THEY ARRIVED AT the castle shortly before dawn. Alex’s mother had taken one look at the half-starved, beaten young woman in his arms—Joan had been asleep and he refused to set her down after she’d woken—and immediately whisked her away. After losing a husband and two sons to the war—her sons in horrific executions—Lady Agnes Seton had endured more than her share of tragedy, but had done it all with a strength that had never faltered.
