The O'Madden: A Novella (The Celtic Legends Series) by Lisa Ann Verge
Authors: Lisa Ann Verge
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THE O’MADDEN
Lisa Ann Verge
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Sneak Peek
About the Author
CAN LOVE CHANGE DESTINY?
Bound by a family curse, Maeve journeys to the Samhain fires of a distant village for one purpose alone: To conceive a child with a nameless stranger . The gentle giant who catches her eye proves a passionate lover. But when moonlight gives way to dawn, Maeve has no choice but to leave him behind. For the strong Irishman she’d spent the night loving is now the one man she can never have.
One
Ireland, the Year of Our Lord 1370
The time had come to find a lover.
Maeve pulled her cloak closed as she reached the height of the hill. A bonfire snapped in the clearing and hazed smoke into the sky. She lingered in the shelter of the woods, searching the faces of the villagers who clasped hands and raced in drunken circles around the All Hallows’ Eve fire. A girl screeched across Maeve’s path, her fair hair streaming, chased by a young man who seized her by the waist and sent her skirts flying.
“Glenna,” Mae ve whispered to the woman beside her. “I must have been daft to come here, to think of doing this.”
The fairy-woman sank her walking stick into the earth and clasped gnarled hands over t he hilt. “It was your choice.”
“I’m not putting the blame on you. But look at them.” Maeve frowned at the young men jostling in the crowd, vying to be the next to leap through the fires. “A full month’s spinning says there isn’t one of them older than five-and-ten.”
“A young man’ s passion flares then dies just as quickly, but it’ll get the job done nonetheless.” The old woman’s face collapsed into folds of humor. “Isn’t that what you wanted from this night?”
“T his is no matter for teasing. I’m nigh five-and-twenty, an old woman in their eyes. I’ll be invisible to all of them.”
“Be patient, my Maeve. The evening has just begun, and you’ve not yet seen the whole herd. Soon the youngest of them will be paired off and snoring somewhere in the bracken.” Glenna leaned into the stick and rubbed th e ache of her back. “As will you, daughter of my heart, as will you.”
Heat crept up Maeve’s cheeks. Her turnip-gourd lantern banged against her knee as she turned away from Glenna’s side. She walked the line between the shadows and the light, not knowing which nauseated her more: the curious, hungry glances cast toward her, or the throaty laughter rising here and there from the woods. She would know both before the night was through.
So it had come to this, she thought, sweeping her cloak out of the way as another couple hurtled past her. Here she was searching for a mate by the light of a foreign village’s All Hallows’ Eve fire. She certainly wouldn’t be getting the tender loving she’d imagined in her foolish youth. Tonight, in the embrace of one of those red-cheeked boys, she’d get no slow, patient tutoring. She’d be lucky if she managed to lure him far enough away from the fires for a bit of privacy before he hiked up her skirts and had his way with her.
T hings could be worse.
She could have been forced into a marriage to an old man , or a hated one, or an enemy. She was old enough to know that few women realize the full of their romantic dreams. The only thing that made her different was the mantle of duty that lay upon her shoulders.
So she woul d choose one of these boys. She would lie with a stranger this night. At least the deed would be quick and done. At least, she thought, scanning the crowd, she had the power of choice.
She took a closer look at her options from the protection of her hood. Ashes from the bonfire drifted down like black snowflakes. There were so many young faces. Such high-pitched giddy laughter, like the giggles of children being tickled too much. A fire-leaper hurled through the flames,
Lisa Ann Verge
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Sneak Peek
About the Author
CAN LOVE CHANGE DESTINY?
Bound by a family curse, Maeve journeys to the Samhain fires of a distant village for one purpose alone: To conceive a child with a nameless stranger . The gentle giant who catches her eye proves a passionate lover. But when moonlight gives way to dawn, Maeve has no choice but to leave him behind. For the strong Irishman she’d spent the night loving is now the one man she can never have.
One
Ireland, the Year of Our Lord 1370
The time had come to find a lover.
Maeve pulled her cloak closed as she reached the height of the hill. A bonfire snapped in the clearing and hazed smoke into the sky. She lingered in the shelter of the woods, searching the faces of the villagers who clasped hands and raced in drunken circles around the All Hallows’ Eve fire. A girl screeched across Maeve’s path, her fair hair streaming, chased by a young man who seized her by the waist and sent her skirts flying.
“Glenna,” Mae ve whispered to the woman beside her. “I must have been daft to come here, to think of doing this.”
The fairy-woman sank her walking stick into the earth and clasped gnarled hands over t he hilt. “It was your choice.”
“I’m not putting the blame on you. But look at them.” Maeve frowned at the young men jostling in the crowd, vying to be the next to leap through the fires. “A full month’s spinning says there isn’t one of them older than five-and-ten.”
“A young man’ s passion flares then dies just as quickly, but it’ll get the job done nonetheless.” The old woman’s face collapsed into folds of humor. “Isn’t that what you wanted from this night?”
“T his is no matter for teasing. I’m nigh five-and-twenty, an old woman in their eyes. I’ll be invisible to all of them.”
“Be patient, my Maeve. The evening has just begun, and you’ve not yet seen the whole herd. Soon the youngest of them will be paired off and snoring somewhere in the bracken.” Glenna leaned into the stick and rubbed th e ache of her back. “As will you, daughter of my heart, as will you.”
Heat crept up Maeve’s cheeks. Her turnip-gourd lantern banged against her knee as she turned away from Glenna’s side. She walked the line between the shadows and the light, not knowing which nauseated her more: the curious, hungry glances cast toward her, or the throaty laughter rising here and there from the woods. She would know both before the night was through.
So it had come to this, she thought, sweeping her cloak out of the way as another couple hurtled past her. Here she was searching for a mate by the light of a foreign village’s All Hallows’ Eve fire. She certainly wouldn’t be getting the tender loving she’d imagined in her foolish youth. Tonight, in the embrace of one of those red-cheeked boys, she’d get no slow, patient tutoring. She’d be lucky if she managed to lure him far enough away from the fires for a bit of privacy before he hiked up her skirts and had his way with her.
T hings could be worse.
She could have been forced into a marriage to an old man , or a hated one, or an enemy. She was old enough to know that few women realize the full of their romantic dreams. The only thing that made her different was the mantle of duty that lay upon her shoulders.
So she woul d choose one of these boys. She would lie with a stranger this night. At least the deed would be quick and done. At least, she thought, scanning the crowd, she had the power of choice.
She took a closer look at her options from the protection of her hood. Ashes from the bonfire drifted down like black snowflakes. There were so many young faces. Such high-pitched giddy laughter, like the giggles of children being tickled too much. A fire-leaper hurled through the flames,
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