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

slamming it shut behind her.
    Quickly she searched her memory. Could she have lost track of the days this badly? No, she wasn’t wrong. It had barely been a fortnight since her grandfather’s lad had been here last, delivering such goods as her grandfather decided to send.
    She nudged a small wooden stool closer to the door and climbed up on it, lifting back the cloth that covered the tiny square hole cut high into her door. Through this opening she watched as the big horse carrying a small boy slowly made its way up her path.
    “Mistress Isa?” the child called out, clearly searching for her. “Are you about?”
    Isa leaned her forehead against the heavy door, an irritated sigh on her lips. Though she had no complaints about the lad himself, she thoroughly resented the interruption to her life he represented.
    Why couldn’t the old laird leave her in peace? He’d never once hidden the fact that he had no use for her. He’d been overjoyed when she’d broached the subject of moving from the castle to live out here in this little cottage on her own. It had taken him no time at all to have his men build an animal shed and provide her with her own chickens and goats. Granted, he sent someone to check on her each month, but it was obvious to her he did so only to collect the goods she had to sell. Or perhaps out of a sense of guilt.
    “Mistress Isa?” the lad yelled, his voice rising on what sounded like desperation as the first fat raindrops started to fall.
    The weather had turned again. Isa climbed off her stool and kicked it to one side before opening the door a tiny crack, struggling to calm her irritation. Whatever the child’s purpose in being here, he’d certainly done nothing to justify her ire.
    “Quite yer noise, Jamie,” she called, her eye fixed to the small opening. “You’ll frighten my animals and I’ll have no eggs or milk from them for days. What brings you out here?”
    The boy rolled to his belly on the big horse’s back, sliding off to hit the ground feetfirst at a loping run, stopping only when he reached her door.
    “His lairdship bids me bring you to the castle.” The child spoke almost in a whisper. As always, he tried so hard to please.
    She would say no to any other who carried her grandfather’s bidding. Likely the laird understood this and sent the lad to ensure her compliance.
    Before someone had decided Jamie was old enoughto make the trek from the castle on his own, he’d accompanied his grandmother, Auld Annie. This in itself was something Isa had planned to bring to his grandmother’s attention the next time she spoke to her. The lad still seemed awfully small to be sent out alone on such a long trip.
    “Please come, Isa.” His voice quivered and he turned wide eyes to her before jerking his head away, keeping his face turned from her in a manner that broke her heart. “Master Roland says I’ll have a beating if I dinna bring you in front of the laird today.”
    “Master Roland says that, does he?”
    Isa felt her temper spike anew. Roland Lardiner, her grandfather’s right hand and a distant cousin to her own father, overstepped his bounds with a threat such as that. It wouldn’t surprise her one little bit to learn that weasel of man was behind the decision to start sending this wee child off on his own. She didn’t trust Roland and, worse, didn’t doubt for one moment he’d do exactly as he threatened if she didn’t return with Jamie.
    “Very well,” she sighed, opening the door to allow the boy inside as thunder rumbled threateningly through the valley. “Sit yerself down by the fire while I prepare meself. Are you hungry?”
    As if she needed to ask. The child was always starved. If she were ever blessed with such a son, he’d never go hungry. She’d see to that.
    She pushed away the silly thought. A child of her own was naught but a dream, destined never to come to pass.
    She poured a glass of milk fresh from this morning and set it in front of him,