Rogue Highlander by Sondra Grey

Author:Sondra Grey [Grey, Sondra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

Isla can’t have said if it was her aunt’s calm acceptance or the way she reminded Isla of her mother, but Isla found herself spilling out the entire story. Gair, Rhona, and Rhona’s husband Tom Huntly, a medium heighted man with straight shoulders, a balding pate, and a thick, grey- brown beard, sat inside a cozy room, on fine furniture, near a roaring fire.

After revealing that Deirdre had died, Isla had to give Rhona a few moments to compose herself. Rhona, who was younger, and worshipped her wild, older sister and had missed her. “I was angry at first, that she left me. But years give you time to get over anger.” The older woman shook her head. “Everyone knew where she’d gone, of course, but she’d disobeyed both our father and the old Lord Gordon to marry your father – the niece of the Gordon married to a Stewart tacksman.”

Rhona told Isla of how her parents met. Her father, a MacLeay, accompanied a friend to a festival held at Huntly, and fell in love with Deirdre. Apparently it was mutual, for Deirdre left with him, leaving no word to alert her family about what she’d done. Their uncle had wanted to give chase, but Deirdre’s father had called him off saying, ultimately, “Good riddance.”

“Deirdre caused trouble and strife,” said Rhona, smiling over some memory of her sister doing so, “and more than one fight between men. To be honest it was quieter with her gone.” Rhona had married not long after. “I wanted to visit her,” Rhona confided. “But if Deirdre had wanted us to visit she would have written. She never did.”

“No,” Isla shook her head. “She was proud.” Something Isla had inherited. But she didn’t feel so proud now. She was at the mercy of her relatives and could only be grateful they’d been so warm and welcoming. “She never spoke much about her past, though she did mention you.”

“I’ve time to tell you of your mother later. Tell me of you, Niece.”

Isla told Rhona of her childhood, of her father and her younger brother’s death. Of her relationship with her mother. Rhona nodded sympathetically, “We’d much the same relationship with our mother. She was fierce and brusque. Not overly affectionate, you understand? I suppose, when you’ve a mother like that you can go one of two ways. You end up just like her, or you end up very different.” Rhona reached over and patted Gair’s thigh.

Her son rolled his eyes. “Yes, mother is very affectionate.”

Isla saw her uncle cover a smile with his hand.

Then Rhona asked after the series of events that had brought Isla to Cairne. Isla began to tell the tale, describing the sickness that had swept through Elleric, but then she stopped, and cried again for a good long while. As if sensing that Isla distress came less from the story itself and more for what the story might reveal about her, Rhona assured her that Isla was family, and nothing she could say would make Rhona cast her out.

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