Isle of Mull 03 - To Love a Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page B

her eyes as she finished, but when the song ended, he had already turned away. Sadness struck her heart. Nothing had changed.
    The next day, the warriors left without Nellore in their number. Her da scooped her up into his arms, and she cried into his long, black hair.
    “I ken ye cry because I’m leaving, but I also ken ye cry because ye’re not.”
    She nodded her head. “God made me this way for a reason,” she said. “Why would he grant me the will and the talent to learn and to fight if not to be given the chance?”
    “His purpose for ye will be revealed in time, but ye’re young. Even if ye were a lad, ye would still be too young to follow. Ye ken?”
    She nodded, knowing he was right.
    “Now look to your mum and how she suffers my absence. Think ye she could get by a day without ye?”
    Her eyes burned with tears as she turned to look upon Brenna who stood by seemingly composed to all but those who knew her best. Her fists gripped her skirts, and her blue eyes fought against the fear that Nellore could tell threatened to consume her. Standing at her side was Nellore’s little sister Rose whose straight, strawberry hair hid woeful eyes.
    Duncan put Nellore down, and she soon found herself staring up into Logan’s silver gaze. “Ye visit with Father Conall and keep up with your studies,” he said.
    “He promised to teach me French next, but I am not to tell anyone. He said ‘tis a sin to teach a woman.”
    Garik appeared at her side just then. “If God didn’t want you to learn, he would not have made you so bright. You are like a star in the darkness,” he said.
    She beamed at his praise. “Then I shall shine all the brighter to guide ye both home. Will ye come for me when I’m old enough,” she said, shifting her pleading gaze between Logan and Garik. “At your side with my sword raised high is where I ought to be.”
    “We shall see, dear sister,” Logan said before turning away.
    Her brows came together, and her smile faded. Garik brushed a wayward lock of hair from her eyes. Then he smiled down at her. “You shall be a fierce woman when you’ve grown, a strong Scottish woman with talents you have yet to discover. And I shall be proud to call you friend,” he said.
    She smiled as he walked away, all the while his words echoing in her mind. I shall be proud to call you friend. He had given her hope about the woman she would one day become.

Chapter 4
    Isle of Mull, Scotland
    Summer 1311
    The sun began its descent toward the vast ocean horizon. Golden tones shone against stark cliffs that towered above the rocky shoreline, lending their hard surfaces fleeting radiance while the day drew its last breath. Nellore peered into a tidal pool, studying her reflection before the approaching evening chased it away.
    “What does she say to ye?”
    She looked up and found Bridget standing before her. The water lapped at Bridget’s toes and dampened the hem of her tunic.
    “Nothing,” she said, confused. “’Tis only I.”
    Bridget smiled. The creases around her eyes and lips reflected her age, at which Nellore could only guess. When faced with the question, Bridget always laughed and would say she had forgotten her age long ago. “I am not as old as the sun or the moon,” she had often said. “And the mountains certainly precede me. But to the trees and heather I will always say that I believe I came first.” For many years, Nellore had believed Bridget’s claims and had stared at her in wonder, thinking she had seen the birth of the first tree.
    Now, Nellore turned her eyes away from the lady of her clan and stared once more at herself in the still water.
    “She will speak, dear one, if ye listen. She will reveal the truths hidden away in your heart, hidden even from yourself,” Bridget said.
    Nellore concentrated on the green eyes staring back at her. Her thick, black brows came together as she narrowed her gaze. With all her will she strained to hear, but her soul revealed nothing other