Lyon's Gift Read Free Page B

faeries who peeked out from behind trees in the woodlands.
Och, but as loony as the old woman had seemed, Meghan missed her
fiercely.
    Although Meghan knew her brothers loved her well and
truly, it was a burdensome thing to be the only woman in a
household of men.
    Not to mention lonely.
    If it weren’t for Alison, the MacLean’s daughter—her
very best friend—Meghan didn’t know what she would have done.
    Leith, her eldest brother, was laird of their clan.
He was sweet and good, even if he was entirely too overbearing and
protective. With all his rules, he kept Meghan from living life
just as surely as though he were a wall she could not pass. What he
didn’t seem to realize—thank God—was that she had her own little
tunnel burrowed beneath those bulwarks, and the defiant thought
brought a tiny smile to her lips because what he didn’t know, she
decided, couldn’t possibly hurt him.
    Her brother Colin, on the other hand, was much too
unconcerned with anything but women and drink. Blessed as he was
with good looks, Meghan only wished he didn’t give the pursuit of
his own pleasures such import above all else.
    Poor, sweet Alison hadn’t a chance with him!
    Then there was her dear brother Gavin, the only
brother younger than herself. Gavin held another view entirely from
both Leith and Colin. He was the one who disregarded the mind and
physical beauty altogether, thinking it a sin to worship the temple
of the spirit and a complete waste of one’s time—a woman’s, at
least—to ponder life’s mysteries. Alas, that was something Meghan
was surely wont to do. Her youngest brother encouraged her
incessantly to seek to purify her soul, lest she end like their
mother and grandmother before her—mad and alone.
    Och, but Meghan rather relished the thought of being
alone, didn’t he realize! And if people thought her mad... well,
then... She shrugged. They’d simply think her mad and leave her be,
now wouldn’t they? And that was well and good, as far as Meghan was
concerned.
    She only wished Gavin would live a little more and
leave off with the preaching, for his own sake, certainly not for
hers. Meghan had absolutely no qualms about boxing his ears when he
carried on too much. She loved each of her brothers dearly—as she
knew they did her—and she’d do anything for them, anything at all,
except listen to Gavin’s accursed sermons! Christ only knew, they
were almost as harrowing as the poor raven’s unrelenting
cawing!
    Sweet Mary, she had no notion what to do to help the
accursed bird!
    She stood, hands at her hips, before the open
window, frowning after it as it flew amuck about the rafters and
finally lit upon one of the support beams.
    There it remained, and she could swear it stared
expectantly down at her.
    By the blessed rood!
    “ Och now, but I cannot help you
all the way up there, don’t ye know, you silly creature!” Though
she knew it was an absurd thing to do, she extended her hand to the
agitated bird, and demanded, “Come down here now!”
    The raven merely flapped its wings, and cawed at
her.
    She crooked a finger at it. “Dinna speak to me so
rudely,” she told the bird. “I cannot help you if ye will not let
me!”
    The raven quieted and cocked its head. It peered
down at her curiously, but didn’t move.
    Had she expected it to? It was ludicrous to be
nettled by the bird’s lack of response, but she was.
    “ I’d wager you’d come down for
Minnie Fia! Foolish auld bird!” she scolded it. “Stay, then, if
you—”
    “ What are ye doing, lass?” a voice
interrupted at her back.
    Meghan shrieked in startle, casting up her hands.
She turned to face Colin. “Och, you scared me, you ill-bred
oaf!”
    Her brother merely grinned at her, and cocked his
head, in much the same manner the bird had.
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “Did no one ever teach
you any manners?”
    “ Ye know the answer to that,
Meghan, love,” he said. “I learned my good manners from the same
place you