Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Epilogue
About the Author
Get Scandalous with these historical reads…
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Callie Hutton. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
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Parker, CO 80134
Scandalous is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Erin Molta
Cover design by Mayhem Cover Creations
Cover photography by Period Images
csr601d/DepositPhotos
ISBN 978-1-68281-610-3
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition June 2020
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Chapter One
Fife County, Scottish Lowlands, Autumn, 1818
Mistress Katie Stirling, the only daughter of the Right Honorable Lord Stirling of Stirlingshire, studied the worn map she carried from her home on the trek to the MacDuff castle in Fife. The paper was dark, the writing faded, and it had been folded and refolded so many times that she feared it would fall apart.
“Is that it, miss?” Meggie, Katie’s maid and close friend, pointed off into the distance. In the haze, which had not yet been burned off by the morning sun, a large castle, like a child’s fairy tale, rose from the mist in the hills of Fife. All that was needed was a flame-blowing, foul-breathed dragon to complete the scene.
“I believe so.” At least, Katie hoped it was. She was worn out, hungry, and ready to claim the very land below her feet if it meant she could end this blasted journey. A journey to assert her rights to land stolen from her family. Land that should have been passed down to her through her mother, Aileen MacDuff Stirling.
“We’re so close,” Meggie moaned. “Why did the cart have to lose a wheel now?”
“There would have been no good time for the cart to lose a wheel. And I dinnae believe ’tis lost but broken.” Annoyed and frustrated, she snapped at her maid and was immediately ashamed.
At the woman’s sharp intake of breath, Katie apologized, “I apologize, Meggie, I should not take out my frustration on ye.”
Meggie mumbled something that Katie didn’t hear. At the moment, she was more concerned with getting the broken wheel fixed so that they might at least make it to the castle. She, Meggie, her brother Gavin, and two of her household’s strongest men, Angus and Colum, had traveled from Stirlingshire to Fife. She’d left instructions with the housekeeper and stable master at Stirling Manor for the rest of her household and any tenants who wanted to join them to start out a week after they had left. She hoped that would give her enough time to assess the place and make it ready. Who knew what condition it was in with the last Laird MacDuff dead this past year?
Katie climbed from the cart and walked around the vehicle, examining the damage done to the back wheel. She squatted down. It was cracked down the center and would fall completely apart if they tried moving it forward. “Angus, what do ye make of this?”
The man vaulted from his horse and joined her. “Cracked down the middle, mistress.”
She sighed. The two men, who were twins, were strong, and she trusted them with her life, which was necessary when traveling a distance, but neither was overly bright. She’d chosen them to accompany her, Gavin, and Meggie on the trip to keep down the number of people who would need food and a place to sleep on the road. With just the five of them, they could make better time and be able to prepare the castle for the arrival of the rest of what was left of her clan. “I see that. Do ye have any idea how we can fix it?”
He smiled and nodded. “Aye. I ken how to fix it.”
Katie rose and dusted her hands off. “Excellent. Go ahead and fix it, then.”
He glanced at her from his position at her feet. “But we dinnae have the right parts.”
She dropped her head in her hands. She would not scream. She would not curse the man. She would not beat her fists against the side of the cart. It had been a long, arduous journey, and she was almost there. She would take a deep breath and…
Her head snapped up at the sound of horses approaching. They hadn’t seen many travelers along the road since they’d left home. A farmer here and there, a few people off to visit relatives, families returning from shopping in one of the small villages they had passed, but overall, the roads had been quiet. She was grateful for that, since they could have been set upon by brigands at any time. Travel in these times, with the Clearances underway—and so many families displaced and desperate—could be dangerous.
Two men burst from the mist, their horses squealing as the riders yanked on the reins to bring the animals to a
