Prologue

PROLOGUE

"I have had enough! If ye daenae marry the next laird I find for ye, ye will nay longer be me daughter!" boomed Valorie Grant's father. Valorie shot her mother an anxious look which she returned with a resigned glance. "This is the second laird ye have abandoned; ye cannae keep embarassin' your clan in this way."

"Faither, Kenneth and I talked and —" Valorie started to explain, but her father wouldn't hear her. She had only just returned home, and her father immediately jumped to his own conclusions. Yes, Valorie broke off her latest betrothal to Kenneth, the Laird of Toohey, but there was more to it.

"I daenae care for your explanations, Valorie! Do ye ken how many powerful lairds have asked for your hand? We could be years into a valuable alliance at this point. Ye are our only kin, and the clan is countin' on ye to make a strategic match. Not only that, but how do ye think this makes me look? That's two clans now that we can probably consider our enemies! People are always lookin' for a reason to depose a laird, and ye make me look like I cannae even control me own daughter!"

Therein lay the problem. Valorie didn't want to be controlled. Not by her father nor any other laird. Something no laird seemed to understand. Valorie appreciated the precarious position her father was in, but she would not marry a man who didn't listen to her.

She wished for the same from her father as well, but the man commanding Valorie right now was fully Laird MacCrimmon and not the doting father who taught her to hold a sword and ride a horse. As a child, her father had invited her to sit in on council meetings and train to fight with all the other young boys, almost as if she were a boy herself. But now, Valorie's worth seemed wholly dependent on who she married. She was merely a tool for her father to use and direct.

Valorie knew that her father had a whole clan to consider, but in this one thing, she wanted him on her side. For once, she wanted to have a conversation with her father and not her clan chieftain.

"Darling, ye ken the clan is strong; we can withstand this as we did the first time. Plus, most of those lairds were certainly not an appropriate marrying age," Valorie's mother cut in, commenting on the fact that the majority of lairds who had asked for Valorie's hand were older than even her parents. Valorie suppressed a shudder thinking about some of those lairds who called on her when she first came of age.

"Fine then, what about Laird McLeod? That's two lairds in two years that ye have broken off a betrothal with!" her father continued his tirade.

Regrettably, this fact was true, but her first betrothed wanted an obedient possession, and Kenneth wanted someone else.

"Faither, I told you about Laird McLeod." When Valorie returned home the first time, after only a few weeks away at McLeod Castle, she spent ages explaining why she was compelled to break off the betrothal. Since it was already done, her father was forced to accept it, but she was warned even then. No more missteps.

"Aye, but we will be lucky to find anyone to marry ye now with this reputation!" her father roared.

Two lairds scorned was apparently too many for most people to forgive, but Valorie liked the sound of that. No husband meant one less man who could tell her what to do. That was one less laird who wouldn't listen to her thoughts, her dreams, or her ideas.

Valorie would be an asset to any laird; she knew that. She was as skilled with a bow as any man and could certainly ride faster than one. She knew how to run a clan, and if she was going to marry a laird, she wanted one who saw that. Someone that saw behind her fair skin and her smile to her strength and her mind.

"Faither, ye daenae understand," Valorie started to say, growing increasingly frustrated with his lack of care for her side of the story.

"Nay! Ye daenae understand, ye will marry the next laird to ask for yer hand, or else!" her father shouted with finality. Well then.

"Fine, Faither, I understand," Valorie replied dutifully. Under her breath and with a subtle wink at her mother, Valorie added, "But what if they daenae want to marry me?"