MacDougall 01 - Laiden's Daughter Read Online Free PDF

lass,” he whispered to her.
    Her eyes began to flutter open. Through small slits she stared at him blankly, still foggy, not yet seeing.   “I’m sorry,” she said weakly.
    “She be English, Duncan,” Findley said in his native Gaelic.   “Try the English.”
    Duncan nodded and began speaking to her in English. “Sorry for what, lass?”  
    Mumbling through chattering teeth, she answered him. “I did n-not mean to kill him.”  
    Duncan smiled at her curiously, certain it was the fall and bump on her head talking.    “Tis all right lass, ye be safe now.” He knew not what else to say.  
     

Five
     
    Something was pulling her from her dream. Low, muffled voices came to her ears.   As the fog began to lift, she became aware that she was not alone.   She tried to focus her eyes as well as her mind, both requiring a good deal more effort than she had available to her. Where was she and who was speaking to her?   Why was she so cold and wet? It was then that the memories came flooding through and fear enveloped her.  
    The soldiers had found her!   Terrified, she tried to move, to stand and run, but every muscle in her body ached and her ribs screamed at her to remain still. Her arms and legs felt as though they were made of lead and no matter how hard she wished it, she simply could not move.
    Someone was holding her, speaking to her.   Her eyes began to focus and a man’s face became clearer.   He had long brown hair and blue eyes and he was smiling at her.   Her heart sank and her stomach reeled with the realization that she would not be getting away.   She had been captured and knew that very soon she would be back in Penrith.   Her life was over.  
    The cuts stung from the tears that streamed down her face.    She pleaded aloud for mercy, not certain she recognized the sound of her own voice; it sounded so weak and dry.    She heard another man’s voice but she could not understand what he was saying.
    “Please,” she begged him, “I meant not to kill him.”
    Duncan looked up at his men.   They appeared as befuddled as he was.   “Now what be this about killin’ someone?” he asked as he tried to keep his voice soft and reassuring.  
    Still struggling to move, she said, “The earl,” She muttered. “I m-meant only t-to f-frighten him.” She took a deep breath, still shaking.   “He would not s-stop and it h-hurt so m-much.”
    From the bruises and cuts Duncan and his men could surmise she had taken one hell of a skelping.    Could what she was telling them be true? Could something so small as the lass before them have taken someone’s life?
    “Please. Let me g-go. I p-promise not to t-tell you found m-me.”
    “I’m afraid we canna do that, lass.”   Duncan knew she was afraid of something, but the possibility of leaving such a young girl alone out here was not an option.
    “Please, I beg of you.   Leave me.”   More tears fell as she continued to plead with them.   She would rather die here alone and freezing than to be returned to Penrith.  
    Duncan and his men exchanged confused glances. There was no way they would leave her here.   He tried to lighten the moment by saying, “But lass, some of us have mothers.”  
    Aishlinn was dumbfounded for she could not imagine what having a mother had to do with anything.   Her head was pounding and she could not make sense of what he was trying to tell her.   
    Duncan smiled to his men.   They knew what he meant and knowing smiles formed on their own faces.   “Our mothers would skin us alive if we left a distressed lass stranded and alone out here in the middle of nowhere,” Duncan told her.
    Rowan added, “Aye. Me own mum would skin me, then reattach me skin so she could do it again.”   The men nodded their heads in agreement.   Rowan’s mum was a fierce woman and it would have mattered not who this lass was nor the circumstances surrounding why she was here.   Had the men left her and anyone