A Promise Given Read Free Page A

Margaret had whirled and slapped her face.
    Odd, that she should suddenly remember that now, after all this time… She
knew Margaret better than anyone. Yet there were also times when Sabrina felt
she knew her sister not at all… Still, she was certain her sister would never
deliberately hurt a soul on this earth.
    Closing the heavy wooden portal, she stepped within. "Well, well," she said
cheerily, it would seem that you alone have your wits about you this day." She
smiled across at her sister, the elder by a year. It would seem a miracle if
everyone in Scotland did not hear Papa's bellow that the MacGregor comes, clear
to the Highlands and beyond."
    Margaret laid her sewing in her lap. "And why should I be all in a dither?
'It’s only Ian."
    "Oh, but the MacGregors are fearsome giants," chimed the wide-eyed maid. She
paused from her task of stripping the bed of its linens to hastily cross
herself. It’s said if provoked, they eat their young alive!"
    Sabrina bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud. Edna was a shy,
superstitious young girl, afraid of her own shadow, but Sabrina loved her
dearly.
    A mischievous twinkle glinted in her eyes. She pursed her lips, striving for
a properly worried expression. "Well, he is, after all, a Highlander. And we all
know what barbarians they are. But mayhap that is why Ian was sent as a child to
foster here at Dunlevy—to save his clan from extinction."
    Edna's eyes nearly popped from her head. She pressed a hand to her rounded
bosom. "He has no brothers? No sisters?" she whispered.
    Sabrina shook her head. "Nay, not a one. None that survived childhood, at
least." It was true. There had been two younger brothers, but they had both died
in infancy.
    Edna was properly horrified. "Savages! Savages, all of them!" With a great
cry she snatched up the dirty linens and fled.
    Margaret sighed. "You know," she said dryly, "she will carry that tale to
Papa, and it will no doubt have been embellished a good deal by the time he
hears it."
    The corners of Sabrina's lips crinkled in merriment. "Well, I should hope so.
I did try to give a bit of fodder to the imagination."
    "But she is right," Margaret mused. "Ian is a giant."
    "A giant!" Sabrina's snort was distinctly unladylike. "I think not, Margaret.
He was always as skinny as a sapling in winter!"
    "Ah, but I'd forgotten. You did not see him when Papa and I journeyed to
Edinburgh, did you, Sabrina? His cousin Alasdair was with him, and he, too, has
the look of a MacGregor about him. But you had taken ill to your bed, as I
recall, and could not travel with us."
    Indeed, Sabrina had forgotten. Ian's last visit had come several years
earlier, but she had missed him. According to Cecilia, the village healer,
Sabrina had eaten something rancid—she'd been so sick she could barely raise her
head off the pillow for days.
    Throughout the afternoon, she'd held thoughts of Ian at bay. But now, now she
allowed the memories to fill her mind. The last time she had seen him was years
earlier, that day in the stable. A shadow seemed to slip over her, enfolding her
in darkness. She could not help the trace of bitterness that seeped through her.
He had made a promise… a promise… only to reveal his true nature in the
bargain.
    Margaret had fixed keen eyes upon her. "I've come to note that you do not
care much for Ian, do you? But 'twas not always so, was it?"
    Nay, Sabrina nearly cried, for it was true. Though they had played together
as brother and sister—and verbally sparred like the very same—deep inside there
had been a time when she'd thought of Ian in a way that was anything but
sisterly…
    Odd, that she should remember it… and remember it now…
    But all that had changed. And Margaret was looking at her in a way that made
her wish she was more adept at hiding her true feelings. Lightly she said, "You
need not worry, Margaret. Of course I shall welcome him into the family."
    One elegantly shaped golden