Far Horizons by Kate Hewitt Read Free Book Online Page B

for she did not want Eleanor to see the sorrow shadowed there. “A bit.”
    “Is that all?” Eleanor wrinkled her nose. “I thought you loved him.”
    “I do.” Harriet took a breath and managed a smile. “I hope to marry him one day.”
    “I heard you at dinner as well as anybody!” Eleanor smiled in knowing delight before a frown wrinkled her brow and shadowed her eyes. “But then where will you live? Not in the New Scotland, surely?”
    “Would that be so terrible?” Harriet asked lightly. “I know the Indians can be frightening, but--”
    “Indians!” Eleanor waved one hand in contemptuous dismissal. “I’m not scared of them. But it’s so far away.” She paused, her hazel eyes as clear as a rain puddle. “I don’t suppose you would take me with you?”
    “Oh, Eleanor.” Harriet’s heart ached at the seriousness of her sister’s question. She realized she couldn’t envision leaving for the new world--a new life--without either Eleanor or Ian. Yet if she married Allan, she surely would, unless her father agreed to emigrate as well and she could hardly see that happening. The only way he would leave Achlic Farm was in a coffin. “You’d miss Father too much,” she finally said with a smile, but Eleanor was not swayed.
    “I’d miss you far more! Why won’t take me with you?” Eleanor’s lip trembled, even though her clear hazel eyes still gazed at Harriet directly, making it impossible for her to dissemble
    “Ah, Ellie.” Harriet gathered her sister in her arms and kissed the top of her head. “Allan may not even return, you know.”
    “He only left yesterday. You can’t be doubting him already!” Eleanor sounded so indignant, Harriet had to chuckle even though there was some painful truth to her words.
    “I don’t think we should worry about something so far away,” she said softly. Her heart felt heavy as she released Eleanor, smoothing her hair back from her brow. “It will be years yet before he returns.”
    “I’ll keep you company,” Eleanor promised, “till then.”
    “I know you will.” As Harriet left the room, she felt a pang of something akin to fear. How could she ever leave her sister, her family? They needed her more than anyone... perhaps more than Allan did. She’d been thinking so much of losing Allan, she had not considered what she might lose here. Troubled, she frowned as she left the warmth and comfort of her sister’s bedroom for the dishes and darning downstairs.
    It was only later, when Eleanor, Ian and Rupert were settled for the night, that Harriet once again allowed herself the luxury of private thought, and dreams. She reached for her shawl as Margaret looked up from her embroidery, her eyebrows raised in question. “You’re not going out at this hour?”
    “It’s still light.” Harriet shrugged. “I like to walk on an evening.”
    Margaret smiled. “I prefer the morning. Go on, then. I’ll keep the peace here.”
    Although it was ten o’clock, the sun had not yet set. A soft purple twilight was falling, and the air was cool and still.
    Harriet found herself following the path she and Allan had taken yesterday, to Duart. Her mind roamed restlessly over the words in Allan’s letter, as well as the words they’d spoken between them in this very place.
    She thought of her father, yet her resentment was dulled by a sudden thought. If David Campbell had not stood in the way, would she have gone? Could she have left all she’d known--Eleanor and Ian--for a life apart and strange?
    Not yet, she realised painfully, not yet. She was not ready. Not with Eleanor still so young and tender, and her father seeming more grim and dour with each passing day. They needed her... all of them, even her father.
    Harriet shivered in the gathering dusk. Would she be able to leave when the moment came? Could she go so far away to make a life apart? Even as her heart thrilled to the thought of being Allan’s bride, she felt herself quail with fear. Perhaps