Page 25 of Highlander's Rebellious Affair
Callum cleared his throat and stood from the bench he sat on. He left Ian and Rhea outside and went into the back yard to join his wife and daughter. Late in the evening, Ian returned back to the Castle with Hope and they spent their evening in their bedchamber.
Hope hummed a familiar song to herself the entire time, and Ian asked, “Where did ye learn that?”
“Orlaith taught me,” she replied with a smile, then sat closer to him on the bed and hummed the song louder.
Ian watched her, and hummed along in his head. Maybe he was looking at this all wrong, and maybe the secret to the treasure lay in the song itself? Hope continued singing, and he enjoyed the sound of her melodious voice as it filled the chamber.
Ian hummed along with her.
The faraway lands of Galloway once had a Laird with a dream, to make his people the most powerful in all of the Highlands. He gathered his men and set forth one long winter in search of a better land for his people, and he set upon a mountain as high as the sky, the peak towering into the blue.
Upon this mountain he set his people and while they built their home, he stumbled on the treasure–
Ian paused for a moment, and blurted, “That’s it.”
“What is?” Hope asked and he looked at her.
“The song, it speaks of the mountains and the Laird in the myth the people tell their children. The legend has been passed down from generations, but no one ever found the treasure. Soon everyone called it a myth, a story told by a mother to keep her bairn dedicated and loyal to the Clan.”
“Ye dinnae think it is a myth?”
“Nay,” Ian replied and his heart thundered in his chest because he felt like he might have stumbled on the treasure at last by thinking about the lyrics of the song closely.
“I think the treasure is hidden in the mountains.”
Hope gasped and he saw her eyes widened. “I think my faither told Orlaith where the treasure was hidden, and I think he found the treasure before he died.”
“How do we ken for sure that ye are right?”
A thought occurred to Ian. “I believe I have a way to make Orlaith tell me what she really kens. She ken my faither, and she loved him, but she never got a chance to say goodbye. Before I ask her, I will take her to him.”
19
Hope joined Ian in the stables when he sent a servant to get her. As she walked in through the wooden doors separating a vast number of horses from younger foals, she found Ian standing close to a golden-haired mare.
He turned when he heard her footsteps, and smiled as his hands continued stroking the mare’s hair. Hope stopped beside him, and she gently reached out without hesitation and touched the mare.
“She is bonnie,” she whispered and he nodded.
“She’s for ye.”
Her eyes widened, and fixed on his. “Ye got me a mare?”
“Her hair shines like yers, and I thought ye would like her.”
Hope squealed, and went around the mare, then giggled and jumped into his arms for a hug. He squeezed her hand and kissed her forehead, then handed her gloves. “I will teach ye how to ride.”
Hope’s heart burst with joy, and she walked around the mare one more time, admiring its beauty. She had never dreamed of owning her own horse or riding one out in the open, and Ian was going to teach her.
She wished her mother was here, Hope could only imagine how she was faring back in Drummond Castle with her father. While she had lived there, she had watched her mother retreat deeper into a shell every day, unable to live free from her father, and Hope had despised it.
One day, when everything was settled in her new home, she hoped to invite her mother for a visit, or to come live with them if she wanted to.
“Are ye ready?” Ian asked her, and she nodded. He untied the reins of the horse, then led it outside the stables. Hope watched him reach for a carrot in his leather pouch and feed it, then he turned to her. “We will ride into the village.”
He helped her mount the mare, then sat astride it behind her, and held the reins. Hope watched as his hands gripped it tight, and she admired the length of his fingers. She slipped her gloves on, and placed her hands on the reins too, mimicking his movements.
“Kick the sides of the horse, gently, so ye do not startle it, and push yer hip forward so it goes into a trot.”
