Cursed Roses of the Highlands: A Scottish Medieval Historical Romance Collection by Catriona Anniston

Author:Catriona Anniston [Anniston, Catriona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

He was eight years old. His father was a farmer, and his mother helped on the fields whenever she was not tending to Lachlan's needs. There'd been a bairn or three in her belly since Lachlan's birth, but only one had survived long enough to see the world, and that child had died soon after, though luckily he'd lived long enough to be baptized, John, before he died.

Lachlan had once had an older brother, too, though he couldn't remember him very well. The lad had been called Jamie, and he'd been three years older than Lachlan. But three years ago, when Jamie was the same age as Lachlan was now, he'd died in an accident while helping his father on the farm, and that had been the end of Jamie. Lachlan was ashamed that he only vaguely remembered his brother's smiling face and messy dark hair.

Lachlan didn't really understand why God had taken his siblings before they could live, but he knew that his mother was sad all the time as a result, and he knew it was his duty to help her. And he knew that his mammy relied on him and wanted to keep him close forever.

His father was rarely around, since he worked so hard, and when he did come home those days it was with a look of true misery on his face. He was tired and sore, and there was nobody to help him anymore.

Even the house seemed sad; there were holes in the roof that his father had tried to fix with whatever materials he could find, but though it kept them dry, their home was cold now. The fire was rarely lit in the hearth, even in winter, and Lachlan spent much of his time wrapped in a blanket

"Da," he asked late one night when his father came home from the fields, "why are ye and Ma so sad all the time?"

"It's a bad crop, son. Again," his father had told him through a tight, weary smile, "I dinnae ken how we're meant tae last the winter."

"Let me help on the farm," Lachlan insisted. "I'm a big lad now. I can dae it!"

"Nay," his father insisted. "Nay. Ye'll stay here an' keep yer mammy company. She'd have me heid if I let ye there."

And so Lachlan stayed home. And the crops failed. And they grew thinner, and sadder, and colder. Lachlan began to wonder, quite seriously, if there was any hope left in the world at all. He'd do anything if it just meant making his mammy smile again.

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