Highland Hellcat (2010) by Mary Wine Read Free Book Online Page A

the way it must be, then I will wed Roan McLeod, and Kaie can follow her calling.”
    “The man would label ye a hellcat, for ye are no’ meek enough for marriage, even to a Highlander.”
    The captains behind her father both grinned, and she felt her temper heat.
    “I’ve been taught manners. I know how to be respectful, and I will nae shame ye.”
    Her father chuckled. “Ye’d try; I know that.”
    He drew a long sip from his mug.
    “I might have been able to do that before Deirdre went and disgraced herself. Now my word will have to stand with the McLeod and the church, because if I go changing it on all three of ye, no one will accept it for anything.”
    She knew the tone of voice that her father was using. It was solid and unbendable. It was the laird of the Chattan declaring what would be, and no one argued with the laird.
    He was trying to maintain peace.
    Brina lowered herself before quitting the room. She struggled to hide the discontentment brewing inside her.
    She would not give him a reason to label her a hellcat again. There had been few times that she disliked her sire, but she detested what he’d called her.
    She was not a hellcat. Having the courage to speak her mind was not something to regret or place unsavory titles on.
    She didn’t return to the chamber that had been hers for as long as she could recall. She walked toward the stairs and climbed up into one of the towers that allowed the Chattan to see anyone approaching. Dawn was now creeping across the land, illuminating the shadows and revealing that there was nothing sinister there at all.
    Brina looked over the fields stacked with drying bundles of barley and wheat. Pumpkins and squashes lay between the drying vines that they had grown on. There was still greenery where carrots and beets had yet to be harvested and taken down to the cellars. She lingered over the most common, thatch-roofed homes and the smoke rising gently from their chimneys. She drank it all in, trying to memorize every detail, for the next time she saw Chattan land, it would be from over her shoulder as she looked back on it.
    But she would not look back. Her future was bright, and she felt an eagerness rising inside her to take charge of the duties that would be hers. She smiled, feeling the warmth of the rising sun on her cheeks. Soon enough every man who met her would dip his head with respect toward her. She was going to enjoy watching them rein in their pride, and that was the truth.
    Call her a hellcat if they would, but she would not be bending to any man’s whim.
    ***
    Laird Chattan rode from his castle with a full two dozen retainers. Brina traveled between the twin columns that they formed. She held her chin high, excitement sparkling in her eyes. Many of the inhabitants of the castle stopped their labors to watch her go. They leaned out of windows on every floor of the towers and quickly climbed the stairs to gain the curtain-wall walkways. Children waved, and someone began to ring the small church bell.
    Once away from the fortress, she denied herself a last look at her childhood home. Only a slim splinter of doubt bothered her, and she was determined to pluck it before it festered. She focused her mind on the lessons she had taken to help ensure that she served the abbey smoothly in times of good harvest and poor. The sun rose, but it seemed to lack the warmth that should have still been upon them. Instead the wind whipped at the hem of her overgown, and she shivered when it grazed her knees above her boots.
    Winter was coming early this year. The fields that they passed were busy. Everyone could feel the bitter chill in the air, and they hurried to bring in the last of the autumn harvest. Much of it was not ripe, but the sky began to darken, hinting at snow. Anything that froze would be lost, and the bundles of grain needed to be taken away before ice knocked the seeds from the stocks.
    The horses didn’t care for the weather. They kept to a brisk pace,