Then Carenza saw what was in her sights.“Nay!”
Hew reached out to halt Hallie’s arm.
“That’s a pet,” he explained as the wee hedgepig continued to waddle along the wall, making its way to the corner and ducking into the wee box it was using for a nest.
The three warrior cousins exchanged glances that told her what they thought of having a hedgepig for a pet.
But Hallie put away her dagger, and Isabel changed the subject.
“What’s this?”she asked, picking up Carenza’s bestiary.
“’Tis a book o’ all the beasts I’ve seen.”
Since her return to Dunlop, her father had seemed far more lenient, willing to let Carenza express herself.So she’d brought her bestiary out of hiding and spent spare hours painting some of the animals she encountered near Dunlop.
Isabel leafed through the pages of illustrations and text about squirrels, coos, hedgepigs, crows, butterflies, and dozens of other animals.
“Did you make this yourself?”
“Aye.”
“Wouldn’t Ian love this, Hallie?”Isabel said.“He has a book full of notes like this.”
Carenza decided she really wanted to meet Ian.
In the meantime, she had others she needed to thank.
“I still haven’t seen Sister Eve,” she said.“Does no one know where she is?”
“Nay,” Deirdre replied.“The last we saw of her was when she brought the wedding document to Rivenloch.”
“I might know something about Sister Eve,” Isabel teased, drawing her toe across the floor and smiling the way she did when she had a secret.“I’m not sure exactly where she is.But I know who she’s with.And I suspect by next year, we’ll all be going to a nun’s wedding.”
What that meant, Carenza couldn’t guess.All she knew was that she had never been happier.
She adored her quirky new clan.
She loved her precious new daughter.
And as for her fierce Viking warrior, fellow cateran, erstwhile monk, companion spy, devoted husband, and the proud father of the next generation of Dunlops and Rivenlochs, she believed Isabel was right.Hew du Lac of Rivenloch was The One.
LAIRD OF SMOKE
The Warrior Lairds of Rivenloch, Book 3
Dedication
For anyone
who feels invisible…
I see you.
Acknowledgments
My sincere gratitude to
Rich, Brynna, and Dylan,
