New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell continues the dramatic Murray saga with this brand-new story of passions surging in the face of fear. . . Once, Arianna Murray Lucette believed she'd met the man she could always rely on. She was wrong. Now she is fleeing for her life, and when her enemies attack a ship bound for her only refuge, she believes all hope is lost. Until she awakens on Scotland's shore to a pair of the most entrancing blue eyes she has ever seen. When Sir Brian MacFingal first spots the sun-streaked beauty on the beach, he mistakes her for dead. Soon, however, he discovers a woman more full of life and vitality than he ever dreamed possible. But though he knows he is fit to defend her life--even at risk of losing his own--can such a raw warrior as he ever be worthy of her love? Praise for Hannah Howell and her Highland novels. . . "Few authors portray the Scottish highlands as lovingly or colorfully as Hannah Howell." -- Publishers Weekly "Expert storyteller Howell pens another Highland winner." -- Romantic Times Hannah Howell is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of acclaimed historical romances. Howell, twice awarded the Golden Leaf Award, has been a Romance Writers of America RITA Award Finalist, received RT Book Reviews' Career Achievement Award for Historical Storyteller of the Year, and has had her books on Amazon's Top 10 Romances of the Year list. She lives in West Newbury, Massachusetts with her family. Visit her website at hannahhowell.com. Highland Avenger By Hannah Howell ZEBRA BOOKS Copyright © 2012 Hannah Howell All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4201-1879-7 Chapter One Scotland, spring 1480 Cold salt water matted her hair so badly Arianna could feel it pulling at her scalp. The rising wind did not help, yanking her hair free of its pins and whipping it around her head. It hurt when it slapped her in the face, something it did all too often as she made her stumbling way across the heaving deck of the ship in search of Adelar and Michel, but she had no time to fix it now. When she found the boys she intended to scold them until their ears burned. The boys were far too careless with their lives, too innocent to be fully aware of the danger they were in. They thought they traveled with her to Scotland to live with her and her family, not really understanding that they were running for their lives. They were too young to heed any warning she gave them for long. Nor could they understand that they were the only part of her ill-fated marriage that she clung to. There was someone on the ship who wanted her boys dead. Clenching her cold, wind-chafed hand over the hilt of her dagger, she swore yet again that she would do anything to keep them alive. She had thought that, by leaving France, she had escaped pursuit, but the ones after her boys had obviously set one of their men on the ship. She had every intention of burying her dagger deep in the man's black heart. "Jesu! The little bastard bit me!" The angry male voice sliced through the sounds of wind, rain, and creaking ship. Arianna turned toward that voice. Through the sheets of rain pelting down from the sky, she saw two men struggling to hold firm to two writhing, kicking boys as they dragged their small captives toward the ship's rail. One dagger. Two men. Not very good odds, she thought as she moved silently but quickly toward them. Her boys were fighting valiantly but she knew they would lose the battle. They needed her help to save them. She was not sure exactly who had hired the men and doubted she would have the opportunity to gain any answers from them. It did not matter. Arianna knew it was their uncle Amiel or the old, deadly enemy of the Lucettes, the DeVeaux. Or both, she thought, and nearly snarled. Amiel did not appear to care that he was now in league with a family that had caused the death and misery of so many of his own kinsmen. It should not have surprised and shocked her as much as it did. The man was trying to murder his own nephews to gain all they had inherited from their father. And, she strongly suspected, it had been Amiel who had killed their father, Claud, as well, murdered his own brother along with the mother of the boys. Dealing with an ancient enemy was a small sin next to those. Just as she was within reach of the men, the wind slapped her hair into her face again. Arianna shook her head back and forth to throw off the cold, wet hair that nearly blinded her. As she did so, out of the corner of her eye she saw something that firmly grabbed her attention despite the threat to her boys. Approaching through the rain was another ship. Unless some miracle occurred within the next few moments, something she had never been blessed with, that ship would soon ram the much smaller ship she stood on in the side. It was not only the boys she had to save now but herself as well. It began to look as if they would all soon end up in the