Owen had been sickly and, though eager for his lush, seventeen-year-old-bride, unable to consummate the marriage. It didn't matter at all to Fiona, who hadn't been a virgin since thirteen. She'd quickly found what she sought on her husband's estate.

His name was Fionn, and he was a huntsman. He was big and brutal with no sexual refinements, but when he pushed himself into her, she thought she'd go mad with delight. Then the impossible happened, and she miscalculated. She wouldn't believe she was pregnant, and by the time she'd accepted the fact, it was too late to rid herself of the brat.

She told her husband of her condition, expecting the weakling to accept it and keep his mouth shut. But again, she had miscalculated. Crawling from his sickbed, he called her all the things she was, and told her that come morning he would expose her to the world for a whore. Here, however, Owen Stewart had miscalculated. While he slept, his wife smothered him with a pillow. His death was put down to an asthmatic attack, and much attention was lavished on his pregnant widow.

When the child was born, only Fiona's maid, Flora More-Leslie, attended her. The lusty boy was smuggled out and given to a peasant couple who had recently lost their own child. Fiona wanted no children cluttering her life. A dead infant was substituted for her own, and buried with much mourning in the Stewart family vault. Fiona had not escaped unharmed, either. It had been a hard birth. The doctor and midwife summoned afterwards had agreed that Lady Stewart would never bear another child. But her secret was safe. Only Flora knew the truth, and Flora had cared for her since she was a baby.

Fiona was gleeful this night, for she knew someone else's secret. She had slipped into the library at Greyhaven to escape the attentions of her cousin, Adam Leslie. Adam had been lusting after her since they were twelve. Hidden behind the drapes drawn across the window seat, she had heard the entire conversation between Heather, Patrick, and the Master of Greyhaven.