Highland Champion Read Free

dreams and compulsion. It had been a little frightening for although similar experiences had occurred in the past, she had never seen things so clearly or felt as strongly. Even now, she could not shake the feeling that there was more to it all than helping him recover from his injuries.
    “Foolishness,” she muttered and shook her head as she patted him dry with a soft rag.
    Perhaps she should send word to his people, she thought as she began to make a hearty broth to feed to him when he woke again. From what her cousin had told her, Sir Liam’s kinsmen were more than capable of protecting him. Keira quickly discarded the idea for the same reason she had given her cousin when he had suggested sending for the Camerons. Sir Liam might not want that, might be reluctant to pull his family into whatever trouble he had gotten himself. She could sympathize for she too hesitated to involve her family in her own troubles.
    That, too, was foolish, she suspected. She had done nothing wrong, had not caused the trouble or invited the danger. If one of her family were in such trouble, she would be ready and eager to ride to his or her side. Which is why he or she would hesitate to tell her about it, she suddenly thought and briefly grinned. It was instinctive to try to keep aloved one safe. When her family found out the truth, they would be angry, perhaps even a little offended or hurt, but they would understand, for they would know in their hearts that they would have done the very same thing.
    And, she told herself as she sat down at the small table near the fire, if this man was as close to his family as her cousin implied, he would do the same. The last time she had seen her cousin Gillyanne, she had heard a few tales about the Camerons. Even though the tales had been told to amuse everyone, they had revealed that the Camerons were probably as close a family as her own. There was also Sir Liam’s manly pride to consider. It would undoubtedly bristle at the implication that he could not take care of himself. No, Keira decided, it was not a good idea to send for his people without his permission.
    After a meal of bread, cheese, and cold venison, Keira took a hasty bath. She then settled herself upon a pallet made up near the fire. Keira stared into the flames and waited for sleep to come. She hated this time of the night, hated the silence, and hated the fact that sleep was so slow to come, leaving her alone in the silence with her memories. Try as she might, she could not shake free of the grip of those dark memories. She could only suppress them for a while.
    Duncan had been a good man, passingly handsome and gentle. She had not loved him, and she still felt guilty about that, even though it was hardly her fault. At nearly two and twenty, however, she had decided she could wait no longer for some great, passionate love to stroll her way. She had wanted children and a home of her own. Although she loved her family deeply, she had begun to feel an increasing need to spread her wings, to walk her own path. Marriage did not usually free a woman, but all her instincts had told her that Duncan would never try to master her. He had wanted a true partner, and knowing how rare that was, she had accepted him when he had asked her to be his bride.
    She could still recall the doubts of her family, especially those of her grandmother Lady Maldie and her cousin Gillyanne. Their special gifts had told them that she did not love the man she was about to marry. They had sensed her unease, one she could not explain even to herself. Keira was not sure it was a good thing that they had not pressed her on that, and then roundly scolded herself. They had respected her choice, and it had been her choice.
    Why she had felt uneasy from the moment she had accepted Duncan’s proposal of marriage was still a puzzle to her. Keira had smothered that unease and married him. Within hours of marrying him, the first hint of trouble between them had begun, and