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A woman who’d entered the hall from the north tower stopped abruptly, looking at the two of them as if someone had stolen her favorite gown. Gillian knew immediately, without being told, who she was. Not that Graeme had mentioned he kept a mistress here at Highgate, but there was no other explanation for the way the woman was staring at her. Unfortunately, the woman was everything she was not. No freckles marred her cheeks. Instead, she was tall and blond. Really, really blond.

But not, it seemed, very nice. The tone she took with Fiona would only be used by a person who cared little about giving offense. “And who . . . is that?”

Gillian opened her mouth to answer but was not quick enough.

“This woman,” Fiona said cheerily, “is the new lady of Highgate.”

11

“They will be brought to justice.” Graeme dismounted and handed his reins to the stableboy who had run out of the stables to meet his chief.

“Why would Lord Blackburn risk everything on a raid such as this? It makes no sense.” Aidan followed him into the keep just as the sun began to set on Highgate.

“I don’t know,” Graeme said, still furious but in control. Though it appeared the sheepherder’s death had not been intentional, she was nonetheless dead. She would not be there to help usher her daughter’s babe into the world. The circumstances of Grace’s death would have devastated his grandmother. Though everyone had loved the healer, she’d forged a special bond with his family during his mother’s convalescence.

And now she was dead at the hand of English reivers, commissioned by a man as black as his name. Rumors of Lord Blackburn’s collusion with those who would disrupt the tentative peace at the border had persisted for years. One of the witnesses to the raid had even been there when Blackburn was caught cheating at the last Tournament of the North two years earlier. Luckily, he’d recognized two of Blackburn’s men, which meant they could be pursued.

Though some, like Clan Scott, understood the value of the March Law from which the Day of Truce originated, others, on both sides of the border, despised what they saw as further interference in their autonomy.

This time, they’d gone too far.

“We’ll go to the Truce ourselves,” Aidan said as they entered the main keep.

“Aye.”

Each month, a Day of Truce brought English and Scottish together, allowing wardens on both sides to bring lawbreakers to justice. If the raid had been conducted by Scotsmen, they would already have mounted a counter-raid.

“Brother,” Aidan said, leading the way into the great hall. “I do believe you—”

“Aww, shite.”

The scene that greeted them in the great hall was not a pleasant one. They were met with glares that would have sent Blackburn’s men back to England in fear.

What in God’s name was Agnes doing here?

His wife, seated at the head table, gave him the kind of look any woman would level at her husband if his mistress sat just below her. For her part, his former mistress appeared entirely unapologetic, just as he would have expected. The men and their wives—more than two dozen of them ate regularly in the hall—watched Graeme and Aidan enter as if expecting a wee performance.

“What is she doing here?” Aidan whispered.

Graeme had explained the circumstances of his marriage to his brother, and now that his initial surprise had faded, Aidan seemed pleased by the arrangement. Highgate needed a woman’s touch, and he had no inclination to marry. That Gillian filled that role meant he could continue enjoying the company of women, much like Graeme had been doing, without “committing to one bed partner,” as Aidan liked to say.

“I don’t know,” he responded. Though the widowed merchant’s daughter was quite beautiful and an entertaining mistress, her jealous ways had worn on him. Graeme had ended their relationship before leaving for Kenshire.

Her presence tonight did not bode well.

“She needs to leave.” Graeme took one step into the hall, but Aidan stopped him.

“Not now, brother.”

Though none of the guests were close enough to hear their conversation, they were all watching, likely trying to gauge Graeme’s response to Agnes’s presence.

“You’d have her dine in the same hall as my wife?”

“I’d have you not ignore said wife hours after you dumped her off in a strange keep with none but Fiona to keep her company.”

Oddly, Fiona was nowhere to be seen.

“I need to find Malcolm. Save me something to eat, will you?” With that, Aidan turned and walked back in the direction they’d come.