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hinny! Do ye hear me? I am mad for ye, my lord! I couldna bear not having all of ye, for I am a willful wench, Patrick!”
    Glenkirk looked down into her face and suddenly smiled. “I’ll beat ye if you ever defy me, brat! I love ye wi all my heart, but I’ll be the master of my own house.”
    “As long as I’m yer only mistress, m’lord!” she shot back.
    He laughed. “What a minx you are, madame!” And he tumbled her back amid the pillows. “Go to sleep, or come morning everyone in the castle will know what we’ve been about.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. He chuckled. “No more tonight, my greedy little lass. Yer too newly opened. If ye would walk in the morning, once is enough for this night. But come other nights, I’ll love ye wi’out stopping the whole night long. No man with any fire in him could ever get enough of you, my bride.”
    In the morning, Ellen saw the bloodstains on Cat’s bedsheets. But she kept silent, for ‘twas no one’s business that the bride and groom had celebrated their wedding night before they celebrated their wedding. She had been worried that perhaps her young mistress was marrying a man she did not love. Now she knew all was well. Cat would not have surrendered herself to Glenkirk unless she loved him.
    Unfortunately, Fiona knew, too. No one had confided in her, but with alleycat instinct, she knew. Three days before the wedding she found Catriona alone and, with deliberate intention, said, “So ye finally let him stick it in ye, cousin. And before the wedding too,” she said wickedly. “My, but yer brave!”
    Cat blushed at having her secret discovered. But she was unwilling to let Fiona get the upper hand. “Jealous, coz?”
    Fiona laughed. “Listen, my wee Cat. I’ve been fucking since I was thirteen. There’s never been a man I couldn’t have if I wanted him, and that includes yer precious Glenkirk.”
    “Liar!” spat Catriona.
    “Nay,” smiled Fiona sweetly. “I’ve had both Patrick and Adam. I’ll stick wi my Adam. However, so there’s no mistake about it …” And Fiona proceeded to describe Patrick’s bedroom in detail.
    Cat left her cousin without a word. Going to her apartments, she put on a pair of warm doeskin riding breeches, a silk shirt, fur-lined boots, and a heavy fur-lined cloak. She had sent a confused Ellen ahead to the stables to have Bana saddled. “But where are ye going at this time o’ day?” she protested.
    “I dinna know,” said Cat, mounting Bana. “But when the great Earl of Glenkirk returns from Forbes Manor, tell him that I’d sooner marry the devil himself!”
    Yanking ?ana’s head about, she kicked the mare and cantered across the drawbridge into the darkening winter afternoon.

Chapter 5

    E LLEN picked up her skirts and ran, stumbling, back into the castle to seek the Master of Greyhaven. Finding him, she gasped out, “She’s gone, Lord Hay! Mistress Cat has gone!”
    Greyhaven did not quickly comprehend, but his wife did. “What happened?” she demanded of Ellen.
    “I dinna know, my lady. She’s been so happy to be back at Glenkirk, and looking forward to her wedding.”
    “I wonder,” said Heather thoughtfully, “if it has all been a pretense.”
    “Nay! Nay, my lady! She’s in love wi the earl, ‘tis plain. They’ve been—” Ellen stopped, horrorstruck, and clapped her hand over her mouth, but Heather understood.
    “How long?”
    “Oh, my lady!”
    “How long, Ellen?”
    “The first night we were back. I found the stains the next morning, but something had been going on at Christmastime. He dinna force her! Of that, I’m sure, my lady.”
    “Are ye saying that Glenkirk’s been lying wi my lass?” said James Hay indignantly.
    “Oh, Greyhaven,” snapped Heather, “be quiet! It’s nae important that they’ve been sleeping together. They’re being married in three days’ time. Ellen—what did Cat do this afternoon? Where did she go?”
    “She slept for an hour after the meal as she