Warrior's Lady Read Free Page A

wet with brackish slime. Mist from the River Clyde hung heavy on the air, seeped through his cloak, while the stench of sewage clotted in his nostrils.
    And despite the dreary, ghostly façade the night cast upon this dangerous part of town, Camden found himself smiling. 'Twas the perfect part of town to find what he needed.
    His boot heels beat a sharp tattoo on the cobbled street. A figure moved out of the shadows and into the light of the torch.
    The glare from the flame made cruel work of the man's haggard and pinched face, and exposed an arsenal of weapons. Three lethal daggers nestled beneath a harness over his chest, and a sword lay strapped to his back. The man waited, hands on hips. "Ye lookin' for trouble?"
    "The smithy said you were looking for work." Camden strode closer.
    The man relaxed his hands. "What kind o' work ye got?"
    "The lethal kind."
    The man smiled, revealing brown, uneven teeth. "Murder?"
    Camden lowered his voice. "Find and kill all the remaining Ruthvens."
    The man's smile slipped. "All o' them?"
    "Aye."
    "It's gonna cost ye."
    Camden's pulse beat thick and urgent in his veins as he unhooked a heavy bag of gold from his belt and tossed it on the ground at the man's feet. "There's half. You'll get the other half when your deed is done."
    A soft jingle shattered the silence of the night as the stranger scooped up the bag. "Should I send ye word when they're dead?"
    "The blacksmith will release the other half of your payment when you prove the remaining Ruthvens are dead."
    The man nodded, then stepped back into the shadows. A moment later he was gone.
    "The Ruthvens will rue the day they betrayed the Lockharts or any of their countrymen," Camden whispered into the night. He expected to feel a sense of satisfaction at the thought. He did not.
    For the last ten years he had dreamed of nothing but his revenge against the Ruthvens. He'd plotted how he would make each and every one of the last remaining males pay for their part in his own torture and imprisonment. He had wanted them to suffer as he had suffered. And now that the moment was at hand, it seemed less than heroic to hire a mercenary to destroy his enemy.
    Clara and Violet need you. The thought steadied him, brought his focus back to the tasks that remained undone.
    He strode back through the alley to his horse. He mounted, then kicked his horse into a gallop. Duty to his family forced his hand. He had no choice but to leave things as they were. Let the stranger execute his revenge.
    His kin needed him more.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Rhiannon Ruthven stopped. She forced her mind to quiet as she concentrated on the blade of soft green grass between her forefinger and her thumb. She held her breath and willed the beat of her heart to slow. The wind whispered through the field in which she lay flat on her back, trying for just a few moments to escape her troubles.
    One blade of grass. Pliant yet strong. Simple yet part of a larger whole. And when one blade of grass went bad the others grew up around it, strangling it out. That's the way it should be. Not one bad blade of grass causing all the other blades of grass to be seen as bad for all eternity.
    Rhiannon released a heartfelt sigh and flicked the blade into the others surrounding her head. "Why can't people be as simple as nature?"
    The moment she gave voice to the words she regretted them. Her thoughts turned to the lecture Mother Agnes had given her when Rhiannon had arrived at Taturn Abbey two weeks ago. It'd had something to do with apples and seeds — she being the bad seed, of course.
    If her father was an apple, she wanted to be a pear.
    Rhiannon squeezed her eyes shut, forcing back tears of pain and of guilt. She'd loved her father, she supposed. Why else would she feel so empty at the thought of his death?
    His brutal murder had turned her life upside down. And yet now that he was gone, why did she feel a sense of peace? Whether or not they liked her, Rhiannon had