A Promise of Love Read Online Free

sons of Satan."
    Despite her fatigue and her anxiety, Judith almost smiled.
    At that moment, the old woman noticed the stranger. She peered through the gloom and then turned to Malcolm with a questioning look. He chuckled and dismounted, bent down and kissed her swiftly on the cheek.
    "Peace, Sophie," he said, pulling her tiny, bent frame into a hug. "Ye're still me only love."
    "Malcolm, be still," she said brusquely, but Judith could see that she was pleased by the gesture. "Well," she said, addressing her question to Judith, "who are you?"
    "In a moment, Sophie, ye'll find out soon enough." When Judith made a motion to dismount, he waved her back into position. She stifled a groan. If she were to travel any further tonight, she didn't think that she could manage it. As it was, she felt permanently welded to the saddle. Riding astride might have been safer during their journey, but weeks of it would no doubt have lasting consequences upon some portions of her anatomy better left unmentioned.
    The bronze door opened with a bang, and a white shirted figure bounded down the steps. He hugged Malcolm with pleasure, gripped his arms and pulled away as if inspecting for damage.
    "You did well, Malcolm. I saw them from the battlements. Well done!" He noticed the direction of the other man's gaze and followed it.
    The twilight shadows had deepened in the courtyard; the only way Judith knew he turned in her direction was that the shirt moved as if it belonged to a disembodied ghost.
    Judith tensed as the white shape moved closer.
    Malcolm quickly strode between them. With one hand, he gripped his laird’s well filled sleeve. With another, he grasped the hem of Judith’s riding habit. He grinned, which should have given Judith some indication that all was not well. Unfortunately, either she was too bemused by the sight of those teeth gleaming in the darkness or too exhausted from the long trip to feel much anxiety.
    However, Malcolm managed to shock her from fatigue with his next words.
    "Judith, meet the Lord o' Tynan, Alisdair MacLeod, yer husband. An'," he quickly amended, before either of them could say a word, "Alisdair, meet Judith, yer wife."
    "Wife?" Alisdair roared.
    "Husband?" Judith’s grip upon Molly’s reins was so tight her hands felt burned by the leather.
    "Did ye hear that, Sophie?" Malcolm asked calmly of the old woman.
    "Yes, Malcolm, I did at that." Her thin lips were pursed in a smile.
    "Well, I did, too. Congratulations, ye are now wedded according to the laws o' Scotland."
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
     
    "Are you all right, child?" Sophie asked kindly. Judith nodded, bemused. How could she explain that she was teetering between incredulity and a certainty she was dreaming?
    "That was simply a farce, was it not? Some odd Scottish greeting? I cannot truly be married." Her face was too white; Sophie wondered if the girl was about to swoon. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her, the knuckles so bony it was as if no flesh covered them at all.
    Sophie passed Judith a candle from its perch inside the double bronze doors. The pitifully small wick did little to illuminate the deep, shaded corners of the Great Hall, merely danced wildly in the draft, casting unfriendly shadows against already blackened walls. Whoever had burned the castle had done a fine job of it.
    The older woman led the way to the rear of the main floor, waved Judith to a chair close to a fire burning brightly in the hearthstone fireplace. She leaned heavily on her cane and studied the young woman. There was a studied lack of expression in those dark eyes and she held herself too tightly, elbows pressed against her sides, hands clenched together.
    Terrified, that was plain to see.
    Sophie bent laboriously, thrusting a long twig into the fire, using its burning tip to light more candles on the mantle, playing for time while her thoughts raced.
    “There are four ways to wed in Scotland, my dear,” she said finally. “To be wed in the Kirk, by