PROLOGUE
ON A SHIP OFF THE EAST COAST OF SCOTLAND
May 1515
Weeping will get you nothing,” the woman said. “Be quiet if you want to go up.”
Claire wiped her eyes on her sleeve and scrambled to her feet.
“You’d best learn to be tough, where you’re going,” the woman said, as she gathered her skirts to start up the rope ladder. “They say Scotland is full of wild warriors who would sooner cut your throat than bid you good day.”
The rungs were too far apart for Claire’s legs, and the woman’s heavy skirts brushed her head as she climbed. When the ship swayed, she lost her footing. For a long, frightening moment, Claire swung by her arms, kicking in the air, until her foot found the rung again.
“I don’t know how the Scots can call themselves Christian,” the woman said in a muffled voice above her, “when they have wicked fairies hiding behind every rock.”
Finally, a burst of cold night air hit Claire’s face and blew her hair back.
“Don’t speak to anyone,” the woman said, grabbing Claire’s wrist in a grip that pinched, “or the mistress will dismiss me, and then you’ll have no one to take care of you.”
Claire leaned her head back to look at the stars. Every night when the woman brought her food and allowed her to come up the ladder for a short while, she found the star and made her wish to go home to her grandmère and grandpère.
She did not understand why her grandparents had let this woman take her away, or why, despite making sure she made her wish on the very brightest star, she did not find herself in her own bed in the morning. But she knew Grandmère and Grandpère would not approve of how this woman was taking care of their special little girl. So tonight, she made a new wish.
Please, send someone better to take care of me.
CHAPTER 1
ON THE OPPOSITE COAST OF SCOTLAND
THE NEXT DAY
Ye are a devil, Alex Bàn MacDonald!”
Alex caught the boot the woman threw at his head. As he paused on the stairs to put it on, his other boot hit the stone wall behind him and bounced down the staircase.
“Janet, can I have my shirt and plaid as well, please?” he called up.
Her dark hair spilled over her shoulder as she leaned over the stairs to glare at him. “My name is not Janet!”
Damn, Janet was the last one.
“Sorry, Mary,” he said. “I’m sure ye don’t want anyone seeing me leave your house bare-arsed, so be a sweet lass and toss my clothes down.”
“Ye don’t even know why I’m angry, do ye?”
The woman’s voice had a catch in it now that made him nervous. God, he hated it when they cried. Alex considered leaving without his clothes.
“I must go,” he said. “My friend is here with the boat, waiting.”
“Ye aren’t coming back, are ye?” Mary said.
He shouldn’t have come in the first place. He’d avoided Mary for weeks, but she’d found him at his father’s house last night, drunk and desperate. After a week with his parents, he would have followed a demon to hell to escape.
“I was going to leave my husband for ye,” Mary called down.
“For God’s sake, lass, ye don’t want to do that!” Alex bit his tongue to keep from reminding her that she was the one who had started the affair—and she’d made it very clear at the time that all she wanted from him was between his legs. “I’m sure your husband is a fine man.”
“He’s an idiot!”
