Marti Talbotts Highlander Series 1 - Anna Rachel u Charlet

true freedom. Mother and I rode horses, swam, hugged you, cried, laughed, and hugged you some more. Hugging you was a thing our father would never let us do and we kept hugging you until you began to protest when you saw us coming.”
    Rachel smiled. “I believe I remember that too. Why did you come back?”
    “We came back because this world was a whole different kind of world than the one I grew up in. I did not trust these people and thought all men were the same at first, but I hungered for the kindness and the warmth of the women. Athena was here and we reasoned if Athena was here, perhaps we would be safe. What we wanted most was a good place where you could grow up in peace. So I convinced mother to come back...just for a little while...to see if she would like it.
    “Yet this place had a wall just like the one around our manor in England. When Father wouldn’t open the gate so I could go out to ride my horse, I stood for hours trying to will it to open. The feeling of being trapped is...unlike any other. Before we would agree to come back inside the hold, we made Kevin promise to make a secret door in the wall and let us go out whenever we felt the need.”
    “I see now, but mother would you really leave Scotland?”
    “Do you see this man beside me? It was Justin who unchained me and he has been unchaining my heart ever since. I wake with a smile when I find him next to me and I cannot imagine a life without him. Do you understand?”
    Rachel thought about it, and then her eyes began to sparkle. “You have decided to stay.”
    “Aye.”
    “Then I will stay too,” said Anna.
    Rachel hugged her mother, “And so will I.”
    Anna stood up then, put her hands on her hips and glared at her husband. “Kevin, I hate the place! I want everything changed!”
    The smiles on the faces of all three husbands could have warmed a pot of cold mutton stew.

    -end-

    CHARLET

    The King of England asked the Highlander, Kevin MacGreagor, to hide a baby girl and save her life. But sixteen years later, someone discovered where she was. To Blair Cameron fell the duty of protecting Charlet. It was not an easy task; she was furious, headstrong and determined to run from him. Could Blair keep her alive? And if he did, could he keep himself from falling in love with her?

    CHAPTER I

    The King of England and Kevin MacGreagor were not friends, but they respected each other and had a word between them. The word was ‘hollow’ and when the Highlander received a message that included the word, he rode to the southern tip of his land and waited in the forest near a clearing.
    It wasn’t long before an Englishman timidly walked into the clearing with a small bundle in his arms. He was not the king and Kevin cautiously walked out to meet him. “You are on MacGreagor land.”
    “I should hope so.” The Englishman was not brave. He was old and trembled in the company of the giant. “The king begs you to hide this child.” The man’s hand shook as he lifted the cloth and allowed Kevin to peek at the sleeping baby. “If you do not hide her, she will die. Her mother is already dead.”
    “How do I hide her? Everyone wi ll know she is not born to us.”
    “What else can we do? The king trusts you and no other. He knows you will see to her safety and he knows you will give her back when the time comes.” He paused. The Highlander didn’t look convinced and he simply couldn’t let him refuse. “You will think of a way to make your people accept her, you must.”
    The Englishman put the baby in the arms of the Highlander, hung a flask of goat’s milk over Kevin’s shoulder and quickly walked away.
    Laird Kevin MacGreagor slowly lifted the wrap off the face of the child. She wasn’t more than a few days old, the dusting of hair on her head was red and she was sound asleep. He couldn’t help himself; he kissed the baby’s soft cheek. “Aye, I will think of a way.”

    Sixteen years later …

    “I hate her,” Julie muttered.
    They were teenage girls sitting in the middle of the meadow and they chose that place just to make sure no one could overhear them. They both wore long pleated plaids made of the same soft wool and of the same predominantly blue patchwork of color. Both MacGreagor men and women kept a length of plaid across their hearts and over one shoulder, with long white shirts underneath.
    Kenna shoved a strand of blond e hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I hate her too. My mother says lads