Marti Talbotts Highlander Series 1 - Anna Rachel u Charlet

another mountain to climb and all of them tried to think whom they could ask. Perhaps someone in another clan remembered.
    “Athena did not die,” Thomas muttered.

    Kevin headed back to the hold, crossed the bridge and then turned up the path to the cottages. Athena had been one of his mother’s closest friends and still mourned the loss. He would try not to upset her; at least that was his plan.
    She was indeed an elder, though she was barely over forty-five. With wars, childbirth and sickness, it could be a harsh life in the Highlands and more than a few women were lost because of it. He knocked lightly on her door and waited for her to answer. She was a tall woman with long dark hair braided down the middle of her back. She was obviously pleased to see him until she thought of something and her smile faded.
    “What is it?” He left the door open and the other men outside.
    “Your mother would weep over what has happened to your wife.”
    He knew if he gave in to her desire to talk about his mother, all hope of a quick conversation would be lost. “Athena, I need your help. There is a lad by the name of Stoneham who...”
    “Is that scunner still alive?” She plopped herself down in a chair and folded her arms in a huff.
    “You know him?” He could see the ire in her eyes and started to be concerned about her health.
    “Stoneham is not his real name, ‘tis MacGreagor.”
    Kevin couldn’t believe his ears. At length, he sat down and put his head in his hands. “My wife is Stoneham’s daughter.” The woman beside him didn’t say a word, so he slowly raised his head to see her face.
    Athena was lost in her memories and it took her a moment to react, “She is fortunate to be alive.”
    “Aye, she is. Tell me all of it, Athena, the lad has sworn his revenge and means to attack.”
    She scoffed then. “He does not have the courage to attack us. He is a coward.”
    “He told Anna my father tricked him. Do you know what happened?”
    “I do.” Athena had to think where to begin and it took several moments. “Stoneham was one of your father’s most trusted men. He was a mean scunner and everyone knew it except y our father, God rest his soul.”
    Kevin feared she would start mourning his father so he hurried on. “Did my father find out his true nature?”
    “Aye. One night Stoneham beat his wife and thought he had killed her. He knew your father would kill him and he had to think of something fast. The moat and the walls were just started and it was easy for a lad to slip past the guards. He carried her into the woods and left her for the animals to feed on. The next day, he claimed she had wandered off in the night but he didn’t know she...”
    “She what?”
    Athena looked tortured when she grasped his hand as though she needed his strength. “She crawled on her belly. One of her legs and one arm was broken, but she was determined not to let him get away with it. So she crawled nearly all night. Just after sunrise, one of the guards found her. She begged the guard not to sound the alarm and go get your father instead. The guard took pity on her and did as she asked.”
    Kevin moved his chair closer and put his arm around her shoulders. He could see she was ready to collapse and he wasn’t going to let that happen, at least not until he heard it all.
    “Your father was so furious he could hardly stand on his own two feet. He carried her inside the Keep , woke your mother and put the lass in his very own bed. By then she had blessedly passed out.”
    “But how did father trick Stoneham?”
    “He pretended he had not found her and when Stoneham reported his wife missing, he believed your father’s lads were scouring the land looking for her. Your father returned with a scrap of cloth wrapped around a fresh bone and when Stoneham looked relieved, your father no longer had any doubts. He would have struck him dead right then, but he wanted the clan to see so others would remember.”
    “I have heard this story.”
    “Aye, you have. Your father whipped Stoneham in the glen until he admitted he had beaten the lass. Then he put his sword through the lad ’ s stomach.”
    “But he did not kill him.”
    “Nay, he wanted Stoneham to suffer, left him alone in the glen and assumed he would die a slow, painful death in the night. It was a mistake. The next morning, Stoneham was gone and so were three other lads your father thought were loyal. His true followers hunted them down and killed the