A Gentle Feuding Read Free

clear to Jamie was the color of her eyes. He was not quite close enough to see, and the reflection of the water made them appear a blue so clear and bright as to be glowing quite impossibly. Was his imagination running wild? He wanted to move closer and see.
    What he really wanted was to join her in the water. It was an insane idea, born of the strange effect she was having on him. But if he did move closer, she would either disappear—proving she was not real after all—or scream and run away. But what if she did neither? What if she just stayed there, let him come to her, let him touch her as he ached to do?
    Common sense had fled. Jamie was ready to chuck his clothes and slip into the pool when the girl murmured something he couldn’t hear. Suddenly there was a splash, and the girl reached for an object that came from…where? Jamie’s eyes widened. Was she truly a sprite then, to invoke something and have it appear?
    The object turned out to be a chunk of soap, and the girl began to lather herself with it. The scene was simple enough now, a girl bathing herself in a pool. The unearthly quality was gone, and Jamie’s senses returned. But…soap falling into the water all by itself? He scanned the high bank opposite until he saw the man, or, rather, the boy, sitting on a rock with his back to the girl. Her guardian? Hardly. But the boy was watching out for her nonetheless.
    Jamie felt the full weight of disappointment descend on him now that he knew he was not alone with the beautiful girl. The presence of the boy brought him back to reality. He had to leave. As if to point out his folly in tarrying, the first rays of sun broke through the glen, showing him the time he had wasted. His brother and the others would have all returned to the men by the river. They would all be waiting for him.
    Jamie was suddenly sickened. Watching the girl, being transported to what seemed a sphere outside reality, he was appalled by the contrast between the lovely scene before him and the bloody one he would see in just a short while. Yet he could no more stop the one that was soon to happen than he could forget the one he was watching. Both seemed inevitable.
    Jamie’s last look at the girl was a wistful one. Beams of sunlight dotted the pool, and one touched the girl and lit her hair like a burst of flame. With a sigh, he turned away. That last vision of the mystical girl would be etched in his memory for a long time to come.
    As he rode back to join his men, Jamie could think only of the girl. Who was she? She could be a Fergusson, some crofter’s daughter, yet Jamie found that hard to believe. What man with such a beautiful daughter would let her bathe as naked as you please in an open pool? And he hated to think she might be a Fergusson. Even a beggar passing through Fergusson land would be preferable.
    She might indeed be a beggar, he thought, bathing before she stopped at Tower Esk for a handout. The country swarmed with them, especially in the Lowlands where kirks were more numerous and the people more pious and charitable. But such a beautiful beggar? Possible, but doubtful. Who was she, then? Would he ever know?
    The urge to go back to the glen and find out was strong, but his men were within sight, and now that the mist had cleared, Tower Esk could be seen in the fardistance atop its fortified hill. Numerous crofts were visible, scattered over the moor. The time had come.
    But Jamie was not as hell-bent on devastation as he had been earlier. The lovely girl had eased his anger, as had thoughts of his aunt and what warring would do to her. A wrong for a wrong would be exacted, but Jamie would be merciful. When he reached his men, he explained his change of heart. His word was law, so those who felt he was being too lenient could be damned.
    Three crofts were destroyed that morning, the crops trampled, and all the stock lifted. But no women or children were killed. They were made to stand by and watch as their homes burned. The