Page 124 of Sighs of the Highland Wind
“Rory is my favorite person,” Tearlach said as he kissed Rory’s nose. “Except for you, Norah.”
“A horse is not a person,” she pointed out, laughing as she climbed into the saddle.
“This one is!” he protested as he mounted behind her.
Both of them were laughing as they rode away.
The McMillans owned an estate ‘half the size o’ Scotland’ as Tearlach had remarked enviously when Norah asked about it.
“Why does Laird McMillan have so much land?” she asked, puzzled.
“Because his grandfather was a very clever man,” he answered. “He did it through marriages. His grandparents had nine children an’ they were a’ married off to young Lairds an’ ladies in the area. Since most o’ them were sons they ended up ownin’ their estates. The McMillans are no’ so much a clan as an empire.”
“And are you sure we will be safe there?” Norah asked. She was doubtful that any part of Scotland was out of reach of the English now.
Tearlach kissed the top of her head, Norah was sitting in front of him holding the reins, since he was still finding it difficult to ride by himself. This suited him very well, since he needed to put his arms around her waist for support, and this also kept him warm. However it was uncomfortable in another way. He was a man in his prime and he found the contact with her soft, pliant body extremely arousing.
“We will be,” he assured her. “There are patrols all around the boundaries of his estate, an’ any stranger they find is stopped. If they cannae prove they are there wi’ the permission o’ the Laird, they are taken to him or his steward for questionin’, and dependin’ on their answer they might be detained. Aye, Norah, we will be safe there.”
“But where will we live?” she asked.
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it, hen,” he replied soothingly. “But I have heard tell that Laird McMillan always provides well for his people.”
Norah sighed and smiled. It sounded like paradise, but she was a realist; she knew that there was no such thing as heaven on earth.
Halfway through the day, they stopped at a burn to rest and eat, after having made sure that the redcoats were no longer on their trail. After they had eaten the meager remains of their food,Tearlach took Norah’s hand and sat her down on a patch of grass under some pine trees well away from the others.
He looked lovingly into her silver grey eyes for a moment before placing another soft kiss on her lips. “Ye know, Norah,” he said huskily. “Ye are the best person I have ever met, but I have treated ye like a piece o’ rubbish. I deceived ye because I wanted to find ye, no’ because it would dae ye any good, but because I was only thinkin’ o’ myself.
I could just have asked about ye and watched ye from a distance, but instead I got myself tangled up in your life an’ made a mess o’ it. As well as that, I am a fugitive an’ now I have made you into one too. I should never have come near ye, but as soon as I knew ye were within reach I had to see ye. Please forgive me, Norah.” He dropped his gaze from hers and released her hands from his grasp.
However, Norah was not ready for Tearlach to let go of her, and much to his surprise she snatched his hands back again and held onto them firmly. “Look at these hands.” Her voice was firm. “I remember when these hands pulled me out of Loch Binnie the day I fell in and almost drowned. I remember the day they pulled me out of the way of a horse that had escaped from Dunnaird Castle stables. These hands have protected me far more times than they have put me in danger.”
She tilted his face up to hers so that he was looking at him again, then she said softly, “Tearlach, I lived in a big, lavish house all my life, and I had every single thing a lass could ever want. I had lovely clothes, more toys than I could count, a governess, but that big house was never my home. I did not have a home. A home has love in it, and there was none in the place where I lived. I never really felt that I belonged anywhere.
My father used me to further his own ambitions, and he was just waiting to marry me off to someone who could enhance his standing in society. He never treated me with the kind of affection your parents showed to you, and even to me when I visited you. I used to envy you and your family, because you had brothers and sisters, and you never had to worry about who you married. You could wed the person you loved.
I don’t care if I’m in trouble now, because it is trouble of my own choosing.” Her voice was earnest. “If I had stayed I would have had to marry a man I hated, and I think I might have run away or killed myself if I had done that.”
“Dinnae say that!” Tearlach cried, his eyes widening in alarm. “No’ even in jest, Norah!”
“I am only speaking the truth,” Norah said sadly. “You have no idea how repulsive Archie Patterson is.” She shuddered, then suddenly her mood seemed to change and she smiled. “But here I am, as free as a bird, and by your side, and despite the circumstances, I would rather be here, free, than back at my father’s house. I must admit it is not exactly where I thought I would be a few months ago, but it’s certainly better than the alternative!” She looked at the bandage on his wound. “Are you still in pain?” she asked anxiously.
Tearlach sighed and smiled into her eyes. “Not any more,” he answered, then he kissed her again.
20
They rode for another week until they reached the edge of the McMillan lands, which was marked by a stream called the Bracken Burn, which was famous for the abundance of brown trout that inhabited it. After a short while Murdo and Alec, the most experienced fishermen, had caught half-a-dozen fat ones, and they went to bed with full stomachs that night.
There were no more chances for Norah and Tearlach to spend time alone like they did the day before. Norah very carefully kept away from him at night, when she slept slightly apart from the menfolk, even though it would have been far more sensible to keep warm by sleeping amongst them. It was bad enough for a woman on her own to be traveling with five men, never mind sleeping with them! She giggled as she thought of the look on her father’s face if he ever found out about it.
Tearlach found sleeping on the hard ground painful for his injured shoulder, but he bore the discomfort stoically, even though he had to lie on one side of his body at night, unable to turn over on his injured side. He dreamed about holding Norahin his arms and having her soft body pressed against his, and sighed deeply. If he pretended she was there, pressed against him, he found himself able to drift off into a light doze, and although it was no substitute for proper sleep it refreshed him a little.
After they had risen and breakfasted on yet more trout, Tommy called a meeting.
“I know the Captain of the Guard at Laird McMillan’s castle,” he announced. “If we meet any of McMillan’s guards I can mention his name. We should reach Muirkirk Castle today, an’ I hope we dae, because I am sick o’ eatin’ trout!”
The others laughed, and they crossed the stream a few hundred yards away by means of a makeshift bridge made of a few planks of sturdy wood.
