Braden by Kirsten Osbourne

Author:Kirsten Osbourne [Osbourne, Kirsten]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medieval
Published: 2018-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

THEY WOKE at sunrise the following morning, and one glance at the fields told Katerina everything she needed to know. If they did not offer to let their family stay with the clan, she would be very surprised. She wondered for a moment if Braden also had the ability to kill the crops off, but she did not ask. Hopefully it would never be something that would be necessary for him to do.

As they were eating their oat cakes for breakfast, the man who had spoken with Alex the previous day came to the camp, waving his arms as he spoke in rapid Gaelic. He was obviously very excited.

Alex smiled and nodded. He turned to Braden. “You have been asked to become their laird. There has been much illness and many people in the clan have died in the past year. They are excited to have new people here.”

Braden got to his feet. He could not help but wonder how he was going to learn to fashion a kilt, but he figured there would be someone to teach him. The kilts of this clan seemed to be fashioned of a green plaid, and he wondered where he would get some for his family to wear.

The man, who introduced himself as Callum, led them into the keep, showing them through the house. The housekeeper came out to meet them, and Katerina was thrilled to realize she spoke some English. “I am Katerina,” she said softly, leaving out her title. “This is my mother-in-law, Matilda, and my husband’s grandmother, Lina.”

The housekeeper nodded her head. “I am Andrina.” The woman’s voice was very deep, and if Katerina had not been looking at her, she would have assumed she was a man.

“Are you willing to stay on and help us with our transition?”

Andrina nodded. “Callum is running around like a fool claiming you made the crops grow twice as tall overnight. We all know that is not possible, so what did you do to excite him so?”

“I did not make the crops grow overnight. My husband did. He has an affinity with the plants and the earth.” Katerina could not admit to the powers her husband had, but she could phrase it in the same way he had first phrased it to her. “Will you tell me about the clan?”

Andrina frowned. “It is really just a bunch of misfits who have come together. Many have left their own lands because of a disagreement. Some are outcasts. It is not a real clan, I am afraid. We had a man who was our leader, but he was killed in battle, and we have no one to replace him. The truth is we have been looking for a new leader.”

“That is very interesting. Does the clan have a name?”

“The last laird was a MacDougal, but as we are not all MacDougals we did not take on his name. What is your last name, Katerina?”

Katerina was startled for a moment when the other woman used her first name.

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