A Hint of Rapture Read Online Free PDF

gray
hair like fine gauze. She had seen sixty-nine winters come and go. Yet she
still ruled Mhor Manor with strict efficiency, the two remaining maidservants
her obedient and respectful charges.
    Madeleine was the only person Glenis could not control.
She had tried over the years to tame Maddie's impetuous spirit and transform
her into a "proper" young lady, especially after her mother had died
when Madeleine was six years old. But Madeleine had always displayed a streak
of feisty independence that could not be subdued, and Glenis's efforts had been
largely unsuccessful. Maddie was a grown woman now, mistress of a sizable
estate, yet Glenis still looked upon her as the wild child who used to roam the
heather-strewn moors and rocky mountain slopes.
    "What did ye ask me, Glenis dear?" Madeleine
asked in a soothing tone, though she suspected she already knew the question.
"Ye have my full attention. "
    Glenis grasped Madeleine's hands in her bony ones, her
grip amazingly strong. " 'Tis worried I am, Maddie," she began,
concern etching her wrinkled face. "Worried sick for ye!"
    "Glenis—" Madeleine tried to interrupt.
    "No, ye'll hear me out, lass," Glenis shushed
her. "Ye've been about these raids almost ev'ry night now for two months,
ever since those redcoats wrecked the house. Sometimes ye're gone for so
long—two, three days and more—I canna sleep for the worry that plagues
me."
    She squeezed Madeleine's hands tightly as if to
emphasize her words, making her wince. " 'Tis a noble thing ye're doin',
Maddie, but how long do ye think 'twill be before the English set about to find
ye in earnest? What if ye're captured? Do ye think they'll be merciful with ye,
like they were to yer da and his clansmen at Culloden?"
    "Yer fears are unfounded, Glenis. They'll not find
me," Madeleine objected vehemently, her eyes flashing in defiance.
    English bastards! The mere mention of her father's
brutal fate made her all the more certain what she was doing was right, despite
the constant danger she and her kinsmen faced. The raids they had committed
against the redcoats gave purpose to her life and were a means of fighting Tack
against the savage injustice her people had suffered. She could do no less,
whatever the consequences. Her conscience, and her pride, would never allow it.
    Glenis shook her gray head, unconvinced. "No,
lass, if ye keep on, they'll surely find ye—"
    "Enough, Glenis!" Madeleine demanded, cutting
her off and pulling her hands free. Tears smarted her eyes, but she forced them
back. "I'll not listen to any more of yer talk. I canna believe ye would
ask me to cease the one thing that gives our people hope and puts food in their
bellies!"
    Madeleine leaned against the narrow window ledge and
gazed beyond the orchard toward the village of Farraline, a cluster of small
stone cottages nestled near Loch Mhor.
    "Ye have walked in the village, Glenis. 'Tis a
place come back from the edge of despair," she said, her voice
impassioned. " 'Tis the same in Gorthlick and Aberchalder, and the other
villages. The bairns no longer cry out from hunger, but scramble and play, and
their mothers have milk again in their breasts for the wee ones. The men who
are left have new hope for their families, and we can fill the sacks of the
fugitives who come to our doors in the night with enough food to last them many
days in the mountains."
    Madeleine swallowed hard, remembering the half dozen
fugitive clansmen who had sought a few hours' refuge in the manor house only
last week. They had brought her news that Dougald Fraser, her betrothed, had
been taken prisoner only days after Culloden. He had been hanged as a traitor
in the town square at Inverness while the clansmen watched from a tavern attic
where they were hiding. Now she had two for whom to grieve, her father and
Dougald.
    Dougald Fraser had been big and strong, with a wide
smile that dared to take on the world and hazel eyes that danced with a lust
for life. Had she truly loved him, as