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Impatient with such hysteria over what was, to her, more myth than man, Je
Her words and her tone of amused disdain brought startled gazes flying to her face, but it wasn't merely false bravado that had made Je
Mary tugged at Je
"Of course not!" Je
"They say," young Tom interjected in an awed voice, "the Wolf is as tall as a tree!"
"A tree!" Je
The absurdity of that image made some of the children giggle, exactly as Je
"I heert," said young Will with an eloquent shudder, "he tears down walls with his bare hands and drinks blood!"
"Yuk!" said Je
"My pa said," put in another child, "he rides with a giant beside him, a Goliath called Arik who carries a war axe and chops up children…"
"I heert-" another child interrupted ominously.
Je
She screwed up her face in a comical exaggeration of a befuddled, near-blind person peering around blankly, and the children giggled.
As they walked along, Je
But despite the laughter and seeming gaiety of the moment, the sky had suddenly darkened as a bank of heavy clouds rolled in, and the air was turning bitingly cold, whipping Je
Je
With a silent cry of joy, Je
Sending the children ahead with strict orders to go directly to the abbey, Je
Her father, who'd obviously stopped at the abbey where Bre
Finally, he turned fully toward her, opening his arms wide. Je
Gently disentangling her arms from about his neck, Lord Merrick set his daughter slightly away from him while his gaze drifted over her tousled hair, rosy cheeks, and badly rumpled gown. Je
Two years ago, her behavior had gotten her sent to the abbey; a year ago, Bre
Je
"Not that much, my girl." Raising his shaggy white brows, he looked pointedly at the short veil and wimple hanging forgotten from her fingertips.
"Oh!" Je
Laughter sparked in his somber eyes. "She told me," he replied dryly, "that ye've a habit of sitting on yon hill and gazing off into the air, dreaming, which sounds familiar, lassie. And she told me ye've a tendency to nod off in the midst of mass, should the priest sermonize longer than you think seemly, which also sounds familiar."
Je
Bre
Her father's next words banished her disappointment. "Mother Ambrose also told me," he admitted with gruff pride, "that you've a head on your shoulders befitting an abbess herself. She said you're a Merrick through and through, with courage enough to be laird of yer own clan. But you'll no' be that," he warned, dashing Je
With an effort, Je
Alexander, the eldest of the three brothers, would assume the position that had been promised to her. That, in itself, wouldn't have been nearly so hard to bear if Alexander had been nice, or even fair-minded, but he was a treacherous, scheming liar, and Je