Highlander in Love by Julia London

Author:Julia London [Julia London]
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Published: 2005-07-08T22:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

L iam was waiting for her where the kirk road joined the main one, as he had every Sunday since her enslavement. Mared’s heart filled with joy at the sight of him, and she ran. Liam caught her up in his big arms, holding her tightly to him. “What has kept ye? We expected ye a half hour ago!”

“I stopped to pay a call to Mr. Craig. He’s alone with his grandson now.”

Liam grunted and set her down, held her at arm’s length to peer closely at her. “Has he harmed ye, lass? Has he laid as much as a finger on ye?”

He asked the same questions each week. “No!” At Liam’s skeptical look, she laughed. “I’ve hardly seen him at all, Liam.”

It was a slight alteration of the truth, and still, Liam frowned. “Aye, then what is this mark on yer neck?” he growled.

“A rather unfortunate accident with an apparatus in the washroom,” she said lightly, and reached up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “Where is Duncan?” she asked. “I’ve so longed to hold him!”

Liam grinned irrepressibly at the mention of his young son, wrapped his arm around Mared’s shoulder, and together, they walked to where the rest of the Lockharts awaited her in the kirk yard.

It was later that afternoon, at Talla Dileas, that Grif announced they had a new plan to free her. “’Tis rather brilliant, in our estimation,” he said, and the six of them nodded in almost perfect unison.

“Brilliant?” Mared asked, perking up. “What is it, then?”

“We sell acreage to Sorley,” Grif said. “I donna know why we didna think of it before now! Douglas may have refused land in exchange for ye, but Sorley? Aye, he’ll want it, he will. We’ll sell enough to buy ye back.”

“How much?” Mared asked.

Grif blinked. “How much?”

“How much land will ye sell?”

“Ach,” he said, flicking his wrist, “‘No’ so very much.”

“How much?” Mared insisted.

“Thirty acres,” Grif said, his smile fading.

“Thirty!” Mared cried. “Ye’d sell thirty acres of Lockhart land? Ye must no’ do so, Grif! No, no, I’d rather give a year of my life to Douglas than sell as much as an inch of this land!”

Grif exchanged a perplexed look with Carson, who asked, “But ye’d agreed we’d trade the same amount of land for ye to Douglas, did ye no’? ’Tis the same, lass. Sorley or Douglas, it makes no difference.”

Mared tossed her head and looked at a painting of a Lockhart ancestor. “Aye, perhaps I did agree then. But upon further reflection I now believe that one year can be borne with the proper fortitude. And I seem to possess the proper fortitude.”

That opinion was met with perplexed looks all around.

“Tell her of Hugh!” Anna said excitedly.

“’Tis rubbish, Anna, I’ve told ye as much,” Liam said gruffly.

“It may very well be rubbish, but it also may very well be true, Liam. If you won’t tell her, I will,” she said firmly and struggled to her feet—it seemed to Mared that Anna had ballooned overnight.

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