To Vivienne’s dismay, the Earl of Sutherland’s gates were barred, and the gatekeeper was disinclined to wake his laird in the middle of the night to please a passing party of travelers. When Henry eloquently protested this miscarriage of Christian charity, the gatekeeper pointed him in the direction of an abandoned barn.
It had a hole in its roof and a rustling plethora of birds in its rafters. The occasional missile was launched from above, landing on the packed earth floor with a wet slap. Arabella chose to argue the matter, but Vivienne was too tired. She carried the girls to a corner less vigorously marked by the birds’ droppings, folded her cloak over them all and went to sleep.
Vivienne awakened to find a man’s hand upon her breast and a sharp blade kissing her throat. Some hours h
