THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

with the child, his shirt still locked in her fist.
    Someone lifted the child up and out of the water and then strong hands reached for her. Beth heard the child’s wet cough and then a mother’s cooing and admonishing as she made it to her feet. Teeth chattering, Beth pushed dripping hair out of her eyes to find the child—now wrapped in tartan—a bit blue around the lips, but otherwise okay. Relief flooded her.
    She tipped her face to the sun. Thank you, God.
    Deciding the child was none the worse for the experience and in good hands, Beth hunched against the wind and pushed through the crowd now gathered on the quay. One man silently offered her his cloak as she passed. She gave him a wane smile, shook her head, and hurried toward the keep. She desperately needed to get out of her clothing before she turned to a block of ice.
    Before she made it to the keep’s door someone tapped her shoulder.
    “My lady?”
    Beth stopped and managed a grin for the panting, apple-cheeked woman holding the drenched boy.
    “Thank ye for saving me lad.”
    “You’re most welcome.” She studied the chattering child clutched to the woman’s chest. “What’s his name?”
    Double dimples bracketed the woman’s semi-toothless grin like quotation marks. “Miles.”
    “Hello, Miles.” To the woman Beth said, “He’s a lovely—bonnie lad. How many years is he?”
    The woman’s chambray eyes assessed Beth for a long moment. “Soon four, my lady.”
    “An inquisitive age.” Several more women edged closer to them, obviously curious. Beth held out her hand. “My name is Beth, Mrs....?”
    The woman hesitated for a brief moment before taking Beth’s hand. As she did, one woman gasped and another giggled nervously.
    “MacDougall, my lady, Kari MacDougall.”
    “Kari, it’s a pleasure meeting you. I just wish-—luste—it had been under more pleasant circumstances.” Beth’s teeth began to chatter in earnest. “I’d love to chat, but I need to change.” She gave the child’s arm a pat. “Bye, and no more chasing kitties onto the quay, you hear?”
    The child smiled, displaying dimples identical to his mother’s. Beth waved and ran up the stairs, her goal the solar. Climbing on stiff legs, she pondered the possibility—should she remained locked in this world—of she and Duncan someday having a child so easily identifiable as theirs. Would her son have Duncan’s steel blue eyes and black hair? She prayed if she had a daughter the child would have her height and build but her father’s features and coloring.
    As she rounded the second floor landing, Beth came to an abrupt halt. Her hands flew to her mouth.
    Not fifteen feet before her in the darkened hallway stood her husband and Miss I’m Too Sexy for My Clothes Flora Campbell locked in an embrace. Something sharp contracted around Beth’s chest seeing Flora leaning into Duncan, the woman’s palms splayed on his chest as he casually leaned against the wall.
    When they turned as one to look at her, Beth’s body infused with blistering heat. She didn’t wait for an explanation. Matters were clear enough for a blind man to see. Her husband loved another.
    Without a word, she spun and tore up the stairs wanting only to get behind a closed door before she shamed herself by allowing him to see that he’d made her cry.
    “Beth! Wait! This isna—”
    Duncan grabbed Flora’s upper arms and shoved her back. “God’s teeth, Flora, back off with ye!” Damn all and the little fishes. Beth’s expression had turned from startled to painful recognition in only a heartbeat as she had stared at them. Damn!
    “Oops,” Flora murmured tightening her grip on his sleeve. “Ignore her, my lord. As I was saying—”
    “Flora, away with ye. Now!”
    Beth already thought him a beast after he’d tossed her about the solar in a rage. He had nay doubt that her thinking she’d caught him in an adulterous clutch would do naught for his plea of understanding about his earlier behavior.
    He raced down the corridor after her and then flew up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. Why was fate so determined to blast his life down the garderobe slew? All he needed now was a raid by the Bruce and his life would be a total ruin.
    At the top of the stairs he found the solar door closed. He lifted the latch and shoved. It didn’t budge. He pounded a fist on the thick wood.
    “Beth, open the door.” He could hear her muffled sobbing.
    “ Go to hell! ”
    He raked