David smiled broadly. “Then I would be glad to accept your hospitality.”
In the end, David stayed on for a fortnight, until Mairin’s dowry was delivered. Her husband and the king, after a wary start, actually got along quite famously. They hunted many of the evenings, going out with Ewan’s brothers and returning to drink ale in the hall and argue over who brought in the biggest kill.
David’s health rapidly improved with Gertie’s cooking and Mairin’s nagging for him to rest. When he rode out with the contingent of soldiers who delivered her dowry, Mairin was actually quite sad to see him go.
That night, in the privacy of their chamber, Ewan made sweet love to her, and afterward she giggled at the memory of telling her laird he was unskilled at loving.
“What amuses you, wife? ’Tis a sin to laugh right after a man has indulged in loving.”
She smiled and snuggled into his arms. As he always did, he cradled her to him, protectively surrounding her burgeoning belly.
“I was remembering certain inaccurate assessments I made about your prowess.”
“Damn right you were wrong,” he growled.
She laughed again and then sighed in contentment. “ ’Tis a wonderful day, Ewan. Our clan is saved. We can feed our clan, clothe our children, and supply our men with the weapons and armor they so desperately need.”
“Aye, sweeting, ’tis a wonderful day.” Then he turned and kissed her until she couldn’t draw breath. He gazed down at her with such tenderness in his eyes that her heart fluttered in her chest. “Almost as wonderful as the day you first stepped onto McCabe land.”
Seduction of a Highland Lass is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2011 by Maya Banks
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51950-4
Cover design: Lynn Andreozzi
Cover illustration: Alan Ayers
www.ballantinebooks.com
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Contents
Master - Table of Contents
Seduction of a Highland Lass
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
CHAPTER 1
Alaric McCabe looked out over the expanse of McCabe land and grappled with the indecision plaguing him. He breathed in the chilly air and looked skyward. It wouldn’t snow this day. But soon. Autumn had settled over the highlands. Colder air and shorter days had pushed in.
After so many years of struggling to eke out an existence, to rebuild their clan, his brother Ewan had made great strides in restoring the McCabes to their former glory. This winter, their clan wouldn’t go hungry. Their children wouldn’t go without proper clothing.
Now it was time for Alaric to do his part for his clan. In a short time, he would travel to the McDonald holding where he would formally ask for Rionna McDonald’s hand in marriage.
It was pure ceremony. The agreement had been struck weeks earlier. Now the aging laird wanted Alaric to spend time among the McDonalds, a clan that would one day become Alaric’s when he married McDonald’s daughter and only heir.
Even now the courtyard was alive with activity as a contingent of McCabe soldiers readied to make the journey with Alaric.
Ewan, Alaric’s older brother and laird of the McCabe clan, had wanted to send his most trusted men to accompany Alaric on his journey, but Alaric refused. There was still danger to Ewan’s wife, Mairin, who was heavily pregnant with Ewan’s child.
As long as Duncan Cameron was alive, he posed a threat to the McCabes. He coveted what was Ewan’s—Ewan’s wife and Ewan’s eventual control of Neamh Álainn, a legacy brought through his marriage to Mairin, the daughter of the former king of Scotland.
And now because of the tenuous peace in the highlands and the threat Duncan Cameron posed not only to the neighboring clans, but to King David’s throne, Alaric agreed to the marriage that would cement an alliance between the McCabes and the only clan whose lands rested between Neamh Álainn and McCabe land.