MacCallister: The Eagles Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

yourself.”
    Skye blushed at the flattery.
    At that moment Sheriff Angus Somerled came into the tavern and much of the laughter and conversation grew quiet as he stood just inside the door, perusing the place with dark and brooding eyes.
    “Skye, lass, see if we can be of service to the sheriff,” Ian said quietly.
    Skye approached the sheriff, then curtseyed. “Sheriff, may we serve you?” she asked.
    Sheriff Somerled looked over at Duff, then pointed at him.
    “Is it true that, last week, you fought with my sons for no reason?” he asked.
    “That is not true,” Duff replied.
    “How can you say it is not true when with my own eyes I saw the bruises you inflicted upon them?”
    “I am not saying that I didn’t fight with them,” Duff said. “What I dispute is that I fought with them for no reason. I fought with them because they attacked me.”
    “There are three of them and but one of you, yet they are the injured ones. Would you be tellin’ me, Duff MacCallister, that they attacked you first, and yet you bested the three of them? Because that I am not believing.”
    “You should believe it, Sheriff, for Duff is speaking only the truth,” Ian said. “All who were here that night will bear witness to the fact that your sons attacked MacCallister.”
    “Aye, Sheriff, ’tis true enough,” one of the other patrons said. “Your sons started the fight.”
    The sheriff said nothing in direct reply, but a blood vessel in his temple began to throb, a visual display of his anger. He looked at Andrew and Rosanna.
    “Are you the theater people I have heard about?” he asked.
    “I don’t know if, or what you might have heard of us. But it is true that we are theater people,” Rosanna replied.
    “Why dishonor yourselves by standing with one who is known to be a brigand?” Angus Somerled asked.
    “Duff MacCallister is my cousin,” Andrew replied. “Were he at the gates of hell, I would stand by him.”
    “You make claim that he is your cousin?”
    “Aye, of the self-same blood as Falcon MacCallister, he who defeated your ancestor at Glen Fruin,” Andrew said, perfectly adopting the Scottish brogue.
    “ Ochh . It is worthless you are, the lot of ye,” Sheriff Somerled said as, spinning on his heel, he left the tavern.
    “And it is good riddance to ye, Angus Somerled!” Ian McGregor called out after the sheriff left. It wasn’t loud enough for the sheriff to hear, but it was loud enough for all in the pub to hear, and they laughed out loud.

    Two days later, Duff came to Glasgow to tell his cousins good-bye.
    “We have had a wonderful visit,” Rosanna said. “Especially so since we met you and were able to reconnect our family after all these years. And how wonderful it was to meet Skye. She is such a delightful young lady. I am sure the two of you will be very happy.”
    “Thank you, I am sure we will be as well. And I enjoyed meeting both of you,” Duff said. “It was an interesting experience, finding out what happened to those of my family who went to America.”
    “You should come to America as well,” Andrew said. “Yes, come to America after you have married, and bring your bride with you.”
    “Perhaps I will,” Duff said. “I would like to see America, and I would like Skye to see it with me.”
    “But if you come, you should come to live, not just to visit,” Andrew said. “You would love it in America, and Americans would welcome you. We are that kind of people.”
    “I have land here,” Duff said. “If I were to come to America, how would I live? I have no land there.”
    “Land is easily acquired,” Andrew said. “We have so much land in America that we give it away. It is called homesteading. All you have to do is move onto a piece of unoccupied property, work it, and file a claim. Then it becomes yours.”
    “Aye, that is an interesting proposition, but Skye still has her family here. I think it might be difficult to persuade her to undertake such an