Read Online Highland Thirst by Lynsay Sands, Hannah Howell - Free Book Online Page A

from the inn
and he did not know his cousin’s fate. Despite knowing he had had no choice,
had been a prisoner, had then needed to heal from days of torture, and had had
to wait for the right moment to escape the keep, Heming could not fully dismiss
a sense of guilt. He dared not think what his cousin had suffered or was still
suffering. That way lay madness. He could only hope that Tearlach had also
found someone with too kind a heart to allow such abuse.
    “They
have ridden away at last, mistress,” Colin told Brona.
    Brona
stood up from the pallet she had been sitting on. “For but a short hunt or a
long one?” she asked as she began to put away the chess pieces she and Heming
had been playing with.
    “Long
one,” replied Peter as he moved to his pallet and sat down. “A large force
left, but they split apart soon after they were out of the gates. Some ride to
your aunt’s, mistress, to be sure she didnae lie when she said ye werenae
there, or to see if ye have arrived there since last they went. Some go to a
place just o’er the border into England. Although what possesses the fools to
do that, I dinnae ken.”
    “They
probably return to the place I was taken from,” said Heming. “Was Hervey with
that group?”
    “Aye,
him and that swine Angus,” replied Peter.
    “I
suspicion they ride to the village where I and my cousin were taken prisoner.
My cousin is being held near there by a mon called Carbonnel.”
    “Weel,
ye will need help rescuing him from that Carbonnel fellow for the mon will soon
have some hard fighters added to whate’er men he already had guarding his
lands.”
    “Then
I had best go to Cambrun first and tell my kinsmen what has happened.”
    Colin
frowned. “Are they all like ye are?”
    Heming
sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. He had hesitated to tell his
companions much about himself or his kinsmen and they had asked few questions.
Yet, after spending five days with Brona Kerr, he was beginning to think she
was his mate. He ached for her and the heady taste of her was still a strong,
sweet memory. Everything about her held his interest, even when she argued with
him. He knew that if they had not been sharing their quarters with these men,
he would have been doing his utmost to make sure she was not sleeping alone. He
would have been heartily feeding that hunger she stirred within him.
    These
three men were her men, loyal unto death. They had also accepted his
having that taste of Brona. Since he had a growing hope of keeping his little
savior by his side, it was probably time that he ceased to hold so tightly to
all of his secrets.
    “Aye
and nay,” he replied. “I am what is referred to as a Halfling. Nay a kind term
as ye may be able to guess. Full-blooded MacNachtons are called Purebloods and
can be a little arrogant about it. My father is nearly a Pureblood, having only
a wee drop or two of Outsider blood, and my mother is an Outsider, a woman of
the Callan clan. Ere I was born our laird decided that we needed to marry
Outsiders for we were finding it difficult to remain hidden from the world and
we had ceased to breed. My father was the first child born to them in forty
years and he had but one child with an Outsider. We were slowly dying, like
some mythical creatures.”
    “We
are what ye are calling Outsiders, arenae we?” asked Brona, getting the
distinct feeling that with at least some of his clan that was a grave insult.
    “Aye,
and up until our laird made that decision we had as little to do with ye as
possible,” Heming said. “My mother’s clan has its own secrets. They are
descended from a druid shape-shifter, a woman who could become a cat. If ye met
her and her clan ye wouldnae finds that so hard to believe e’en though they
dinnae change anymore. Those qualities havenae all been bred out. We now think
that there will always be a bit of both in a Callan and MacNachton child, and
that all of what makes us MacNachtons willnae e’er disappear