Read Online Highland Dragon by Kimberly Killion - Free Book Online

again.
    “The fourth language ye heard, my sisters and I made up when we were younger. Only my family understands it.”
    “How did ye come by your education?” Calin asked, though he already knew the answer.
    “When I was eight, Kendrick sent me to Beauly Priory.”
    “Nay,” Kendrick corrected. “’Twas your benefactor who sent ye there. Not I.”
    Only after giving Kendrick a sour look of disgust, did Akira return her attention to him. “As I was saying, my benefactor sent me to the priory in Inverness. Sister Esa taught me to read and write when I was just eight. When the Prioress gave me reprieve from kitchen duties, I studied in the library. After nigh two years, the Abbot nay longer felt I deserved the same education as those who had taken their vows and assigned me to the stables. I borrowed a few books and came home.”
    “A few?” Kendrick interrupted in an accusatory tone. “Ye pulled a cart behind that auld nag ye brought home.”
    “Mayhap more then,” she confessed. “Ye shouldnae complain. I taught ye to read and write from those books. Besides, they werenae using them at the priory, and my benefactor sent ample funds for my education which the Abbot spent on frivolous luxuries for himself. Nay mon o’ God needs gold rings to adorn every finger or whisky to fill his cupboards.”
    “Books werenae all ye stole.”
    “I dinnae steal anything.” Akira sternly corrected Kendrick then threw a berry at him for emphasis. “My benefactor sent those monies for my education, not for the Abbot to purchase a gold crucifix encrusted with diamonds and rubies. In my way o’ thinking, that crucifix belonged to my family, whom if ye will recall, was starving in ninety-four.”
    “Akira came tottering home with the Abbot’s crucifix twinkling ’round her neck.”
    “Ye stole the Abbot’s finery?” Calin asked, not sure if he was appalled or proud.
    “I made her return it when I took her back to the priory,” Kendrick interjected. “But—”
    “I returned home two months later with a herd of sheep, a couple of fence dogs, and a few more books.”
    “When ye were a lass o’ ten?” Calin questioned, not believing his ears. The Abbot never once mentioned this, and Calin had sent monies for five consecutive years to the Beauly Priory.
    “I had help from two o’ the lay brothers. It took us six sennights to guide that herd home.”
    The memory even received a chuckle from Kendrick. “A sight to make your eyes laugh. Akira atop her palfrey leadin’ a nayin’, bell-ringin’ herd of at least a hundred sheep down the dirt path o’ Dalkirth. The village sounded like an English court full o’jesters.”
    “The Abbot wasted the monies, and I was teaching Sister Esa more than she was teaching me.” Akira defended, then explained further to Calin. “Ye see, as punishment for taking the crucifix, the Abbot refused the sisters to educate me, all the while, my family was trying to get broth from a turnip. The Ionas’ ribs were near to poking through their skin when Kendrick made me go back to the priory the second time. Our borders fell into the hands of reivers that year, since half our kinsmen were off on some foolish exploit to regain the Earldom of Ross from King James. Their absence left our borders unprotected. After four raids, the villagers of Dalkirth and my family were starving.”
    “So ye stole from the Abbot to feed your clan.” He should’ve been angry with her, but the fact she held such compassion for her people not only pleased him, but filled him with pride. This quality would be well-received by the MacLeods.
    “I would have if The Beast hadnae slaughtered the herd after a fortnight.”
    “The Beast?” Calin questioned, although he had a hunch who The Beast was.
    “Our chieftain—The Beast of Brycen. He slaughtered the whole herd for his warriors, because nay one would reveal where they came from. The bastard even wasted their wool.” Akira’s eyes lit with contempt,