Warrior's Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

doubt where the laird and his lady sat, for those two were the only actual chairs at the tables in the hall. There was a grouping of other chairs near the main fireplace, though, which had cushions in the clan’s colors. She had no doubt, however, that the cushions were for comfort rather than show.
    The lovely blond woman had a parchment of accountsin front of her that Guaire frowned at upon entrance. “I thought we were going to go over those together, Lady Abigail.”
    “I’d hoped to save you some time, Guaire.”
    The man looked pained and Niall laughed. “You know he’ll feel the need to go over them himself regardless.”
    The Lady Abigail smiled, mischief glinting in her light brown eyes. “You think so?”
    “You do like to tease, my lady,” Guaire said with some exasperation.
    “Mama, you shouldn’t tease,” a young boy said from beside the laird. “You get ever so
disappointed
when I tease Drost.”
    “That is because you have not yet learned when not to push so far that your brother resorts to tears or violence, Brian,” Abigail said with a musical laugh.
    Shona had heard rumors that the Sinclair lady was afflicted with deafness, but this woman appeared to hear as well as the next person.
    “I don’t like him to tease me even if he learns that,” the boy who must be Drost said from the other side of his father.
    Brian seemed keenly interested in the sword his father was sharpening, while his brother, who looked too much like him not to be his twin, carefully drew with charcoal on a clay tablet.
    Eadan marched up to the table and pointed to himself. “I am Eadan. You are Drost.” He pointed to the boy handing his father a cloth for wiping the oil from his sword’s blade. “And you are Brian.” He pointed at the other child. “I heard you say so.”
    Her son was so intelligent, Shona often marveled at how quickly he grasped the world around him.
    Both boys looked impressed. Drost observed neutrally, “You aren’t wearing clan colors.”
    “Your clothes are funny,” Brian added with a clearopinion.
    Abigail gasped and looked ready to jump in, but Eadan didn’t give her the chance.
    “They’re English,” he said with a shrug.
    Brian frowned. “We don’t like the English.”
    This time, Abigail jumped to her feet and spun to face her son, a fierce expression on her face. “
I
am English.”
    “You
used
to be English,” the laird, who had remained silent thus far, inserted. “However.” He fixed his son with a stare that would have intimidated Shona
now
, much less when she’d been a small child. “You know very well we do not hate
all
the English.”
    Abigail’s huff of offense just made her husband shrug, as if to say that was the best she could hope for. It was clearly an old argument.
    “You’ll like me, and my sister,” Eadan said with false bravado, pulling Marjory to his side.
    The tremble of worry in Eadan’s voice made Shona want to wrap him in her arms to take that fear away, and Marjory, too. Who stood with wide eyes and thumb tucked firmly between her teeth.
    But Shona knew this was only the beginning of what they might face in their flight to safety.
    The Highlanders were not known for their kind disposition to the English.
    Taking a fortifying breath, she curtsied to the laird and his lady. “I am Lady Shona, widow to the second Baron of Heronshire. This is my companion and friend Audrey and her brother, Thomas.”
    She deliberately left their father’s name unspoken as neither wished to acknowledge a man who had sold them into service though his own wealth clearly precluded the need to do so.
    She indicated her children. “My son has seen fit to introduce himself, and this is my daughter, Marjory.”
    Shona straightened, doing her best to hide both fatigue and trepidation, unsurprised when Caelis pulled her back to his side.
    He had kept hold of Shona through the trek up the path and into the great hall. He’d managed to maintain his nearness even as they