Beloved Imposter Read Online Free

captain of the guard.
    Archibald sighed. “I feared that.”
    “It is important to the clan.”
    “Ye canna’ make a man do your bidding. Particularly a Maclean.”
    “If he has no choice …”
    “I do not ken your meaning,” Archibald said.
    “I hear Janet Cameron is visiting the Campbells. Word is she will be traveling home in four days. We can bring her here for Lord Rory.”
    “He will have none of it.”
    “But if she’s taken, she would be ruined,” Douglas said.
    “He would have an obligation. It is said Janet Cameron is a beguiling young lady. Beautiful, well-mannered and obedient. I know Rory. He will want to protect her.”
    “He will have our heads.”
    “He yells much, but he is no’ a cruel man,” Douglas said. “He would know we have the clan’s interest at heart. He is still mourning for Maggie. Perhaps he always will. And for the wife in Edinburgh. But we can help him realize he can be content, that the curse is naught but a myth.”
    “And we will have an heir,” Archibald replied.
    “We will have an heir, and take a measure of revenge upon the Campbells by taking young Campbell’s bride. Pick your men carefully and leave tonight after we depart for a raid across the border. Malcolm and I will keep our lord occupied elsewhere.”
    Chapter 2
    The night was perfect for a raid, though miserable for Rory and the men accompanying him. Freezing winds blew against their mantles and cloaks. Heavy, rain-swollen clouds shrouded the craggy hills in complete darkness.
    Clansmen, familiar with the area and experienced in stealthiness, led the way. Rory was second in the single file of riders. Malcolm, the man second only to Archibald among the Maclean soldiers, led. A scout had gone before them.
    Rory had been gone far too long. He knew he did not yet command the confidence of his clan. He would have to do that tonight. He had expected Archibald to accompany them, but the man was ill, and Malcolm had taken the captain of the guard’s place. The long ride had prompted too many memories, too much time for thought.
    Rory felt none of the anticipation he’d felt as a young lad embarking on his first raid. It had been an adventure then. Little had he known it was to turn into a nightmare.
    His stomach constricted at the memory. He’d been leader of what was to be a small, punishing raid of a Campbell village. But someone had seen them and alerted others. His party had been ambushed. Three had been mortally wounded, and in a vengeful rage, his clansmen had burned every croft. One had raped a woman and killed her child for defending her.
    Rory would never forget the sight of one of his own clansmen standing triumphantly over the body of a young lad who had tried to protect his mother. Nor would he forget the look of surprise on the man’s face when Rory had slain him as he turned on another child.
    He’d been but nineteen, a callow youth who thought he owned the world and was a warrior in the truest sense. He had changed that night and over the succeeding weeks, when he had been mocked and derided by his fellow clansmen. It ended only when his father and Patrick had supported his actions. He’d known that some among his clan did not understand, would never understand, his defense of a Campbell. Even a Campbell child.
    He remembered every moment now. He felt the sickness in his gut as he had then.
    He would have left Inverleith, his clan’s seat, had he not met and married Maggie. She’d brought magic into his world, as well as solace. She had understood his pain over that night and had told him that was why she loved him.
    That magic and happiness had lasted exactly fifteen months.
    He did leave then, and had gone to sea, finally marrying the daughter of the shipping master and becoming captain. It had been a marriage of convenience for both of them, and yet he had come to care deeply for Anne. It was not the magic that he’d had with Maggie, but he did care for her and tried to make her happy the