Wild Highland Rose (Time Travel Trilogy, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

access to Crannag Mhór.  Only those who knew the way could find it.  It was supposed to have been a sanctuary, a place set apart from the turbulence that surrounded it, a place for love to flourish.  Marjory shook her head, sweeping away her foolish thoughts.  It hadn't been a place of peace for long.  The Camerons had found it and destroyed it.
    Marjory stared at the first star as it twinkled high in the night sky.  Her mother used to tell her that the stars were the lights of angels.  She bit her lip, momentarily mesmerized by the tiny point of glowing light.  When she was little she ' d wished upon the stars for true love.  The kind her mother and father had had.  A ray of hope flashed deep within her.
    With a deep breath, she hardened her heart.  Her mother and father were dead.  There were no angels.  And there were no happy endings.  There was nothing but Crannag Mhór and her driving need to preserve it at all costs.
     
    *****
     
    It was raining cats and dogs.  The driveway was slick with water.  Cameron tried to hold his suit coat over his head to protect himself from the deluge, but even so, he arrived at his car soaking wet.  He fumbled for the key and managed, with shaking hands, to open the car door.  Sliding into the leather seat, he automatically brushed at the droplets of water that accumulated there.  He leaned on the steering wheel, trying to get his emotions under control.  With an angry groan, he slid the key into the ignition and turned it.  The powerful engine sparked to life and he flicked on the headlights.
    Like the click of a camera, the picture changed.  He watched through the windshield as the headlights revealed a beautiful blonde woman, her hair plastered to her head by the rain.  Her hands were stretched out in front of her as though she were pleading with him.  Her face was washed with fear and pain.  Her eyes seemed to be begging him for something.
    "No."  She mouthed the word.  He couldn't hear her, but somehow he knew she had screamed.
    Cameron jerked awake, sweat momentarily blinding his eyes.  Panic knifed through him.  It was dark.  Oh God, he was back in the darkness.  He strained for the noise, the rhythmic beeping, but it was quiet and cold.  He moved a hand and wiped away the sweat.  The darkness lightened and he recognized the fabric of the bed curtains.
    A dream.  It had been a dream.  He reached out, with a shaking hand, to move the curtain back.  He needed the reassurance of light.  His hand encountered another hand, and still partially locked in the terror of his nightmare, he jerked back, gasping audibly.
    "Be still, 'tis only me."  The curtain pulled back, revealing moonlight and Grania.
    "'Twas naught but a dream.  Try to go back to sleep now."  Her age worn hand clasped his, the warmth of her touch sending comfort pulsing through his body.  He closed his eyes, surprised at how good it felt to know that someone was watching over him.

CHAPTER 3
    Marjory brushed Alainn's coat with a fury that had nothing to do with the horse.  Alainn shifted uncomfortably under the attack and Marjory stopped, soothing the mare with a touch of her hand.
    "'Tis sorry I am if hurt you.  I wasna thinking of you, my sweet, but of that whoreson of a Cameron lying upstairs with the whole of the household waiting on him hand and foot."
    "Talking to horses now, are ye?"
    Marjory turned at the sound of Fingal's voice, giving her captain a wry smile and the horse a last brush.  "Guilty as charged, I ' m, afraid.  I find it quite nice to have a conversation with the beast.  You see, she never argues with me."
    "I think 'tis best to let that comment pass as I assume some of it, at least, was aimed at me."
    Marjory shot him a look and then bent to examine her horse ' s fetlock.  "Could be."
    Fingal leaned back against the railing of a stall, resting his arms on the wooden bar.  "Come now, lass, there's no need to take yer frustrations out on me.  ' Twould be