A Highlander’s Homecoming by Melissa Mayhue Read Free Book Online

steal children as well as possessions. It was only after I was older I heard the other rumors about Tinklers.”
    “Other rumors?” Robert had read of them in historybooks. He knew that later they’d be persecuted as a people, driven from many places, and called by a variety of names, including gypsy.
    “Aye. Many of the Tinklers are thought to have connections with the Fae.”
    “Mother    . . .” What could he say to her? He couldn’t very well tell her the Fae didn’t exist. Coming from him, that would be a lie she’d see through all too easily.
    After a moment of silence, she picked up the thread of her story as if it had never been interrupted. “To appease me, my father looked for the woman. Though we searched down many alleys that day, we never found any sign of her. And even at that age, even without having heard the rumors, I kenned the truth of what she was.”
    “What she was?” he echoed quietly, knowing before she spoke what his mother would say next.
    “She was Fae, Robbie. Telling me of my future. Sending me safely back to my family that day that I might fulfill some purpose for the Fae later in my life. She protected me.” His mother straightened in her chair with another smile. “As, of course, we’ll help you protect yer Leah.”
    “Divine luck was with you that day, my lady, that the Fae you met was kindly. No all of them are. Some who walk this world are fair evil and dangerous to their core.”
    “As with Mortals, no? You find yer good and yer bad in everything.” Margery tilted her head to the side, appearing to study her son. “I always believed you to be the reason the Faerie saved me that day.”
    “What?” His mother’s words caught him off guard.
    “From the moment I first felt you move within my belly, I believed you to be the one the Fae awaited. It’s why I was so sure you had to be alive, no matter what they told me. No matter how long you’d been gone. I kenned the Fae had a purpose for you, Robbie.”
    His mother was wrong, of course. The Fae hadn’t enough care for him to allow him to return to the proper time to keep his oath to a dying friend. Not enough care to allow him to rescue a small lass waiting for a father who would never return. It was obvious they had no more use for him than as a delivery boy.
    “It’s no me, mother. It’s Leah. The Fae she encountered were no the kindly ones. They ill-used the poor lass in many a horrendous way. I felt she’d be safe here. Safe to grow and recover with yer gentle help, if you’ll give it now that you ken the truth.”
    “If?” His mother’s eyes widened with her indignant disbelief. “Robert. You should no have the least bit of doubt in this matter. Especially now that I do ken the truth. For all the world to see, she’s yer daughter, and we’ll raise her as such. She’ll be cared for all her days, Fae or no.”
    “I’m not Fae!” Leah stood in the doorway, her face red in her anger. “I won’t be. I renounce that part of me. I refuse to be something so horrible.”
    As tears trickled down the girl’s cheeks, his mother hurried to her side, wrapping her arms around Leah.
    “There, there, lass,” she soothed. “Dinna you fash yerself over it. It matters no in the least. Yer home with us now. Yer a daughter of the House MacQuarrie and you’ve nothing to fear ever again.”
    Robert rose from his chair and headed toward thedoor, intending to leave the two women to bond in the way of women. His mother’s voice caught him just before he made his escape.
    “You’ll want to speak to yer father, Robbie. He’s much to tell you. You’ll want to know about Richard as well.”
    He looked back to see his mother leading Leah toward a chair by the fire, her low voice a reassuring murmur.
    Though he felt as if half the weight of the world had been slipped from his shoulders, unease still rode him as he made his way down to find his father.
    Now he faced the uncomfortable task of sharing with his parents