who’s ever felt like they
weren’t enough…
you are enough.
Acknowledgments
A heartfelt thank you to
Amy Atwell, Kirby Anderson, and Jill Glass
for taking up the slack
The Jewels of Historical Romance
for being great listeners
Becca Syme
for keeping me out of burnout
My family
for giving great advice
Glynnis Campbell’s Readers Clan
for their tireless cheerleading
Chapter 1
Rivenloch, Lowlands, Scotland
Autumn 1159
Hew’s heart cracked.
He supposed he should have been used to the pain by now.He’d had his heart broken a hundred times.
But it always felt like fresh agony.Like a blacksmith had swung a sledgehammer into his breastbone.Shattered his ribs.Collapsed his lungs.Added another wound to his already scarred heart.
He let the scribbled missive fall from his fingers onto the rush-covered flagstones of the great hall.Anne’s playful, flowery signature grinned up at him in mockery.
For a fortnight, he’d believed Anne was his ladylove.His life.His breath.His everything.She’d held his very soul in her hands.
Had none of it been true?
Had he only imagined she was as besotted with him as he was with her?
Bloody hell.Anger stung his eyes as he felt the familiar hollow ache begin in his chest.
At least the others had kissed him farewell.Or mumbled regrets.Or turned their tearful faces away as they explained their affection had faded.
Anne hadn’t even had the courage to end their courtship face-to-face.
She’d sent a missive with a damned monk.A monk who’d been instructed not to wait for a reply.
Hew drew in a ragged breath and bent down to pick up the carelessly scrawled missive.Clenching his jaw, he crumpled it in his fist and tossed it onto the blazing fire.The page unfurled to give him one last taunting look at Anne’s name before the flames licked at it, darkening and curling the parchment.Incinerating their love as if it had never been.
