Highland Strength (Book 3)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                She would not cry. Crying was weak. It was not something she would allow herself to be ever again. They had sent her on her way the second the snow had melted enough for the pass to reopen. The snow still on the ground in patches. They had been gracious enough to allow her to keep her own horse. Not that the temperamental mare would allow anyone else near her. She could not supress the small smile that appeared. Remembering back to Robert trying to catch the reigns when they realised she had planned to take the mare. When they had seen how close Robert had come to never walking again, her mare was deemed a gift for the hunting she had done for the clan. Snorting in derision seemed the most appropriate response to such an obvious turn around upon their part.

                With her mare she had managed to get away with a little more than she would have been able to carry herself. But not by much. Not that she had had much to start off with. One dress, and one plaid from which she had made the kilt she had been forced to wear. The shirt that went with the kilt and a sturdy pair of boots that she had had commissioned only last winter, a luxury she had saved for months for, a present for both her and a pair for her brother.

                She pulled the mare to a halt a moment. Turning and leaning over the rump. Looking back at the Keep that was a small dark smudge upon the horizon now. While she never wished to see the foul place again, a sadness overcame her. Naois would never leave. He would forever lie there, in his eternal sleep. Lifting her fingers to her lips, she kissed them and placed them out in his direction, sending with the wind her love and grief that had come about due to his loss. Not speaking to the Keep or the people who still struggled to survive there, but to the brother who had been her sole reason for fighting to survive herself at times. The reason that she would carry on now, for him, in his memory. “Goodbye.”

                With a final glance, she turned, she would not look back again. Her life did not belong there anymore. It was the land before her that was her future. Wherever and whatever that maybe. With a sigh she pulled the plaid around her shoulders tighter. Clasping the small plain brooch, which she had found in the woods upon a hunt two summers ago, into the plaid to hold it in place as her mare started trudging forward once more. A glance showed her saddle bags where still securely attached. Four small bags. That was all her life had amounted too. A tiny pouch of coins hung from her belt, what she had managed to scrounge together over the years in savings, added to what she had sold Naois belongs for. She had felt so guilty over it, but could not carry his items as well as hers and stay alive. He also would not need them again, no matter how much she wanted him too. It was wishful thinking that could never come true.

                One small bag of the food she had had left from her winter store. She was not overly worried about food. For that was what they clan had never faltered her for. She had been the best hunter for the clan. Well, that was most definitely their loss. It was they who would stare not her. Another saddle bag containing her hunting equipment, the skinning knife and arrow tips the most precious things she could own at the moment. A small smile quirking the edges of her lips as she remembered the little hunt she had been on through the village that very morn. She had heard whisperings. Had known that today would be the day. Not that she had let them know that she knew of course. And so she had stolen into the depths of the night, the black shadows her cloak and compatriot in her crimes. She had known the cottages of her fellow hunters. Had known that she would have to do this to survive, but that it would also be a loss for them. For they had been the only ones other than Naois to treat her well. Even if it had been only when they had to look after each other in the woods as they hunted.