Claire Delacroix Read Online Free Page A

manner genial as ever. Aileen was certain, however, that she could detect a similar uncertainty in their guest’s motives.
    Her father had taught her when to be suspicious, after all.
    “One would not wish to insult such a powerful guest, Nigel,” Blanche cooed. When Aileen’s father did not immediately agree, Blanche dropped her voice beguilingly. “You may be certain that I will offer compense for your inconvenience later, my lord.” She ran a fingertip up his arm and licked her lips so overtly that Aileen felt obliged to glance away. The maids giggled.
    The Lord of Abernye flushed. “Oh course, Blanche. Whatsoever you desire is my will.” He ceded to his new wife’s demand as readily as that, much to Aileen’s disgust, looking more like a besotted boy than a man of fifty summers. Her father was a large and genial man, cursed to see the good in the hearts of others at the expense of being blind to their flaws.
    Blanche stood testimony to that.
    Aileen addressed her own toe, driven by this exchange to remind her father of all he had once claimed to believe. “Forgive me, Father, but I am confused. Is it so that even if your guest comes with no stated intent or invitation, even if he travels beyond far for no apparent purpose, even if he is most dreaded man in Christendom, Blanche must not be denied her whim in courting his favor?”
    Blanche granted Aileen a look fit to curdle milk.
    “Aileen, you see danger in no more than shadows,” her father said heartily. “A man’s repute is not the fullness of him.”
    “It was you who counseled me that smoke oft warns of a flame.” Aileen reminded him quietly and her father had the grace to color.
    “This is not the same, Aileen...”
    Aileen continued, feeling a strange compulsion to warn her father. She could not dismiss the sense of foreboding she had had when she held the Hawk’s gaze. “Father, this man, rumored to be both violent and reclusive, has ridden across all of Scotland to visit Abernye, unannounced and uninvited. Why? He is neither liege or vassal to you, his lands do not abut ours, and further, the spring weather is unruly.”
    Aileen heard her voice rise slightly in the face of her father’s discomfiture and Blanche’s resolve. “You do not hunt, so he cannot be seeking trade for his famed peregrines. You have naught that such a man might wish to buy and no associations held in common. I find his presence most suspicious, even if you do not, and I do so by the lessons you yourself taught to me!”
    Aileen felt a sudden heat at her back and her heart sank to her toes. The false welcome that claimed her father’s expression and the sudden brightness of Blanche’s eyes told her more than she wished to know.
    A man touched the back of her waist with a heavy fingertip and she stiffened in outrage at his familiarity. Aileen knew, she knew who stood there, and she knew too that he had overheard every word of protest she had uttered.
    “I see that my reputation has preceded me,” the Hawk murmured for her ears alone and Aileen felt herself flush scarlet at the intimacy of his tone.
    Worse, she liked the low rich timbre of his voice and dared not glance in his direction when he stood so close behind her. She strove to give every appearance of ignoring him, though her flesh was all a-tingle. She would be scolded later for her rudeness, she knew it well, though in this moment she wished she might simply disappear.
    Sadly, she could not flee, not with the weight of the Hawk’s fingers on her back. His touch seemed to sear her flesh, even through the thick woolen kirtle that she wore.
    “Good evening, Laird of Abernye,” the Hawk said, seemingly untroubled that Aileen ignored him. His words were uttered slowly as if he pondered the import of each word—or sought to beguile his audience. “I am most honored by your hospitality to myself and my companions.”
    Instead of demanding a reason for the Hawk’s arrival, Aileen’s father smiled like a