Page 4 of Awoken
The clan-chief didn’t care what lengths Ross went to in order to retrieve the woman he wished to wed. He’d made his position clear: Ross wasn’t to return to Dunan empty-handed.
Muttering a curse under his breath, Ross glanced Carr’s way once more. “Maybe we should—”
“Look!” Carr raised a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence. “The abbey has visitors.”
Swiveling back toward the gates, Ross’s gaze alighted upon a company of men on horseback who’d just emerged from the trees to the south. And as the riders drew near, he saw they wore sashes made of red plaid with green cross-hatching.
The tension that Ross had been holding in his shoulders all day slowly eased. He didn’t want the task he’d been assigned, but this development was going to make it so much easier.
“MacDonald men,” he whispered before flashing Carr a triumphant grin. “It looks like we won’t have to enter the abbey after all … our quarry is going to come to us.”
Carr smiled back. “Good … let’s get the job done and go home. MacKinnon will be waiting.”
2
I Must Say Goodbye
AS SHE APPROACHED Kilbride, Leanna was surprised to see the abbey gates open. Usually, the abbess insisted they be kept closed. However, Coira didn’t comment on it, and the two nuns entered the wide, dusty yard. Kilbride kirk rose before them, dominating the two wings of buildings that stretched either side.
They carried their prize to a lean-to behind the stables, and Coira strung the doe up by its hind-legs. Drawing a knife from her waist, she prepared to gut the beast, while Leanna went to fetch pails for the blood and offal. She had just placed the buckets underneath when the scuff of footfalls behind them made her turn.
Mother Shona, Abbess of Kilbride, approached. She was a small woman of middling age, yet she walked with a determined stride. A large iron cross lay upon her breast. This afternoon her pretty, if a little careworn, face was unusually serious.
“Good day, Mother,” Leanna greeted her before hastily dropping onto one knee and bowing her head. Likewise, next to her, Coira sheathed her knife and did the same.
Mother Shona stepped close and hastily waved the sign of the cross. “Rise,” she murmured softly, “or ye shall dirty yer habits.”
Both Leanna and Coira did as bid.
The abbess’s gaze settled upon Leanna then, her brown eyes shadowing. “I’m glad ye have returned earlier than expected,” she said. Her tone was gentle, although her expression was now troubled. “For ye have visitors.”
Leanna went still.
In her two years at Kilbride, no one had paid her a visit. She had asked for permission a number of times, yet Mother Shona had always refused, telling her that her transition into their world would be made harder if she didn’t sever all ties with her old life. Leanna liked the abbess, but she had resented her initially for her refusal.
As such, it came as a shock to know someone had called upon her here.
“Who is it?” Leanna finally asked.
The abbess’s features tightened for a heartbeat, before she replied. “A group of yer father’s men from Duncaith.”
Sister Leanna of Kilbride sat upon her sleeping pallet and stared at the floor. She was alone in the dormitory this afternoon. The other nuns who shared these sleeping quarters were still busy with their chores. Sunlight filtered in through a single narrow window at one end of the long rectangular space, pooling on the flagstone floor. Unseeing, Leanna continued to stare at the circle of light.
Her body felt cold, her limbs weak. Time had slowed down; she was painfully aware of the rasp of her own breathing and the dull thud of her pulse.
The MacDonald men had brought ill-tidings.
She’d known by the abbess’s behavior that something was amiss—and when Leanna had entered the chapter house, she found herself face-to-face with Evan, her father’s right-hand.
The grim look upon his face had made dread sweep over her in a chill wave, and when he spoke, Leanna’s knees had buckled under her. “Yer father is dead, lass … I am sorry.”
It had been a hunting accident. He had fallen from his horse and hit his head. Leanna almost hadn’t believed it. Niall MacDonald was an excellent horseman and hunting was in his blood. She couldn’t comprehend how he’d met his end doing something he loved.
She couldn’t comprehend that she’d never see him again.
When she’d come to live at Kilbride it had been a wrench to leave her father, but he’d still been alive and there had always been the possibility that he’d visit the abbey one day. Still, Leanna had missed him terribly. She’d always been his ‘princess’, his ‘jewel’—she’d spent much of her childhood trailing in his shadow.
Her heart actually ached from the force of the sorrow that now pulsed through her.
