White Rose Rebel Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lady Farquharson snapped at her before turning to Aeneas, touching his arm in apology. ‘ Tha mi uamhasach duilich . I’m so sorry, Aeneas.’ Then she called furiously for James. MacGillivray moved to Anne’s side.
    ‘You didn’t want to come,’ he said. ‘What are you doing here?’
    ‘Being stabbed in the heart,’ she said, glaring at Elizabeth.
    With the excitement over, the crowd dispersed towards the food and drink. Anne’s brother appeared from among them.
    ‘James,’ Lady Farquharson commanded. ‘Get the horses and wagon ready. We’re leaving.’
    James took in the surprising sight of his sister and stepsister but decided questions could wait.
    ‘Francis took our wagon on to Inverness,’ he said, glancing at Anne, ‘for linen.’
    ‘Then ready our horses. The others can walk or wait for him.’
    James hurried off towards the stable.
    ‘Will you not stay?’ Aeneas finally found his tongue. ‘Your daughter will need dry clothes.’
    ‘That’s very accommodating of you, considering.’ Lady Farquharson was not about to let her embarrassment lengthen. ‘But she can dry out as she walks home.’
    ‘ Och , Mother!’ Elizabeth wailed.
    ‘Then at least let me lend you more horses,’ Aeneas offered.
    Reminded that he could now afford horses to lend, Lady Farquharson set her humiliation aside.
    ‘Why, Aeneas,’ she flirted. ‘You’re so kind. It really isn’t easy schooling young people in responsibility without a husband’s strength and wisdom.’
    Anne glowered. Sometimes she wished she could vomit on demand. MacGillivray, knowing she would not want to be beholden to Aeneas, spoke into her ear.
    ‘You can borrow my horse.’
    Anne looked up at him, appreciating the offer, but her desire to preserve her dignity was stronger than any need for comfort.
    ‘No, thank you,’ she said and, louder, for Aeneas’s benefit. ‘I came out for a walk and I intend to continue it.’ She wheeled around and strode off towards the mountains and home, head held high.
    ‘You won’t be half-way before dark,’ MacGillivray protested.
    ‘The others will soon catch her up,’ Aeneas said, watching Anne’s ramrod-straight back as she marched, determinedly, away.
    MacGillivray shrugged. It was pointless trying to dissuade Annefrom any course of action once she’d set her mind to it. But her pride would fade when she was beyond the cause of it. She wouldn’t let her family ride past and leave her on the road.
    His new chief clamped a brotherly hand on his shoulder.
    ‘Time for a drink,’ he said.
    They headed for the house, following the fretful Elizabeth and her complaining mother. Aeneas grinned at MacGillivray and nodded to the two women in front.
    ‘Yours looks a little wet,’ he said.

FOUR
    At Invercauld, young voices shouted.
    ‘Prosperity and no Union!’ Two groups of children, wooden swords raised, rushed across the training field towards each other and met in a clash of wood against leather targes. One little girl cowered behind her targe, ineffectively trying to stab around it as the boy who’d engaged her thrashed the lights out of the leather shield.
    ‘No, no,’ Anne called, and stopped them. Crouching behind the girl, she slid one arm round her to slot through the straps of the targe and grasped the girl’s sword arm at the wrist with the other. ‘Like this, Catríona.’ She pulled the targe across the girl’s body to shield her torso while leaving her sword arm exposed, then she pushed the targe outwards and thrust forward with the sword. ‘See?’ She repeated the move. ‘You push his sword away then thrust.’ The girl sighed.
    ‘Will the Prince ever come, Anne?’
    ‘Of course he will.’ She gave the child a reassuring squeeze. Nine years old and doubting already. Anne had been hearing and telling the story for twenty. Sometimes she, too, wondered if that was all it was, a fairy story for children. It had become indistinct in the telling, as if the Prince were a fiction