He may not have wanted her as a child, but he wanted her now. Kate met the earl's gaze briefly, and his gray eyes grew dark with intent that made her skin crawl. Not even when her father's vassals began leaving, save for a small handful who raised them. Soon he would come to bring them home with him. These battles kept him away from Kildun for months at a time, he'd reminded them many times during his visits, planting a kiss on their foreheads before heading for the doors. He was built more for priesting than for fighting, though he often bragged of his victories in battle. His frame was slight, his shoulders narrow beneath an olive doublet. Kate watched him stalk toward her, his equine legs encased in fine woolen breeches and boots of polished obsidian. Their father was killed at Kildun twelve years after that, just before Duncan was named Earl of Argyll, and Kate and Robert's guardian. He'd promised to bring her and her brother to his home when they were children, but at the end of each visit he left without them. He had arrived in Glen Orchy a few days ago to bring her to Kildun Castle, in Inverary. Swiping her hair away from her eyes, she spied her uncle Duncan crossing the small bailey of her holding. Mindless of her uncle's men honing their battle skills around her, she lifted the ax she gripped in her other hand and grunted as it sank deep into her opponent's straw chest.

Her blade severed an arm, but the torso remained intact. K ATE C AMPBELL L OOKED her enemy square in his lifeless face and then swung.

Laird of the Mist by Paula Quinn