The Viking's Highland Lass Read Free Page A

pleasure in a man’s company, nor did she seem to enjoy any of the festivities her da would have from time to time. Brina thought she was like her in that respect. Lynette’s hair was a light brown, but her eyes just as blue. Lynette was the same height as Brina, maybe a wee bit taller.
    The one thing they did enjoy doing together was plying their talent at archery. Not just for a social pastime either, but as a way to defend Anfa Castle if they needed to.
    Brina never confided in anyone about her feelings concerning her da or Seamus and his men. Not even with Lynette. Likewise, Lynette never discussed how she felt about anything either.
    Though they both had their roles to play in regard to the running of the household, Brina thought Lynette was distant acting about belonging to the clan. She’d tried to talk to her about it, but Lynette wouldn’t or couldn’t tell her anything about herself. Maybe she’d been too young when Brina’s aunt and uncle had taken her in.
    Yet there was something even odder about her. The way Brina would catch Lynette watching her and Brina wondered if she knew that Brina had a gift. Maybe she was afraid of Brina. She wished she could confide in someone, but she dared not.
    As soon as thirty of the Auchinleck clansmen ate their fill and left the castle to fight with their neighbors, a group of Vikings who had settled near their lands, Brina was filled with dread. Every time they fought, she feared her da would be injured or killed. Since she had seen him fall from his horse in a vision hours before it could have happened, she feared what would become of the clan under Seamus’s rule. And what would become of her.
    Her da was a difficult man to live with, his temper triggered by anything—but it was the man he had taken into the clan that she dreaded most since her da had declared Seamus would marry her when it was time. If her da had truly died and not just been injured in the vision she’d seen, she knew Seamus would force the marriage as soon as he could.
    She had hoped the time would never come. That instead, Seamus would fall in battle.
    But she was always packed and ready for the eventuality because as her da grew older, it was inevitable. Could she escape the confines of the castle without anyone being aware of it though? That was her biggest fear. Seamus would want to kill her, she was certain, if he should catch her stealing away.
    She finished her duties downstairs, supervising the kitchen staff and then the rest of the household staff for hours, before she headed up to her bedchamber to make last minute preparations to leave.
    She had every intention of doing so and finding her way to her mother’s family—the MacAffin, who had allied themselves with the MacNeills. Making it there by herself would not be easy, but she was bound and determined to do it. And hope they would take her in and not return her to her da for his disposition, believing he might still be alive, and she was his responsibility.
    She had just reached her bedchamber when she felt the strangest sensation of falling. Her arm burning, she was lying on top of a man garbed in furs, his beautiful blue eyes staring back at her. He looked shocked and then his very kissable mouth curved up just a hint.
    Where had she seen those beautiful blue eyes before? Like a brilliant sky after a refreshing rainstorm?
    She came back to her senses and realized she was having another vision.
    Who was the man? She’d never seen him before. Yet there was a vague familiarity about him nudging at some distant memory—his eyes that had held her hostage and wouldn’t let go. Because of the vision, she suspected their paths would collide when she escaped the castle. Would it be a good thing or not? She couldn’t get the vision of his blue eyes out of her thoughts when she heard the men returning then to the castle, horses’ hooves pounding the ground in the inner bailey, shouts for