Read Online Tess and the Highlander by May McGoldrick - Free Book Online Page A

visiting. He told me it
was common to dig and find two, or three bodies buried in the small
grave with only a layer of shell sand separating them.” Tess stayed
to the grassy path. “A few years back, I came upon some record
books in the old chapter house. I believe the monks who lived here
before left them. They are accounts of births and deaths on the
Isle of May going back some three hundred years.”
    The rugged terrain seemed too uninhabitable. “’Tis
hard to believe families actually lived here.”
    “I don’t believe any families did live here,” she
answered, turning her back to the wind and facing him. “Not for any
length of time, anyway. For all the years I looked back through in
the books, there was only a record of one birth, and that was
immediately followed by the woman’s and the child’s death. But
there were many, many deaths. I think most of the pilgrims who came
to visit St. Adrian’s chapel and monastery were very ill. Some
might have been cured and left here. But many died and were buried
on the island. The accounts of it seem to have stopped, though,
when the last of the monks was recalled to the mainland. Or perhaps
he died, too, because no one took the books with them.”
    Tess continued to talk, but Colin’s mind was focused
on what she had said about reading the account books. Reading . Not many families in Scotland taught their
daughters to read and write. The puzzle of her past continued to
intrigue him. He doubted that Garth and Charlotte would have been
able to read.
    As a light rain started to fall, they headed back
toward the huddle of ruined buildings.
    “Does the Crown own the island now?”
    “Nay, I remember Charlotte saying that St. Andrew’s
Cathedral Priory has held it for more than a century. Not that they
are doing anything about it.”
    “But they were the ones who sent the husband and
wife here, didn’t they?”
    “Aye.” Instead of going back inside, she turned her
steps toward the sheep.
    Colin followed. “Don’t you think they should be told
that Garth and Charlotte have passed away?”
    “I am doing everything that they were doing. The
place is not getting any worse because of me.” Tess searched among
the sheep.
    “I am not being critical of your abilities. What I
am trying to say is that a big part of the keeper’s job had to do
with taking care of the pilgrims that come here in the better
weather.”
    He watched Tess crouch before the ewe lying in the
grass.
    “What are you going to do when people arrive looking
for food and shelter? You told me yourself that most of them are
very ill. Now, how are you going to help them when you are hiding
in some cave across the island?” He didn’t give her a chance to
answer. “And if you were to show your face and try to help
them, how long do you think it will take before the news reaches
the abbot at St. Andrew’s?”
    Her head was bent over the pregnant ewe. She pushed
some oats toward the animal, but Makyn turned her head away. Tess
didn’t seem to have heard much of what Colin had been telling her.
The rain was starting to fall harder again, and the wind was
picking up. The hood of Tess’s cloak was pushed back and her hair
was gleaming from the rain. But despite it all, she was oblivious
to everything but the animal before her.
    Colin crouched beside her and pulled the hood over
her hair. He saw the slight tremble of Tess’s chin. “What is wrong
with her?”
    “I think she is ready to lamb.”
    “Now?”
    “’Tis nature’s way.”
    The sky overhead opened and buckets of rain started
pouring down. “Isn’t this something they do…on their own?”
    She gave a hesitant nod but didn’t move.
    “How long before…before she is done?”
    Tess shrugged. “It could be minutes, hours, or
days.”
    “Well, you are not sitting here and holding her foot
for days.”
    As if to contradict him, Tess settled more closely
against the animal and draped her cloak over the ewe. In a moment,
the rain had