The Promise of Peace Read Free Page A

Keifer, silent all this long day, sat by the fireplace playing with his wooden horse figurine.
    Morrigan looked at her mother, who picked up the only book they owned—a beautifully copied collection of the Psalms. Eveleen’s eyes shone, and she looked almost happy.
    â€œWhat is it, Momma?” Morrigan asked.
    â€œI will see your father again, Morrigan. The thought relieves my grief—’tis the only way I can get through this.”
    Keifer stopped his play. “Papa coming home?”
    Distracted, her eyes staring off in the distance, Eveleen replied, “Aye child. We’ll see him again.”
    â€œGordon?”
    â€œAye. Gordon too.”
    Keifer said, “Good.”
    He was too little to understand what his mother meant. And what could it hurt if the child hoped for a reunion with his father, no matter where it would take place?

ONE
    Dunstruan, Spring 1315
    F ROM BEHIND A HIGH SPOT on the parapets, Keifer Macnab watched the activity below in Dunstruan’s bailey. Today he was to leave here to foster with the Mackintosh laird. The horses were nearly ready, but Keifer was not. Angrily he forced back the tears that threatened.
    He was so tired of holding everything inside. So tired of waiting for his father to return. The years at Inverlochy had been good ones. His mother’s father had been there to teach him to fish and how to use a knife and to overcome his fear of horses.
    Then Grandfather had died two winters past and they’d moved to Dunstruan. Here he’d been tutored by the warrior monk, Ceallach. And just when Keifer had come to feel attached to the people of Dunstruan, especially Ceallach, once again he was forced to leave behind all that was familiar.
    It isn’t fair.
    He raced to the stairs and then down them, turning at the bottom— not into the bailey where Ceallach, his sister, and the others expected him.
    No.
    Instead Keifer ran through the kitchen, careful that Cook didn’t see him. Running as fast as he could, he headed into the oak forest behind the castle.
    Following the well-worn path of Dunstruan’s flock of sheep, he ran until he came to the overlook, stopping briefly to stare at the blue loch below. Then he ran toward the water, and now the tears couldn’t be held back. Anger and frustration welled up and flowed down his cheeks.
    He ran until his lungs hurt, until he nearly choked on the tears and his fury. Finally he reached the water’s edge and momentarily considered running straight into the water and swimming as far as he could. Swim until his arms gave out and he sank beneath the surface. There would be an end to his problems. His pain.
    The boy skidded to a halt in the mud and drew in rapid breaths. He hung his head. He knew such thoughts were evil—they solved nothing, just as running away would do no good. ’Twas no use—they would find him and he would have to leave.
    But until then he would sit right here and wish he’d never been born.
    MORRIGAN MACNAB FOUND HER BROTHER sitting on a log by the edge of the loch. The future laird of the Macnab clan drew back his arm and threw a rock into the water with a fury that alarmed her and made her glad she, and not her mother, had come to find him. The woman would have taken one look at her son and changed her mind about allowing him to be fostered so far from her.
    Fostering was usually done with a nearby family, but Morrigan knew this move was in Keifer’s best interest, to keep him safe. The boy had become quite attached to Dunstruan’s laird over the months they’d lived here. She understood Keifer’s reluctance to leave what had become familiar and dear. Hadn’t he suffered enough losses in his short life?
    But something in the angry set of the boy’s shoulders told her more was at work here. She walked closer, deliberately scraping her foot. Keifer’s head jerked up at the noise and he faced Morrigan. His face was streaked with