Roark grinned.“I thought an owl’s favoriteword was who,” he said.Alina tilted her head the other way andRoark’s grin grew wider.“One of the first things I noticed aboutyou, other than your legs,” he said, and was gratified to see hercheeks pinken, “was that you’re not a woman of faint heart or timidmanners.You have a certain boldness and infinite curiosity.”
“Most men I’ve met don’t consider those to begood things,” she said.
“Most men are idiots.Have you everconsidered that?”
“I have,” she said with a wry grin.“Manytimes.”
Roark laughed, quick and short, and wishedfor about the thousandth time since he’d spied her on the beachthat they could have met under different circumstances.However,things were what they were.He was her kidnapper, taking her toRoger, a man who may have lied about his reasons for having herabducted, if not his family’s entire history for the past twentyyears.All so Roark could keep the peace between their families andmarry Roger’s daughter, a spoilt brat of a girl who cared even lessfor him than he did for her.He ran a hand through his hair andtoed the deck with his boot.He was an idiot.
“Tell me of this place you’re taking me to,this North Shore Keep,” Alina said.“Tell me about this LairdRoger.”
Roark leaned his back against the rail andgazed westward.“North Shore Keep is the manor and the lands Rogerinherited from his uncle, Ronald, not long after he arrived in theGreen Isles.The town of North Shore is a small port on thenorthwestern shore of the Long Firth, which you would call an inletor a bay.The ships sail in and out of the firth and trade up anddown the coasts of the Green Isles and across the North Sea to theshores of your Northlands and on occasion south to the lands alongthe Mid-Earth Sea.”
“The land?”
“Is rich and arable enough, though not sorich and arable as the land of Thorn Bush Keep, my family’s home,which is farther northwest and inland up the Long River.”Hesmiled, thinking of his days as a young lad, fishing and huntingwith Logan, the gamekeeper, of swimming in the river and runningthrough the woods, of riding over green fields.
“You miss your home.”
“I do.”Nobody at North Shore Keep had everrealized this about him, or if they had, they’d never mentioned itto him or shown him any empathy.Somehow, it didn’t surprise himAlina had.“It’s a land of running rivers, rolling hills, greenfields, and dense forests,” he told her.“Beautiful, bountifulcountry, rich with woods and game.”Her bright eyes were as greenas those fields and her smile as gentle as the hills.“Unfortunately, we have no trading port and North Shore has littlefarmland or woods for lumber, so our clans, our families, sealed analliance to benefit both places.”
“Your betrothal to Gwyneth.”
“My betrothal to Gwyneth.”He gripped thebow’s rail.“As a second son, it was deemed the best use ofme.”
Alina laid her hand over his and gave it agentle squeeze.“I’m sorry for you then,” she said.She removed herhand, and Roark felt the absence of her touch.“Almost as sorry asI am for myself.The difference being, you’re being used by yourfamily while I’m being used against mine.”
“Your parents,” he said, “they haven’t, theydidn’t… I mean as a princess your marriage would be valuablepolitically.”
Alina shrugged and gazed out across the vastdistance of the sea.“They knew arranging a marriage for me wouldnever work.”She looked at Roark and gave him a rueful grin.“Thewomen in my family have a long history of marrying the man theyfall in love with at first sight.”
“Like your mother did your father.”
She nodded.“Kingdoms have fallen and risenbecause of their marriages,” she said.“My great-grandparents’ lovestory is legend in much of the world.My great-grandmother,Oona—”
“Your great-grandmother was Oona theSwan?”
Alina tilted her head.“You’ve heard ofher?”
“The story of Oona the Swan and Asad the Lionis known throughout the High Lands,” he said, still trying toregister Alina was their great-granddaughter, yet somehow notsurprised.It certainly explained her otherworldly green eyes, andhow drawn he was to her, like a moth to flame.“It’s quite a lovestory.”
“So it is.So is my mother’s and mygrandmother’s.”
“I’d like to hear them someday,” he told her.“To learn about the women in your family and how they fall in loveat first sight.”
“I’d like to tell you them, someday,” shesaid with the faintest of smiles.“But for now, tell me of Roger.Is he like his son, Leif?”
“Only in looks and arrogance,” Roark saidwith a wag of his brows, and Alina’s smile widened.“Where Leif’sarrogance is a result of being the only son of a laird, born withfair looks and charm that run skin deep, Roger’s is born of anatural shrewdness and cunning and a propensity to use both forwhat he wants without any consideration for how it affectsothers.”
Alina’s smile flattened and grew grim, andRoark stared hard into her attentive eyes, wanting her tounderstand this about Roger.To fear him.For her own sake.
“And what he wants more than anything else inthis world,” he told her, “is revenge against your father andmother.”
***
Dressed in the stable boy’s trousers andtunic, her hair braided and stuffed up under a woolen cap to keepher identity a secret from any onlookers, Alina stood on the bow ofThe Roveras it sailed into North Shore port.The firththey’d sailed west through, the Long Firth, was an inlet close insize to the bay at Sea Ridge, with rolling hills, sparse woodlands,and small towns along the shoreline, unlike the jutting mountainsand dense forests of her homeland.Unlike the large, thriving portof Sea Ridge, the port town they pulled into was small and shabbywith only one dock and no obvious warehouse, its most distinctfeature a large, wooden-framed, cross-beamed gallows with threeropes hanging from it in the middle of the town square that openedonto the dock.
The wind had blown westward the entire voyageandThe Roverhad made its home port in four days, two daysearlier than expected.Even so, they were greeted by a fullcontingent of the laird’s household waiting on the dock, includinga tall, lanky grey beard dressed in a richly embroidered linentunic, leather vest and trousers, which were called breeches here,and a short cloak of red fox.The man shaded his eyes with hishand, searching the deck and stopping at Alina.
