Read Night of the Highland Dragon for Free Online

of her voice. She’d known since Arundell arrived that he’d make a stir in the village; there was no point in pouting about that. “He’s well-looking, I’ll say that for him.”
    â€œI’ve not heard very much,” said Ross. “What can you tell me about my competition?”
    â€œNot much. Mrs. Simon and her daughter could say more by now, I’m certain. He’s a bit older than you, and a gentleman by his dress and his manners. He says his doctor’s sent him away from the city for his health.” Judith shrugged. “Arundell’s his name. I can’t say that I know anything else.”
    â€œArundell?” Another moment of unknown emotion flickered across Ross’s face.
    â€œDo you know him?”
    Ross frowned and finally shook his head. “I don’t know that I can place the name. Perhaps I will when I meet him—but the odds, as you’ve already observed, are against it.”
    â€œAye,” said Judith, though she hoped otherwise. Most likely Mr. Arundell was only what he seemed, and she was too inclined to jump at shadows—but she would have felt much better with confirmation.

Five
    Remembering his own adolescence, particularly the part connected to Miss Susan Levett and an unfortunate fire in a wastebasket, William steadfastly ignored Claire’s tendency to blush and walk into walls when he was around, just as he did with a few other girls her age. A few of the young men had shown tendencies to sulk, which William also pretended not to see. None of it was really about him, after all. He was a new face in a village that didn’t see many.
    Other young men, and one or two young women, asked questions instead, wanting his opinion on the wider world. They wanted to know what it was like to live in the cities, how long train journeys took and how often the trains broke down, and how hard it was to earn a living. Their younger brothers and sisters just wanted stories of steamships and royalty and battles; while their grandparents asked after politics and war, and told their own stories, as glad of a new audience as of information.
    William answered everything as best he could, cultivated who he might without hurting any feelings or incurring the wrath of fathers or brothers, and found some information in his own turn, although not nearly as much as he’d have liked.
    Neither Graham Stewart nor his father were among the men who talked with William, and their cow, whatever might have happened to her, was not a great subject of discussion for anyone, even Claire, after the first day or two. Without any plausible way to broach the topic, William let it lie and concentrated on other angles, though those didn’t prove much more fruitful.
    Lady Judith was at least forty and had come home “about twenty” years ago after her mother died. Popular consensus had her in England or maybe Ireland before then, living with an aunt or maybe her grandmother on her mother’s side, or maybe going to school and then taking rooms with a friend, as young women would do these days instead of getting married like sensible creatures, according to one of the old men at the pub.
    She had two brothers, and William had just missed seeing them. They were both married and living elsewhere now. On that last, public sentiment was mixed. The young regarded such defection as only natural, while the old said that it was a pity—but that it had always been the MacAlasdairs’ way to wander about. Either way, general agreement had them being fine, handsome young men, with a minority (a spotty youth being most vocal among them) voting for “think they’re too good for the likes of us, of course” or just taciturn shrugging when the subject came up.
    Nobody could recall or had even heard of a time when the MacAlasdairs hadn’t been in the castle.
    Nobody had heard of any mysterious deaths recently either. Every few years, a man might