Let Me Be Your Hero by Elaine Coffman

Author:Elaine Coffman [Elaine Coffman]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780778320920
Google: c_J-SvoT8KsC
Amazon: 0778320928
Goodreads: 180085
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2012-01-14T13:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

It was not like your great and gracious ways! Do you, that have naught other to lament,

Never, my Love, repent Of how, that July afternoon, You went, With sudden, unintelligible phrase,

And frightened eye, Upon your journey of so many days, Without a single kiss, or a goodbye?

Coventry Patmore (1823-1896), British poet. The Unknown Eros “Departure” (1877)

Utrecht, Holland Summer 1745

Fraser Graham was going home.

He did not realize how hungry he was for his family and his homeland until he saw his brother waving energetically from the boat, and felt a corresponding lump of homesickness swell in his throat.

Two years…

Two long years he had been here, without setting foot on Scottish soil; without the sight of a family face or the lilt of a dear one’s voice. But that would all change now that Bran was here.

Fraser was deeply touched when Bran wrote of his plans to come to Utrecht. “I will come to visit for a week or so, then I will return home with ye,” he wrote.

“I will accompany ye back to Scotland,” he wrote, “for I canna wait any longer to see ye, Fraser. I also want to make certain the women in Utrecht are as beautiful as ye say.”

When Fraser scanned the faces of the passengers on the boat and caught his first glimpse of Bran’s face, it all became real to him: his brother was here, and he was going home.

Bran no more than stepped on solid ground when Fraser appeared at his side. Immediately, the brothers greeted each other with polite fondness as befitted their class, and then, in the manner the Graham brothers did since their childhood days, they tussled energetically—until Bran managed to encircle Fraser’s head and lock him against his body with his arm in a tight hold.

“Ye ha’ gotten weak, brother,” Bran said. “I ken you will be in for it when you arrive back at Monleigh and Jamie, Niall and Callum have a go at ye. Surely ye know they will be waiting for ye.”

“Aye, I ken they will, but perhaps my superior intelligence will enable me to escape that fate.”

“Och…so it’s a super intelligence you acquired, is it? And I was thinking ye came to study law.” His eyes gleamed with mischief as he said, “Mayhap ye are better suited to wrestle our wee sister.”

“Och, I let her try her hand at it when she was no more than nine or ten. When I got the best of her, she lost her temper and gave me a swift kick. It landed in a most unfortunate place.”

Bran was laughing. “Oh aye, I remember that day and the sight of ye sprawled on yer back in the garden and Arabella’s comment that she liked kicking better than wrestling.”

“Look at ye,” Bran said when he stepped back to look Fraser over. “The first lawyer in the family. Have you any inkling of how proud we are of ye?”

Fraser grinned and gave Bran’s hair a bit of ruffling. “Ye are only thinking of the free legal advice.

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