Tangled Hearts by Heather McCollum

m’lady,” Henry said and pulled her into his side as they walked up the table. He led her toward an arched doorway. “Perhaps you would appreciate the fine view of the rose garden.”
    “Here she is, James! Now tell me that isn’t Katharine’s twin?” Richard Pembroke was back and had towed a tall man with him.
    Henry rolled his eyes, but stopped.
    “By the good Lord’s grace,” the tall man whispered, his gaze raking her form but fastening back onto her face. “Who are you?”
    “This is Lady Brody, recently from Scotland,” Henry answered.
    “She’s married to a Scot,” Richard Pembroke added. “Your maiden’s name?”
    She swallowed. What had she said before? The simpler the lie, the easier to remember and stay consistent. Think !
    “I was raised off the continent, sir,” she answered, stalling. Certainly someone would remember if she made up a new maiden’s name.
    “You aren’t Katharine,” James Wellington said. “Her eyes are too dark, Richard, and of course my brother’s wife would be two decades older. But—”
    Richard pointed to her open neckline. “She has the Wellington crest on her locket.”
    “Where did you get that?” James nearly grabbed the silver oval, but a look from Henry stopped his advance in midair.
    A commotion back at the table told Dory that Ewan wasn’t yet ready to let her play her part on her own. She sighed softly. Something had to be done and apparently she looked too much like her mother to hide in an alias.
    “I was born at sea, sir.”
    Richard gasped.
    “My mother died soon after. She left me this locket.” She wedged her nail in the crack and opened. “It holds a likeness of her.”
    “It’s Katharine! She’s a Wellington!” Richard cried, and the whole room erupted in murmurs. “As if from the grave.”
    Several gasps followed.
    “As I said before, my wife is no ghost,” Ewan nearly snarled. The armed men in the doorway took a step forward.
    Thunder boomed overhead, causing a few squeaks among the ladies. Dory breathed evenly to rein in her powers. Ewan couldn’t possibly know that she was the cause. Bloody hell! She needed to control herself.
    William Spencer walked into the room and his eyes widened as he surveyed her in full court apparel like her mother would have worn. Apparently he was another who had known Katharine.
    “Gentlemen,” she said, her voice carrying, yet femininely weak. “Do you know who I am then?” She leaned a little heavier on the king’s arm. “I’ve wondered my entire life.”
    With that she let her knees, beneath the heavy skirts, buckle.
    “She swoons!” Henry called and tried to break her fall, but she felt the pain in his leg as he twisted toward her and knew he would drop her. There was no helping it now. In less than a heartbeat she squeezed her eyes, expecting the bruising pain when her hip hit the stone floor.
    “Dory.” She heard Ewan’s whisper as he caught her beneath her arms.
    “I have the lady,” Henry said, a note of warning under his breath.
    “I have my wife,” Ewan countered and hauled her up against him. Before she could even smother a gasp, he lifted her under the knees. She let her head droop against his chest, her heart beating hard like cannon fire.
    “She’s Katharine’s child, she must be,” Richard said.
    “Katharine died at sea with the child she carried,” James Wellington insisted.
    “Her body wasn’t recovered. Perhaps she birthed the baby first. She has Katharine’s locket,” William Spencer said.
    “I’m taking my wife to our rooms.” Ewan’s strong voice sliced through the conjectures. Thank the stars; she certainly needed to get away from all this. Even though she’d known about her mother, she had no idea people would react so strongly.
    Ewan strode out of the hall, clutching her close to his chest so that only her long skirts brushed the wall as he passed. What drama! Dory would have laughed over the spectacle if she weren’t in a swoon. She quivered and