Chapter 33
33 Curled in each other’s arms in Joanna’s bed, Gavin had spoken first, telling her of the ancient priest, so close to death, his flesh and his eyesight destroyed by leprosy, and yet still so proud and disdainful of the Lowlanders. Gavin told her that if Athol had not been present, he doubted the priest would have deigned to relate the horrible origins of the Ironcross curse. And when he was finished, Joanna told him what she’d learned from Mater about the abbess’s terrifying experience with Duncan. “Aye, the old priest knew of Duncan’s r**e of Mater. But I don’t think he knew that she’d been with child.” He pushed a strand of hair off Joanna’s brow and thought back over the old man’s words. “The first time that Mater disappeared, everyone thought that she’d just decided to leave and joi
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