Highland Rake Read Free Page A

people did, but being the niece of the clan chief made her more visible just the same.
    She covered her plaited locks with a blue veil, the pale color of her hair a curse. In the full light of the moon, she was certain her hair could be seen from a mile away across the glen.
    "Where are you going?" her brother asked, and this time she gasped.
    Turning, she glowered at him. Why couldn't he be like a misty version of himself at least, and not so solid she felt she could touch his skin and feel the warmth there still. "Connell, go away! Do whatever you are supposed to do to find peace and leave me alone!" she whispered harshly.
    "I canna. 'Tis no' my fault. 'Tis yours."
    Annoyed with him that he would find fault with her for his own rash actions, she knew he'd say that again. For whatever reason, he truly believed she was keeping him here, when she had naught to do with it!
    "I suspect that our uncle is hoping for an alliance with the MacDonalds," Connell said, changing the subject. "Which means you will most likely be marrying one of the MacDonalds. The middle brother, Hoel, I would think."
    She wasn't happy about it, not that she expected to be delighted about any marriage her uncle arranged for her. "Did you overhear him speaking with Turi or someone else about it?" She should have thought to ask her brother. Then again, it would not make any difference as to her fate.
    "Aye, I did. I didna wish to speak of it because I didna think you would wish to hear of it."
    She'd only seen Hoel once years ago when he was bullying another lad. She'd had to remind herself that he was a warrior, and they all fought and tried to come out on top like a pack of wolves. The weakest didn't stand a chance. With her, he'd treat her as a lady. That's what she told herself. She was only nine at the time, and he four and ten, so he had only given her a cursory disgruntled glance, his older brother a couple of years older, teasing him mercilessly about marrying the fae wench.
    Fae . A derogatory slight because they must have heard the rumors she spoke to the fae. Or mayhap it was because of her hair that some said was so unnaturally light it shown like a soft moon's glow. Didn't that make her one of them ?
    "What do you know about him?" she asked, hurrying to pack herbs in a leather pouch.
    "He is strange. Mayhap as much as you?"
    She glanced up at her brother, not understanding his meaning. He smiled at her, warmly, in a genuinely affectionate way.
    Many years ago during the ambush of their father, the Cameron clan chief and his men while she had been riding with the hunting party, and at her father's urging, she had hidden in the woods as he and the rest of his men fought valiantly to the last man. The overwhelming numbers had been too much, and her father and the rest of her clansmen had been murdered.
    Although, she did not believe her father had been. Not when he stayed with her to ensure she'd find her way home. It wasn't until she'd reached the walls surrounding her castle two days later that she'd learned her father had died in the forest with the rest of his men and that he hadn't been with her at the gatehouse. When her people had fussed over her so and hadn't spoken a word to her father, she'd turned to look and see why he was not shouting orders. He had vanished.
    Her uncle had ridden out with an army of men and brought back her father and their clansmen's bodies, but she wouldn't believe her father had not brought her home. That's when her kin really began to worry she was touched by the fae. From then on, she had learned to keep the truth from her people and pretend she was like everyone else who couldn't see or hear the dead. She wished it had been true.
    If her brother was here like her father had been, why would Connell remain behind? To see to her welfare? But she was home, safe. No one to harm her here.
    "What do you mean that he is strange, Connell?" She grabbed her leather pouch of herbs and hurried out of her chamber.
    "I am no'