Duchess of Mine Read Free

whispered,
his eyes turned miserably sad. “You are my family. I cannot stand
idly by while you are a shell of who you could be.”
    She shook her head. Confusion coursed through
her, making everything blurry and hurt, because she did feel
something familiar about him. Familial. But the words he’d said
felt like nails that kept hitting her too tender skin over and over
again. She was bleeding interiorly. Maybe exteriorly too.
    “This is for your own good, Fleur.”
    “What?” she finally seemed to have the
capacity to ask.
    He looked up as two long shadows drew near.
They were women. Beautiful, glowing-like-gold women with glittering
turquoise eyes.
    Recognition flashed through Fleur as she
noted their gold running suits. They no longer wore their matching
hats and larger-than-life sunglasses, but they were the twin-like
women who’d sat under a giant umbrella by the side of a road, as if
that was a natural vacation destination. Not a beach, but the side
of a nearly desolate thoroughfare. Fleur struggled to stand to run
away from the man, from the strange women, from the moment. In her
attempt to flee, she caught the gaze of the coyote still on top of
the man’s head. Something in her snapped back in time to her
grandmother warning her about, Coyote, the trickster god. The man,
the god, not the pelted canine, reached out for her easily enough
as if she weren’t fighting with every last ounce of her strength,
and with tender but calloused hands he drew her closer to him.
    He gazed deeply into her eyes. “I’ve had
enough, Fleur. I want so much more for you.” Clearing his throat
the way men do to counter a cry, he looked at the two women, then
slowly nodded.
    “We’re giving you a glimpse ,” one of
the women spoke in a hushed tone. “You’ll stay here, in the
Highlands, but go back a long time ago.”
    “What?” Anger surfaced for not having enough
wits to ask anything other than that one useless word. But Fleur
was far too freaked to figure out many other questions. And through
it all she heard...she heard a heartbeat. Her own, or maybe the
trickster god across from her, holding her still in the wet sand,
she didn’t know. But she heard it. Thump- thump , thump- thump , thump- thump .
    “I want so much more for you,” he
repeated.
    “What?” Fleur heard her own voice, sounding
small, almost child-like.
    Coyote’s lips curved at just the tips,
looking almost proud of her. “Always the one with the questions, my
girl.” Then he nodded and glanced at the women again. “How does it
work?”
    The woman closest to Fleur raised an elegant
hand. “You’ve had some problems understanding the accents here, and
where I’m sending you the Gaelic is even thicker, but no worries.
You’ll understand them, and they’ll understand you.” Then, she
gently smiled down at Fleur and snapped her fingers. The world was
awash with the scent of salt, the noise of the incoming tide, and
totally usurped by blackness.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
    Cave Smoo—a little outside Durness,
Scotland
    September in Our Lord’s year of 1653
     
    D amnation, it was almost autumn, Duncan MacKay thought to himself. It wasn't supposed to be this
hot. Instead of the usual continual rain for this season, it was
more like a wicked summer, with the sun lashing down rays as
vicious as a cat o' nine tails until sweat ran down his body
in rivulets. Well, running for almost thirty miles—beginning in
Tongue then ending here—would make a grown man sweat too.
Certainly, Highlanders were used to sprinting for long distances,
but son o’ a bitch this was a bit much for a simple training,
especially with men so green. Some of the troops were mere lads,
not even ten and four years of age. Even younger than his own
brothers.
    He winced at the thought, reminding himself
to steer clear of such considerations, except when he was alone.
And drunk.
    That’s when he realized he was alone.
He’d somehow outrun the new recruits. And he was the