Highland Promise Read Online Free PDF Page A

danger and she couldn’t come home no matter how she longed to.  She couldn’t go back in the cottage either.  She watched Malcom ride from the barn and scurried to the safety of the shadows that deepened near the corner of the house. 
    She wanted to hate him for the freedom he had to escape everything, but she couldn’t bring herself to hate him.
    She reached up and touched her lips.  They still tingled and her body was warm even in the coolness of the night. 
    She slowly made her way into the barn and climbed the simple ladder up to the place she had claimed as her own.  She had started escaping to the loft when everything got to be too much for her.  When her questions plagued her and she couldn’t stand the pitying looks from the other women another second.  She had taken one of her precious books with her and she curled into the sweet smelling straw to read.  She often dozed there and knew her absence would only make the others more comfortable, especially with Malcom home. 
    Moira was secretive about him, she rarely spoke of him within Anne’s hearing and that only made Anne more curious.  She had heard many conversations cut short just as she entered a room and it only served to make her feel more isolated.
    Moira had tried to make her feel like she was welcome, but the others rarely had much to say to her.  She woke and worked and tried to stay out of the way.  John was the only one other than Moira that seemed to actually enjoy her company.  He offered her kindness when her soul was so hungry for any connection.  John had quickly become much like a brother to her.
    John was several years younger than Malcom, but he seemed as if he was from another world entirely.  Moira claimed he had always been a kind boy and finding Skye had only strengthened his kindness.  Moira had once thought he would become a man of the cloth, but John had never felt the call to the church.  He was still a barbarian after all and perhaps he was only kind in contrast to the other men she had to compare him to in this region.
    She thought of those who lived in such close quarters with her in her new world.  Skye and Aggie were lovely and as close as sisters.  Skye often cared for Aggie in ways only a sister would do, rubbing her back or bringing her tea when her obvious girth became too much of a burden.  Anne had never been around anyone carrying a child and had no idea what to do to help.  She just stayed out of the way.
    She sighed as she settled further into the sweet smelling straw.  She let the warmth and comfort of her solitude comfort her as she let her thoughts drift to her benefactor.
    She knew he would sleep with his men at the tiny inn of this village that had sprung up apparently due to the fact that so many had fled in fear of the battles that ravaged their homeland. 
    Malcom….
    She could just hide out up here until he was gone…
    Maybe it was cowardly, but she was tired of being strong.  She just wanted to be left alone.
    She took a deep breath and huffed it out.  She knew she couldn’t do that, but she did want to.  She knew she would get up and go about her day as if nothing had changed, but she had changed.  That kiss had changed her somehow and she was a little afraid to look too deeply and figure out how.  Instead she curled up as she had so many nights and let her eyes close, shutting out everything and trying to remember what it felt like to be loved and safe again.
    The cottage wasn’t uncomfortable, it was just that she had to sleep in the room with Moira.  For some reason she could never sleep.  Moira talked in her sleep and Anne found herself listening to every word in hopes that the woman would say something about Anne’s past.
    Moira knew something, but she wouldn’t tell her.  She said all would be known in its own time, whatever that was supposed to mean.  Anne had grown ravenous for any scrap of information about who she really was or anything at all about what Moira