of Malgor de Cion, his daughter’s intended.
    Laird MacKay’s dark eyes narrowed. “Might I assume Lord Malgor is on his deathbed?” There was no misinterpreting the anger in the chieftain’s voice.
    “ Nearly on his deathbed,” Adelstan said with a reassuring smile he hoped put the older man’s fears to rest.
    “And what, pray tell, has caused him to be so ill that he could not claim my daughter, his betrothed, himself?”
    Adelstan,