Page 46 of The Defiant Curse

He loved a hot tub too, and for one sexy reason.

“Is this early for snow?” she asked, not going there. It just made her miss the men she loved.

He shook his head.

“No. Graham tells me that any time after September, it can go from monsoon to snowstorm in the mountains. Don’t worry, though, we have enough wood chopped to heat the whole place and all one hundred fireplaces.”

Well, that was good to know.

When she glanced over at the fireplace, as she was thinking about it, that’s when she saw the painting hanging over it.

“Who is he?” she asked.

Michael headed there with her as Elizabeth followed right behind him.

“That’s Duncan Granndach. Lord Duncan if you’re nasty,” he joked. “Or Gryphen.”

She didn’t pay attention. Instead, she was staring at him. His eyes were a dark blue, and he looked…fierce.

There was a scar down his cheek, and it was clear someone had seen battle. There was that hardened look in his eye, like he’d seen too much shit.

Been there.

Done that.

“Spooky,” she said. “He seems to follow you in the room,” she added, moving around to get different perspectives.

Yeah, he was aware.

“He watches over the castle here. His first wife, Ceit, watches over the entryway in the grand foyer where her painting hangs,” he offered.

Oh, and he knew he was softening the blow of what would be coming.

She was curious.

“His MUCH younger wife?” she asked.

He was amused.

“In his defense, it was the sixteen hundreds, and people died at thirty. They married younger, too.”

She still didn’t like the idea that his wife had been sent here. What if she had a life before that?

What if she didn’t want to be married?

God knew men were work.

“How old was she again?” she asked.

He remembered because they’d spoken about it when they were on the hunt to figure out who was in the lake.

“She was seventeen. You can read up on all of it if you like,” he said. “There’s books and journals in the library through that door.”

She turned.

“Where?” she asked. For some reason, she was curious, and it wasn’t like she had anything else here to do but scare some goats and lay low.

He led her there and opened the doors. When he swung them open, she walked in.