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orders from Father.”
    “Be ill. Have a feminine complaint. Do whatever you have to! But don’t be seen.”
    “What if…Straith asks for me?”
    “Then we’ll know I failed, and you’ll have to elope. Father will be verra angry. You might be disowned. But that could happen anyway. You ken as much.”
    “Robert says he doesn’t care! Besides, I have my dowry. Father can’t take that from me. No one can!”
    That was true. Lileth had a large dowry from her mother. She was a beauty. Her father was a laird. The Duke of Straithcairn was a stellar match. But her heart had been taken by a music tutor who was a second son of a second son of some obscure baronetcy in Cornwall somewhere. If Ainslee hadn’t seen them together, she’d have assumed the worst. But she knew the truth. When Robert was with Lileth, it seemed like a light enveloped them. Nobody else got to enjoin it. Both of them radiated such happiness, it was a crime to separate them.
    Ainslee had never known love, but it looked like a truly wondrous event. Magical. Amazing. It should be in everyone’s future. But for her? If the duke did as she’d begged?
    That would be never.
    She cleared her throat. “You see? You have nothing to cry over and everything to look forward to. So, finish your breakfast and do na’ leave any crumbs! You ken how Elvie is. She’ll tell.”
    “Ainslee!”
    Her father’s booming voice penetrated the halls. It throbbed through the chamber door, rattling the bolt. It matched his size, and his emotions. He was a large man with an even larger temper. Ainslee was at the tapestry that hid the secret opening before the sound finished vibrating through the room.
    “I must go.”
    “What have you done now?” Lileth asked.
    Ainslee waved a hand in response and disappeared into the black void that was the crawlspace. It didn’t take much to set her father’s ire against her. It was better to stay out of sight. Ainslee didn’t waste any time. She knew the hidden passages that honeycombed the castle almost as well as she knew the stables. If this were a normal day, she’d be running the narrow flight of steps to her tower room. That wasn’t feasible now. Father had probably already sent someone to check for her there. They might even be there waiting. She headed instead to the passage that connected to the second floor rooms, and the library. If she wasn’t in the stables, she was in the library. And there were lots of alcoves and niches to hide within. She could pretend she hadn’t heard Father calling.
    Hadn’t heard him? His voice was loud enough to shake the rafters of the chieftain room.
    “Ains! Lee!”
    His voice broke her name in two sections when she heard it next, and that through a panel she passed. The passage she turned down wasn’t often used. It was dusty and contained more than a few cobwebs, but eventually she slid out from behind a bookshelf, shook her hair, and then her skirts, and hoped she looked like she’d been thoroughly engrossed in a book.
    She’d just started down a ladder when she was spotted.
    “I’ve found her, Father!”
    It was her second-born, half-brother, William. He was fourteen and already developing brutish tendencies. She had to attend to just about every horse after he’d ridden it. The spot between Ainslee’s shoulders tensed. William wasn’t trust-worthy. But she was in luck. Their next younger brother, Ronald, was at his heels. Even at just ten years of age, Ronald was like an angel. Everyone adored him.
    “There you are, you lazy wench!”
    Father’s hand encircled her upper arm and yanked her from the steps. He slammed her to her feet and let go before she had her balance, sending her crashing back into the ladder. That hurt. Actually, everything to do with Father hurt.
    “Where have you been?”
    Ainslee’s heart hammered. Her throat closed off. Her mouth went dry. She’d have moved her hands to her breast to help with the thudding of her heart, but her father detested