Marti Talbotts Highlander Series 1 - Anna Rachel u Charlet

Kevin would kill them.
    “Rachel, sit by me for a moment.”
    She was dressed, almost ready to go, and there was time so she did as her mother requested.
    Catherin held her hand out, turned it palm up and opened it. Inside was a small blue stone. “Take the stone. If you are captured, try to send the stone to us. Trust a lass to bring it.”
    “How will I know which lass to trust?”
    “Say these words exactly and say it in English, not Gaelic. Say: ‘God condemns the soul of a lad who hurts a lass or a child.’ Can you remember it?”
    “Yes mother. What if none of the lasses speak English?”
    “My sister lives with the Fergusons.”
    “I did not know you had a sister.”
    “I have three. She is the only one I have managed to find over the years, and I have met her often in the woods. When she hears the words, she will know who you are and she will help you.”
    Rachel took the stone, pulled out her dagger, dropped the stone to the bottom of the sheath, and replaced the dagger. She grabbed her bow, checked to make sure she had a full count of arrows and kissed her mother on the cheek. “I w ill come back, I promise you.”

    It was dark and the last of the families were still coming across the bridge when Rachel walked out. Once she was across, she turned to look back at the Keep . Kevin and Connor were standing on the landing watching her and her mother was headed up the steps to join her sister in prayer. She was relieved to see Kevin wasn’t going to let Connor go with her. She turned back around, searched the woods with her eyes, looked up at the sky and waited for a dark cloud to cover the half moon.
    When the moon came back out, Rachel was gone and Kevin remembered to take a forgotten breath. He watched as the drawbridge was raised, and then glanced at Connor and smiled. He wasn’t sure the young man would ever take air again. “She needs you, Connor, she just does not know it yet.”
    “What makes you think she will choose me?”
    “Rachel is convinced she hates you.”
    “Of that, I am well aware.”
    “Aye, but she notices no other lad.” He watched Connor’s eyes begin to brighten. “Come, I will finish telling you how to win her and try t o save you the trouble I had.”
    Both men went back into the great hall, sat down at the long table and Kevin began, “The truth is, I was a foolish young lad when Anna became my wife. I wanted sons and considered little else. Perhaps someday Anna will tell you what happened, but for now , I tell you this: Once I loved her, I was determined not to let her out of my sight. I thought I would die without her, but Anna taught me a lad cannot keep a lass unless she wants to be kept. He must honor her, trust her and listen to her. Most of all, he must be willing to let her go. Do you understand?”
    Connor wrinkled his brow, “Not in the least.”
    “Allow me to put it another way. To win Rachel’s heart, you must set her free. If you try to control her, she will hate you for it and you will lose her.”

    Rachel was right, once she walked through the gate to the Ferguson hold, no one paid any attention to her. Instead of the large, well-kept MacGreagor structure, the Ferguson hold was much smaller and the grounds had not been cleaned recently. They need Kevin, she thought. Kevin used cleaning duties to punish the children when they needed to think about their crimes. The older the child and the bigger the crime, the longer they cleaned. Lying or stealing meant a full week of cleaning up after the horses and Rachel remembered that duty well.
    She saw very few flowers around the cottages in the Ferguson hold . T heir stable didn’t have a roof and some of the people needed a bath in the worst way. But the Fergusons seemed happy.
    Rachel had been inside for more than an hour and was about to leave when she spotted a woman watching her. She tried to ignore the woman, and when she glanced at her a second time, the woman was slightly shaking her head, as if to warn her of something. Rachel lowered her eyes to signal she understood and when she raised them again, the woman disappeared into the crowd.

    It was an excruciating hour...after hour...after hour before Rachel finally opened the door to the Keep and walked into the great hall. Her clothes were sopping wet, her hair was a mess, most of her arrows were gone and she still wore the Ferguson plaid. As soon as she saw him, she ran into the arms of the man she’d called father for as long as she could