The Snow White Bride Read Online Free

Kinfairlie for years untold.” With that, the miller lifted his cup higher.
    “Long live the laird of Kinfairlie!” cried one soul, and the company echoed the blessing. They lifted their cups in salute, then drank heartily.
    Alexander was deeply touched, though he characteristically hid his response with a jest. “I thank you kindly,” he said, then bowed deeply to the company. “But you should kn ow that I called for th e wine to be opened before I knew that you meant to greet me thus.”
    The assembly laughed and the musicians sang a ditty on the merits of wine, a comparative rarity in these parts. Alexander made his way through the company, welcoming peasants by name and exchanging Christmas blessings. He found himself laughing at one tale and pinching a child’s plump ch eek, enjoying himself despite th e odds.
    He glanced up, feeling the weight of someone’s gaze upon him, and met the steady stare of a woman he did not know. She must have been among the entourages of Madeline or Vivienne, perhaps a friend of one of his sisters. Alexander was intrigued by the very sight of her. She watched him from the high table, her eyes the clearest green he had ever seen.
    But there was a sadness in her eyes and a downward curve to her lips that snared Alexander’s attention. She averted her glance as soon as their gazes met and eased herself into the shadows. She was veiled as a married woman, but no man attended her. Worse, she was not merry on this night of festivity, and Alexander decided then what his mission would be.
    He would make this lady smile. Once, he had been good at coaxing women’s laughter. Once, he had savored feminine companionship. His pulse quickened at the challenge, for he had not lingered overmuch with women this past year. It would be good to prove—if only to himself—that he had not sacrificed all of himself to his duties as laird.
    The castellan brought him a goblet of ruby red wine, that man’ s li ps still taut. “I thank you, Anthony.” Alexander raised the cup to his guests assembled in Kinfairlie’s hall. “And I thank you not only for your kind salute, but for joining me on this night of nights. I bid you be merry in Kinfair li e’s hall, one and all, and may this Christmas Eve feast be but the first of many we share.”
    The assembly roared agreement and raised their cups, then drank of Alexander’s ale and wine. Alexander raised his cup to the beauteous lady at his board, who feigned ignorance of his salute. She sipped his toast and her cheeks pinkened sli ghtly, though, which was progress of a kind.
    Alexander Lammergeier would not be so easily defeated as that.
    Indeed, he purposefully made his way to sit at her very side, not caring a whit for changing the arrangements Anthony had carefu ll y made at the head table.
    This lady’s smile would be won, regardless of the cost.
    * * * * *
    E leanor was not a fickle woman, but a single gli mpse of Alexander Lammergeier utterly changed her thinking. She had erred when she had accepted the sisters’ offer. She merely spied the man in question and knew she could not wed him.
    For the laird of Kinfairli e was not what Eleanor had expected. She had assumed him to be a portly curmudgeon of an elder brother, perhaps one from an earlier marriage of the women’s father, a man vastly older and less eligible than his pretty sisters.
    But Alexander possessed none of those traits. He was young, for one thing, a mere half-dozen years older than herself. He was also cursedly handsome, which Eleanor distrusted to her very marrow, and worse, he was clearly aware of his own merit. Like Kinfairlie itself, he presented an allure that must be only skin deep. No man could be handsome and kind and unwed; no holding could be fully peaceful. Both laird and estate were illusions and thus untrustworthy.
    Indeed, Alexander’s peasants held him in such uncommon regard that Eleanor concluded that they feigned their affection. They must be fawning, out of fear