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Mary Reed McCall once studied at the University of Leningrad and considered a career in national security. However, she soon realized her calling lay elsewhere and turned to her love of books for inspiration, eventually becoming a high school English teacher and a romance writer. She began work on her first novel one week after completing her M.A. in English literature. The award-winning author of seven novels for Avon Books, Mary lives in upstate New York with her family, sharing an often crazy but always wonderful life.

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Years after being sold to the English by his enemies the MacDonells and imprisoned in London Tower, Duncan MacRae returns to Scotland to exact his revenge and to reclaim what is rightfully his—the famed protective amulet, the Ealach.

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The Sweetest Sin

Avon Books

Chapter One

Eilean Donan Castle
The Highlands, 1545

She wouldn't wake up.

Duncan MacRae crouched over his bride andstroked her cheek, his hand trembling. In all of his nineteenyears, he'd never felt so afraid, so helpless. Crushedrosebuds clung to the wreath in Mairi's hair, a profanereminder of the life they'd promised to each other onlymoments before the MacDonells' attack turned theirworld upside down. The blooms' faint, overripe fragrancemade him want to retch.

His bride.

Why hadn't he been able to protect her? He was heir tothe mighty clan MacRae, guardians to the Dukes of Ross.He should have known that the enemy would attack -- should have known that Morgana MacDonell wouldn'trest until she'd gained her vengeance.

Closing his eyes, Duncan breathed deeply. His headthrobbed, and his heart ached. Christ, how had it cometo this? The MacDonells had overcome the castle guards,helped by his own traitorous brother Colin in sneakingpast the gate. In the battle that followed, he'd fought tolead Mairi to safety. But then he'd been struck from behind.Something must have happened to her after he'dlost consciousness, for he'd woken next to her in thiscell, in the dungeons of his own keep.

And she wouldn't wake up.

Panic gripped him. His heart hammered as he strokedher cheek again, leaning close to feel her breath againsthis skin. Tearing a strip of his plaid, he soaked it againstthe wet stones and dabbed her face with it, desperate torevive her.

She made a rasping noise. The sound barely flutteredfrom her lips, and Duncan's heart felt as if it would explode.He wanted to clasp her to him, let his strengthdrain into her ... to bring the light back into herlaughter-filled eyes. Instead, he smoothed his fingersacross her brow.

And then he saw it. The bloody bruise that spreadback into her hairline. He breathed in sharply, a cursefrozen in his throat. His touch to the spot was light, disbelieving.The hard core he'd built inside himself beganto crack.

"Mairi, my God ..." His fingers threaded into thepale silk of her hair, and he buried his face against thecurve of her neck. She stirred, and Duncan went stillwith hope. He felt her deep shuddering sigh, andthen ... nothing.

Shock lanced through him, followed by a surge of denialand agony. Frantically he searched her face, holdinghis breath to hear any hint of hers, pressing his palm to her breast to feel the reassuring rhythm of her heart. Butall was still. Silent. Dead.

With a cry he pulled Mairi up and held her close,rocking her back and forth, until the sound of the celldoor grating open raked through him.

"See you found your prize, young MacRae."

Duncan stopped moving, his shoulders tensing. Gently,he laid Mairi back on the rotted pallet and stood up.He wanted to grab the unknown MacDonell cur andswipe the smirk from his face, but a wave of dizzinessmade him veer into the wall. Pain lodged in his skull,sending arrows of agony shooting into his eyes and neck.He bit back a groan, trying not to appear weak as heshook his head and steadied himself against the dampstones.

The man picked dirt from his thumbnail with a knife."That isn't your only surprise, though." He steppedaside, and Duncan squinted in the light that streamedthrough the doorway.

He heard the tread of light footsteps. An elongatedshadow moved across the opening, followed by its owner,a young woman, who stepped into the slash of torchlight.In the moment it took his eyes to adjust, the imageof her hammered at his senses. Tall, slender, with long,fiery hair and seductively curving lips.

Morgana MacDonell. The temptress who'd destroyedhis life.

"Ah, Duncan. You're not looking well." She grinnedand tilted her head; the movement made a curl slideaway from her breast, exposing the gilded pendant thathung round her neck. Duncan started; she wore theEalach amulet. His amulet.

As if she'd read his thoughts, Morgana raised herbrows, her eyes cold, flat blue. "It's mine now. It would have been ours, had you kept your promise to me." Hergaze deepened to azure, shining with excitement. "Butnever fear. I know the Ealach's powers, and be I yourwife or no, I'll be wearing it well."

Anger and the recent blow to his head prevented Duncanfrom speaking at first, but when he did, his voicegrated with bitterness. "I never pledged myself to you,Morgana."

"Liar. I was to be your bride. You and the Ealach wereboth to be mine."

"I belonged to Mairi. You said you understood myoath to her."

"Aye, but I never accepted it." Morgana fingered theamulet again. "Now with you or not, the Ealach is mine,brought home after a century of possession by yourcursed clan." Her eyes gleamed in the light, and Duncanwas struck with the intensity of her gaze. "I'll be using itto impose my rule over all the Highlands."

A knot of fear curled at the base of his spine, temporarilymasking his anger and pain. He knew theEalach's powers, though for generations none had invokedits might. Legends abounded of how it had beenused in the dark times. Of its force to control the mind,to deaden the soul ... even to kill. But no MacRaewould use it for ill; each clansman took the vow beforebattle. Their amulet was a harbinger of prosperity, usedonly for good, which was why God had gifted them withpossession of it.

Duncan wanted to argue with Morgana and deny herclan's claim of ownership, but he clenched his jaw, refusingto let her goad him further. It would do no good toreason. Morgana believed whatever she pleased ...

Excerpted from The Sweetest Sinby McCall, Mary Reed Excerpted by permission.
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