How was it possible? Panic clawed at her throat at the idea of leaving her sanctuary. Tragedy had befallen her, but it had also rescued her from an unwanted marriage-a marriage her father had been determined to make happen. Betrothal was what had wrought the deception she’d maintained for the last three years.

A world without sound and sight frightened her. Hunching her knees up so she could rest her chin atop them, she closed her eyes, but then quickly opened them. A blank void she felt herself slipping further into all the time. Over time, those phantom sounds faded into nothing. Before, she could sit on her rock and remember the gurgling sounds, the rush of the water and the peace it brought her. It had been so long since she’d last heard anything that the memories of sound were fading. She imagined the sound, holding it like a fleeting memory.

There, the stream ran faster, bubbling over larger stones and rocks. Instinctively, she sought out the large boulder that jutted out over the water. Gathering her skirts in tight fists, she ran over the uneven terrain behind the keep and into the grove of trees lining a stream that fed a nearby loch. She fled the keep, nearly tripping down the stone steps in her haste. She whirled around, not wanting to witness any more. The reaction was automatic, to quiet the silent cry that billowed up from her very soul. Graeme Montgomery and Eveline Armstrong will marry.” Eveline clamped a hand over her mouth even though she hadn’t said a word in well over three years. Wedding? Her mother in tears? Unable to perform marriage duties? Feeding to the wolves? Who were the wolves? The king’s messenger frowned, obviously not liking the hostile environment he’d landed himself in.

She was starting to have a very bad feeling about just what had her family in such an uproar. It cannot be allowed to stand.” An uneasy sensation prickled down Eveline’s spine.

’Tis not right! She’s not able to perform her marriage duties. He can’t feed her to the wolves that way. Tavis put a restraining hand on his wife’s arm and then turned just enough that Eveline could see him angrily bite out to her brother Aiden, “Take your mother away from here.” Robina Armstrong shook her head fiercely, resisting Aiden’s grip. “Tavis, you can’t allow this!” Eveline could barely make out the words as they passed her mother’s lips.

Never seduce a scot by maya banks