The Highlander's Conquest (The Stolen Bride Series) by Eliza Knight

Author:Eliza Knight
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Eliza Knight
Published: 2012-09-18T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

They rode hard through the afternoon, avoiding roadways when possible and staying hidden in the shadows whenever the noise of an approaching rider sounded. When they were crossing through a valley or over a ridge, completely exposed, Aliah tried to keep herself from trembling, to ward off the imaginative foe that ambushed them from every possible hiding place. She even imagined men camouflaged in grass rising up from the fields to strike them with deadly blows. The sky was grey, threatening either a cold rain or snow, she wasn’t sure which, only knew she wished for neither.

Blane whispered explanations of the ongoing war between the Scots and English. The rulings of King Edward and how they oppressed the people—Blane’s people. He spoke of his family’s close ties to Wallace, the Scots freedom fighter who led the battle at Stirling Bridge to victory—the place Arbella had been saved by his brother. Of his clan, his siblings. The importance of wool trade and how it had increased their income over recent years.

Aliah found herself feeling sympathetic toward the Scottish people’s fight for freedom, which felt like a betrayal to her own country. But to feel otherwise in itself seemed a sin. Perhaps this was why her sister had agreed to marry a Scot. Arbella was known to be compassionate too. She would not have been able to abide an English noble occupying Scotland, especially if that man had been anything like Lord Surrey. Just thinking of her near brush with the man, Aliah shivered.

“Blane,” Aliah cried out as they passed yet another burned out village and miles of smoking fields. The crisp crops were blackened to soot, and the once standing buildings completely demolished into piles of ruin. This fire had only occurred within the last day or so.

Blane and his men looked alert, surrounding her in a cocoon of warrior flesh as they surveyed the area.

“The Sassenachs have burned yet another village,” Liam muttered.

“Aye. I see no survivors,” Blane replied.

“Where could the people have gone?” Aliah asked.

“Hopefully they ran when they heard the approach of the English bastards,” said Blane. “Even still, we must tread carefully. These fields are still smoking, there is no way to tell which way or when the Sassenachs left here.”

“Why would they burn the fields? Couldn’t they use the resources?” she asked.

Blane shook his head. “The fields are mostly harvested now. They took what they could find and burned the rest because they could, because it hurts a man where it counts when his sole ability to provide for his family is literally burned to ash.” His voice was bitter acid and his words a harsh dose of reality.

Men and war… She couldn’t fathom why some felt the need to oppress others. Why could not everyone live peacefully? To not only take their lives, but their homes, their everything.

Passing the burned village, Blane led them onto a path in the trees, giving them some cover from any enemy that might linger.

They slowed their pace so

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