Highlander's Rescue A Cree & Dawn Short Story (Cree & Dawn Short Stories Book 4) Read Free Page B

asked.”
    “Which way did she go?” Torr demanded.
    “She asked if there was a healer close by. I told her that Cross Hill might have one, but she could not take my word on that.”
    “Cross Hill is empty and crumbling,” Torr said.
    The man shook his head. “Not anymore, though I cannot say who occupies it now or who would want to.”
    Torr and Cree were quick to mount their horses and they were once again on their way.
    Dawn watched Cree and Torr’s faces darken with scowls as they rode in silence. She hoped that Wintra had reached Cross Hill safely and whoever occupied it was treating her well. If not, things would not bode well for them.
    As Cross Hill came into view, Dawn shivered. The stark keep sat in the middle of a barren circle of land, the forest surrounding it, keeping a good or perhaps safe distance away. It was easy to see, even from a distance, that the place was in dire need of repairs. A few outbuildings, appearing ready to crumble, ran along one side of the keep, otherwise it sat alone and looked forlorn and deserted.
    The horses plodded through the snow, not a sign that anyone had tread there before them. The closer they got to the keep, the more leery Dawn grew, and she sensed her husband felt the same. His body tensed the closer they got and his head turned slightly from side to side, his eyes searching his surroundings.
    Torr, however, paid heed to nothing more than getting to the keep, trusting those around him to do that for him. He was off his horse and trudging through small snow drifts to pound at the door mercilessly before Cree and Dawn brought their horses to a stop.
    “Stay on your horse,” Cree ordered Dawn after dismounting.
    She quickly gestured her objection.
    Cree slipped his hand beneath her shift and gave her leg a squeeze. “You will stay where you are until I can make certain it is safe for us here.” Cree felt her light shiver. “You feel the same about this place?”
    Dawn nodded, feeling even more uncomfortable being so close to the decaying keep.
    “Stay as you are. We will see this done and be gone with Wintra shortly,” Cree said and with strong strides, joined Torr at the door that had yet to open.
    Cree reached out and pounded the door so hard a crack yawned loudly along it, then he called out with such strength that the dead could hear him. “Open now or we will break it down.”
    The door creaked partially open. No one could be seen, but a woman’s voice spoke up, “Be gone with you, there is illness here.”
    “Illness or not, I will know if a young woman heavy with child sought shelter here,” Torr demanded.
    “No one has stopped here and if such a woman had I would have chased her away in warning as I do you. Now be gone or suffer for it.” The door slammed shut and shuddered as a board was dropped across it from inside, keeping anyone from entering.
    Torr went to pound on the door again and Cree grabbed his arm. “We do not know what lies within or how many are within. You put us all at risk if you do not heed her warning.”
    “If she speaks falsely?”
    “That is what we must find out before we enter this rotting keep.”
    They turned away from the door and walked to their horses.
    “You do not believe her?” Torr asked impatient to see this done and hold his wife safely in his arms.
    “I am not sure and until I can be, I will not expose any of us to an illness that can strike others.”
    “The man at the croft spoke of no illness here,” Torr reminded.
    “Or he knew nothing of it. What if we force our way in and there is illness there, but no Wintra. What then? Do you carry the illness to your wife and bairn? What if Wintra was turned away from here like we were?”
    “Where then would she have gone?” Torr asked fear for his wife’s safety twisting his stomach in knots.
    Dawn paid no heed to the two men, having thought she caught movement just past the left corner of the keep. She watched and when she saw nothing, she assumed she was