Highland Song Read Online Free PDF Page B

way for all of the claimants to the throne.
    Some had met other fates.
    Trying to bar the image of his lady’s lovely painted body from his thoughts, he laid more stone in two days than he had in all the weeks he’d been working on his new house.
    All three brothers worked side by side to build a new storehouse because, for once, the old one had been filled long before the coming winter. In part because the neighboring clans had begun to work together to trade supplies. The MacKinnons had an expert candle maker, whose candles burned true and bright, the MacLeans could grow tatties in just about any nook or cranny, the Brodies were all excellent farmers and sheep herders, and Piers de Montgomerie had Sassenach family to trade with in England. Gavin’s sister Meghan was an expert weaver, and her cloth was tight and soft. Now, the Brodies had Seana, as well, and some of the best whiskie in all the Highlands.
    All in all this was shaping up to be the most plentiful winter they’d had since long before their father had led their clan. Their grandsire, for all his wenching, had been an excellent laird.
    Gavin was only slightly concerned that Seana’s claim might come under scrutiny, for it would give the Brodies a stretch of land that had not been theirs previously. And yet, now that there was peace between the clans, and his sister’s husband owned the property adjacent to the south, and the Brodies owned the property adjacent to the west, he was certain that once he stood before the clan councils no one would deny him, particularly if he had gained the MacKinnon’s favor—which he planned to seek at once. And he didn’t foresee that the MacKinnon would have much dispute with the request for Seana’s father had occupied the lands below the cliffs of Chreagach Mhor for all his life, and Seana was now wed to his eldest brother, laird of the Brodie clan.
    At any rate, the clans all regarded that particular stretch of property as No Mon’s Land, as it was hardly the most fertile ground to be had. As it was, the key to his success as a farmer would be in the dowsing of his well—something he wasn’t particularly looking forward to. He hadn’t known a good diviner since his Grandminny Fia, and he didn’t relish the thought of boring holes through that craggy clay to find a plentiful water supply.
    Despite working shoulder to shoulder with his brothers, somehow, Gavin managed to get through the day without drawing questions about his visits to No Man’s Land or his mystery woman. Unfortunately, that was partly because one entire section of the new storehouse wall collapsed. Luckily for Gavin, it was Colin’s stretch of wall. Even now, his brother couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off his lovely wife.
    Silly besotted fool.
    At first light the following morning, while Colin repaired his damages, Gavin set out to speak to the MacKinnon. He found the entire household all up in arms over some escaped prisoner of David’s—a woman, he discovered, and he couldn’t help but think about his painted lady.
    This prisoner, it seemed, was the sister of a rebel chieftain from deep in the Mounth—a rough range of hills in the northeast. She was meant to be a ward of the English King—as they had attempted to do with Iain’s firstborn son. Apparently, Iain had refused to join the search, because his young wife was currently in labor.
    It seemed his timing couldn’t have been more poor. After what had happened to Iain’s first wife, Gavin wondered over the wisdom in waiting for counsel with him. If the labor didn’t go well, Iain wouldn’t be fit to speak. On the other hand, if the outcome was good, and the MacKinnon was gifted with a healthy bairn, and his new wife didn’t commit self murder as his first wife had, then he was sure to be pleased and in a generous mood.
    With bated breath, he waited with Broc Ceannfhionn to hear the news, all the while Broc and his wife Elizabet argued over what to name their own child.  
    Gavin