Chasing a Highland Moon by Gwyn Brodie

Author:Gwyn Brodie
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Highland
Published: 2015-03-10T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“M’lady, wake up!” Alice pleaded, pulling on her arm.

Claire opened her eyes, then realized she was still in Cin’s bedchamber sitting beside the fire. “What is it, Alice?”

“‘Tis your uncle. He sits in the great hall with Laird MacLeod.”

Claire jumped up from the settle, her heart hammering against her ribcage. “I cannae allow him to find me here.” Cin was an intelligent man. He would figure out soon enough that he had been deceived.

“What will we do?” The maid was visibly shaken.

“Go to the servants’ quarters and stay there. If Uncle John sees you, he will ken I’m somewhere about as well.”

“What about ye, m’lady?” Alice’s face showed pale in the firelight.

“I’ll go to Portree. With the funds I’ve saved, I’ll have no trouble finding someone to take me to Lewis.” She clutched the small pouch in the pocket of her arisaid.

“What of the weather? Ye could freeze to death?” Alice said, weeping.

“I’m afraid Uncle John has given me no other choice.”

“What shall I tell the laird? Ye ken he’ll come in search of ye, m’lady.”

Claire thought of all the things she would like to say to Cin, but none of them seemed enough. “Tell him I’m sorry.”

Alice nodded. “Have a care, m’lady,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. She hugged Claire, then slipped from the bedchamber.

Claire paced back and forth. She did not have her cloak with her, and would certainly be in need of one. After looking about the bedchamber, she spotted one of Cin’s hanging from a peg. When she took it down, she realized it was lined with rabbit fur. She hated to take his cloak, especially one so ornate, but it would do well to keep her warm.

After going back and forth, Claire finally made up her mind to take it, then have it returned once she no longer needed it. She would do the same with the thick wool blanket she’d had about her shoulders earlier.

She slipped out of the bedchamber, pausing for a moment in the corridor to listen to the soothing timbre of Cin’s voice coming from the great hall. Then her uncle joined in the conversation. ‘Twas only a matter of time before Cin realized that she had lied to him, then he would have no more use of her.

Drawing the cloak tightly about her, Claire slipped out into the bailey and down to the stables. The wind blew hard, and the snow blanketed the ground with white. She had to reach Portree soon, or she would never be able to. “Fergus,” she called out to the stable master.

She heard a rustle, then a man she recognized as Duff stumbled out of the sleeping quarters at the end of the stable, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He stopped when he saw her. “Are ye in need of something, lass?”

“Where is Fergus?” During her stay at Dunvegan, she had grown quite fond of the old man, and he of her.

“In Perth. I’m looking after the stables until he returns.”

“I’m in need of a horse.

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