Read MIDNIGHT CONQUEST: Book 1 of the Bonded By Blood Vampire Chronicles for Free Online Page B

of Munro’s protection in which she had no faith. She had never said a word to her father, and Parlan knew Ian was maltreating her in the few visits her parents had paid her, or their brief visits back to her home. How could Munro stand there feigning ignorance of what happened under his own roof? She sank down onto a small pile of straw behind some rain barrels, pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in her arms, letting her tears flow.
    Not once during this horror and farce of a marriage had she confided in her brother Kehr. Even now, she couldn’t go to him, as he was away in Edinburgh, at least three day’s journey from their home in Stewart Glen. Why she never shared any of her woes about Ian with her brother, she couldn’t reason at this moment. She shared everything with him, including her fantasies of being the wife of the Gypsy fortune teller. Not the intimate details, of course, but the ideas of him coming back and declaring his true love. She had been grateful her brother was accepting of her dreams, though he did tease her from time to time. Kehr was always supportive, but he did caution her not to get too wrapped up in her dream world. It was, after all, a fantasy.
    Drawing in a deep breath, she calmed her thumping heart and shaking hands, seeking her fantasies to ease her worry. What an impression he had made on her, the giant Gypsy fortune teller. She had enjoyed many trips to the Gypsy camp during their last stay, conversing with Amice while they sipped tea by the fire. Hardly glancing at Davina, Broderick came and went, telling fortunes and going about his business. Too shy to address him directly, Davina drank in every opportunity she saw him, her infatuation growing. And when he did address her, she couldn’t form more than two words without a flurry of giggles. But she memorized every feature of Broderick’s face—the curve of his hawk-like nose, the handsome angle of his cheekbones, the set line of his square jaw. At the tender age of thirteen, innocence and inexperience flavored her daydreams with strolls through moonlit forests and stolen kisses. As she grew older, those fantasies matured and burned with passion-filled embraces. Amice said they would return. In the eight years since she met him, every group of Gypsies traveling through their little village of Stewart Glen set her heart aflame, only to be doused by the disappointment of his not being amongst them. When her father made the marriage contract with Munro, giving her hand to Ian, she forced herself to abandon her dreams and come to the realistic conclusion she had to put her whimsies aside, as her brother encouraged.
    The dark reality of this union with Ian, though, resurrected those fantasies and she clung to them with her life.
    Kittens mewed somewhere in the stables, their helpless little cries drawing her attention and turning the corners of her mouth up in sympathy. She sighed. At least her heart stopped pounding, and her hands were steady once more.
    Leaning her head against the wooden structure of the stables, she stared at the stones of the perimeter wall across the way…stones that her father placed by his own hands. She smiled as she recalled his attempt at engineering the secret opening located in the north side of the perimeter wall, at the back of their grounds just to her left. He complained how imperfect the mechanisms were. Kehr and Davina delighted in using the secret passage for fun through the years, though with stern warning from their father not to give away its whereabouts. Though their home was not designed to be a formidable fortress against an army, the walls did keep them safe by directing all traffic through the front gates. Parlan was ever mindful of his family, as a responsible father should be.
    She started at a clatter on the other side of the wall and held her hand to her breast, forcing her breathing to slow. Not moving a muscle or daring to breathe, she waited for any other sounds to reveal