Caitlin McKenna crumpled the letter in her hands and stared over the edge of the sheer precipice at the storm-tossed Atlantic below. Seabirds wheeled above the cliff, adding their haunting cries to the crashing of waves against jagged rocks. A raw blast of wind ripped Caitlin’s linen cap away and tore loose her hairpins so that her auburn tresses tumbled gypsylike around her face and shoulders. Mist swirled around her, enveloping her in a cloak of opalescence. And a single tear trickled down her cheek.
“You’re alive.”
The rising gale tugged at the stained paper, but Caitlin held it in a death grip. She swallowed to relieve the aching lump in her throat and read Shane’s letter again. The message was short, almost abrupt. She had gone over it so many times that she could have recited the words without looking.
Shane was alive.
He wanted her to join him in America.
Caitlin pulled her woolen shawl tighter around her shoulders and tried to picture her husband’s face as she had last seen him. His blond hair, twinkling blue-gray eyes, and warm smile formed in her mind’s eye. She could even picture his square, dimpled chin and the sensual lips that had captured hers so sweetly. Handsome as a fallen angel was Shane McKenna and put together as well as the good Lord could create an Irishman. And then to add to the package, the Almighty had given him a deep, husky voice that could charm the birds from the trees . . . as he’d charmed her.
“Seven years!” she cried angrily. “Seven long years without so much as a word.”
She’d been but seventeen when she’d defied her family and her church to elope with Shane McKenna on the eve of his departure for the American frontier. That was a lifetime ago . . . before the potato crops had withered and turned to blackened slime . . . before her parents had died and her sister’s husband Thomas had been bludgeoned to death by a starving mob.
“Damn your black Irish heart, Shane McKenna!”
From the first day she’d laid eyes on him—barefoot and raggedy as a tinker’s lad—setting rabbit snares in her father’s woods, Shane had stolen her heart. He was her secret friend, her darling, the only man she’d ever wanted.
He’d promised that he’d send for her as soon as he earned her passage money. He’d promised that he’d write to her. And he’d betrayed both vows.
“Lies, lies!” she shouted into the wind.
But Shane had abandoned her, left her to face her family’s anger and disappointment alone, left her to pretend that she didn’t hear the sly whispers of her neighbors.
Now when she’d all but gotten over him, her husband had summoned her. He wanted her. The trouble was, she didn’t know if she still wanted him.
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Colleen French is a multiple award-winning and bestselling novelist, daughter of bestselling novelist Judith E. French. Colleen French has written more than 125 novels under several pen names. Colleen's print books have sold more than 1 million copies and been translated into Bulgarian, French, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish. Colleen's Native American novels are inspired by her English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and Lenni-Lenape ancestry and the Del-Mar Peninsula near the Chesapeake Bay, where her family has made its home for more than 300 years. Colleen French was awarded The Diamond Award for Literary Excellence from the State of Delaware. Her books appeal to readers of C. J. Petit, Shirleen Davies, Karen Kay, Madeline Baker, Elle Marlow, Ellen O'Connell, Caroline Fyffe, and Hannah Howell. She can be contacted at colleenfrenchnovels@gmail.com.
BY COLLEEN FRENCH
Scottish Fires Series
HIGHLAND LADY
HIGHLAND LORD
HIGHLAND BRIDE
Destiny's Daughters Series
THE PRINTER'S DAUGHTER
THE FUR TRADER'S DAUGHTER
CAPTIVE
FIRE DANCER'S CAPTIVE
FORBIDDEN CARESS
HEAVEN IN MY ARMS
HIS WILD HEART
IN CLOSE PURSUIT
IN LOVE WITH THE KING'S SPY
MY SAVAGE LORD
OUTRIDER
PASSION'S SAVAGE MOON
SWEET DECEPTION
THE ENGLISH LADY AND THE IRISH ROGUE
THE HIGHWAYMAN AND THE LADY
THE OFFICER'S DESIRE
THE RUFFIAN AND THE ROSE
WHISPERED PROMISE