Read Online Land of Heart's Desire by Catherine Airlie - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Catherine Airlie
Ads: Link
handful of fishermen who still used it. They were the islanders’ rights. The very term accentuated the fact. A public right of way—a path over which no one had absolute control!
He must not be allowed to do it! Without stopping to think, without taking any other factor into consideration, she marched angrily on up the path until she reached the offending notice and, without a moment’s hesitation, tore down the warning and dropped it on the turf beside the stile.
The stile itself was no obstacle to her. She negotiated it easily and strode on to the top of the cliff. How dared he! she fumed. Did he honestly think he could do these things and get away with them, even if he had bought Ardtornish a thousand times over? This was the road MacNeills had taken to Scoraig for hundreds of years!
“Hi, there!”
The sound of a human voice was the last thing she had expected to hear. She half turned and saw him, but already she had determined not to stop. Had he been waiting—spying—to make sure that the entire populace of the island obeyed his arbitrary command?
Finlay Sutherland hailed her for a second time. His voice was sharper now, less friendly, and he strode swiftly across the field where he had been re-loading his gun. She wondered vaguely if he would shoot to kill.
But this was really no laughing matter. She meant to show him in no uncertain manner that he couldn’t do as he liked on Croma.
“Come back! Hi, there, you little fool! Come back!”
The words, carried clearly on the wind, stung her, but she would not wait. He had no right, either, to treat her like an erring child. Little fool, indeed!
Her breath began to come more quickly as she increased her pace, walking rapidly uphill. It would be undignified to run, she decided, but she meant to let him see that she had no intention of turning back.
It was then that she realized that he was running. He had dropped his gun and vaulted the stile before she had quite reached the cliff face, and he was close behind her when she turned round to accuse him.
They were both breathing hard, but instead of the anger which she had expected to see in his green eyes there was insistency and what might have been the reflection of fear.
He did not speak. Perhaps he knew that she was going to argue, to make a scene, so instead he bundled her into his arms and marched with her back along the narrow pathway to the stile.
Before he put her down on the far side she had a moment’s awful fear that he was about to put her over his knee and smack her soundly, as if she had indeed been a disobedient, wilful child. His green eyes were blazing with anger now and his firm mouth was grimly compressed. Then, as if he had seen a suddenly amusing side to the situation, he laughed.
“I’ve never wished for a hairbrush more in all my life!” he said.
He was still holding her firmly by the arms, and he shook her scornfully before he let her go.
Dazed and bewildered by the rapid turn of events, she could do nothing but stare back at him, hating him for the swift humiliation he had thrust upon her, for the way in which he had taken the law into his own hands for a second time.
“You’re a—barbarian!” she fumed.
“And you are a minx—nothing more, nothing less,” he told her calmly, picking up his gun.
“I’m not a child!” she protested angrily. “And that path is a public one. You had no right to close it—no right whatever! There’s been a cliff road round the island for hundreds of years. It goes through MacNeill property, too, and I defy you to restrict it for any whim of your own!”
The laughter died out of his eyes as swiftly as it had come. Without speaking, without stooping to argument, he took her firmly by the elbow and led her forcibly back down the path towards the shore.
Above them as they walked the high red cliff scowled down, like beetling brows arched above a rugged face, but here and there great gaps had been torn in it close under the headland.
He must not be allowed to do it! Without stopping to think, without taking any other factor into consideration, she marched angrily on up the path until she reached the offending notice and, without a moment’s hesitation, tore down the warning and dropped it on the turf beside the stile.
The stile itself was no obstacle to her. She negotiated it easily and strode on to the top of the cliff. How dared he! she fumed. Did he honestly think he could do these things and get away with them, even if he had bought Ardtornish a thousand times over? This was the road MacNeills had taken to Scoraig for hundreds of years!
“Hi, there!”
The sound of a human voice was the last thing she had expected to hear. She half turned and saw him, but already she had determined not to stop. Had he been waiting—spying—to make sure that the entire populace of the island obeyed his arbitrary command?
Finlay Sutherland hailed her for a second time. His voice was sharper now, less friendly, and he strode swiftly across the field where he had been re-loading his gun. She wondered vaguely if he would shoot to kill.
But this was really no laughing matter. She meant to show him in no uncertain manner that he couldn’t do as he liked on Croma.
“Come back! Hi, there, you little fool! Come back!”
The words, carried clearly on the wind, stung her, but she would not wait. He had no right, either, to treat her like an erring child. Little fool, indeed!
Her breath began to come more quickly as she increased her pace, walking rapidly uphill. It would be undignified to run, she decided, but she meant to let him see that she had no intention of turning back.
It was then that she realized that he was running. He had dropped his gun and vaulted the stile before she had quite reached the cliff face, and he was close behind her when she turned round to accuse him.
They were both breathing hard, but instead of the anger which she had expected to see in his green eyes there was insistency and what might have been the reflection of fear.
He did not speak. Perhaps he knew that she was going to argue, to make a scene, so instead he bundled her into his arms and marched with her back along the narrow pathway to the stile.
Before he put her down on the far side she had a moment’s awful fear that he was about to put her over his knee and smack her soundly, as if she had indeed been a disobedient, wilful child. His green eyes were blazing with anger now and his firm mouth was grimly compressed. Then, as if he had seen a suddenly amusing side to the situation, he laughed.
“I’ve never wished for a hairbrush more in all my life!” he said.
He was still holding her firmly by the arms, and he shook her scornfully before he let her go.
Dazed and bewildered by the rapid turn of events, she could do nothing but stare back at him, hating him for the swift humiliation he had thrust upon her, for the way in which he had taken the law into his own hands for a second time.
“You’re a—barbarian!” she fumed.
“And you are a minx—nothing more, nothing less,” he told her calmly, picking up his gun.
“I’m not a child!” she protested angrily. “And that path is a public one. You had no right to close it—no right whatever! There’s been a cliff road round the island for hundreds of years. It goes through MacNeill property, too, and I defy you to restrict it for any whim of your own!”
The laughter died out of his eyes as swiftly as it had come. Without speaking, without stooping to argument, he took her firmly by the elbow and led her forcibly back down the path towards the shore.
Above them as they walked the high red cliff scowled down, like beetling brows arched above a rugged face, but here and there great gaps had been torn in it close under the headland.
Similar Books
