Read Online By Loch and by Lin by Sorche Nic Leodhas - Free Book Online

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    At first Glenlion could not bring himself to believe that her love could not be won by him. But when he found out that it was true, his pride was sorely wounded to find himself so disdained by the lady he’d chosen to wed. If he had been able to get so much as a smile or a kindly look from her, at least he could have hoped. But though he waited and sighed and followed her about for months on end, de’il a bit of a smile or a look of kindness did he get in all that time to ease his pride or his heart. When at last he stopped to consider the time he had spent trying to win her favor, and all of it wasted, it was too much for his hot Highland blood. The worst of it was that the lass did not just snub him. She overlooked him, as if she did not know he was there. Whenever he came near her, she looked straight by him, as if she did not see him, and away she’d sweep on the arm of Johnnie Hay.
    As might have been expected, there came a day when the Laird of Glenlion decided that he had had enough of being slighted. It was beyond bearing, he told himself, and he was the man to put a stop to the silly lass’s nonsense. “Whether she will or no,” he vowed to himself, “Bonnie Baby Livingston is going to be my wife!”
    By some strange trick of fate, that was the very day when Baby slipped away from her friends and walked out of the town by herself to watch the country folk making hay. And along the road on his tall black steed, the Laird of Glenlion came. To his joy and surprise, who did he see walking along before him but Bonnie Baby Livingston, all by herself alone.
    He spurred up his horse and dashed to her side and swept her up into his arms. Before she could catch her breath or call for help, he had set her before him on his steed and galloped off at top speed. Alas for Bonnie Baby Livingston! The Laird of Glenlion had stolen her away.
    He took away her silken coat and he took away her satin gown, and he rolled her up in his tartan plaid, and wrapped her closely round and round. In the curve of his arm he held her tight and she could not move nor turn. He would not let her speak a word, nor look back at the road by which they came. The black horse sped along like the wind over hill and dale and down, till they came to a Highland glen, where they met with Glenlion’s brother Jock with twenty armed men.
    â€œCome, brother, turn back,” Glenlion said. “Tomorrow will be my wedding day, and you must stand as my best man when this bonnie lady and I are wed.”
    Then Jock turned his horse about, and back he rode at Glenlion’s side, and ten armed men before them rode and ten armed men behind.
    They came through the glen to the top of a hill where Glenlion stopped, and bade Baby look down. There was a wide green brae below with many cows and sheep.
    â€œThere’s a hundred cows grazing there, and a hundred ewes beside,” he said. “And they all belong to me.”
    But Baby was so weighed down with woe that she would not turn her head around to look down the wide green brae.
    Then Glenlion bent down and kissed her cheek. “I’ll give you all these cows and all these ewes, and more beside,” said he, “for only a single kindly look or a smile from your bonnie blue eyes.”
    â€œYou may keep all your cows and all your ewes for yourself,” said Bonnie Baby Livingston. “And you’ll get no kindly look and no smile from my eyes unless you take me home again and set me down safe in Dundee.”
    â€œDundee, Baby? Dundee, Baby?” Glenlion said, with a laugh of scorn. “Dundee you’ll never see, till I’ve carried you to Glenlion castle and you are wedded to me. We’ll bide a bit at Auchingour to sup on sweet milk and cheese, then off to Glenlion castle we’ll ride, where you shall become my bonnie bride.”
    â€œI will not stop at Auchingour!” cried Baby. “I want no milk or cheese. To Glenlion I