Read Online To Love Again by Bertrice Small - Free Book Online Page A

from the unaccustomed exercise. She could only imagine how the older woman must feel. It had been a long time since Brenna had walked such a distance, and certainly never in such a precarious state of health.
    “Not far, my child. Your grandfather’s village is on the other side of this wood.”
    The forest began to thin out, and the sky was bright with color as they exited from the trees. Before them rose a small hill, and atop it was the Dobunni village. Suddenly a young man appeared before them. He had obviously been on watch, and was surprised to see someone out so early. Then his face lit with slow recognition.
    “Brenna!
Is it really you?”
    “It is I, Corio,” Brenna answered him, and her knees buckled beneath her.
    “Help me, sir!” Cailin cried, attempting to keep her grandmother in an upright position, but it was futile.
    Corio, after his initial amazement at seeing Brenna, jumped forward and caught the fainting woman up in his arms. “Follow me,” he told Cailin, and without so much as a backward glance at her, he ran up the hill.
    Cailin hurried behind him, her face creased with concern. Her curiosity was strong, however, and she noted that the hill was ringed with three stone walls. Behind the third wall, they entered into the village. Corio made directly for the largest house, and Cailin followed him through its entrance into a big hall. A woman, fully six feet tall and dressed in a deep blue tunic, came forward. She glanced briefly at Cailin, gave a start of recognition, then looked at the burden Corio carried.
    “It is Brenna, Grandmother, and she is injured,” Corio said.
    “Put her there, boy, on the bench by the fire pit,” the older woman commanded. “Then go and fetch my medicines.” She looked at Cailin. “Are you squeamish, or can you help?”
    “Tell me what you would have me do,” Cailin answered.
    “I am Ceara, Berikos’s first wife,” the tall woman said. “You are Kyna’s daughter, are you not? You look like her, yet there is something a bit different about you.”
    “Yes, I am Kyna’s daughter. My name is Cailin.” The girl’s eyes filled with tears. “Will Grandmother die?” she asked.
    “I do not know yet,” Ceara answered honestly. “What happened?”
    Cailin shook her head. “I do not know. I came home from the Beltane festival. The house was ablaze, and Grandmother had collapsed outside. She says my family is dead, but I know nothing more. She was insistent we come here. She would not even allow me to inform the authorities, or wait for the slaves to return from their holiday.”
    “
Berikos!
Brenna’s voice rasped harshly.
“I must speak with Berikos!”
She struggled to rise from the bench where she lay.
    “You must lie quietly, Brenna,” Ceara told her. “I will send for Berikos, but if you persist in this behavior, you will not live to tell him whatever it is you must tell him. Rest now.”
    “Ceara! What is this I hear? Brenna has returned?” Another woman, not quite as tall as Ceara, but taller than Cailin, joined them. She had the prettiest, sweetest face that Cailin could ever remember having seen. There was something familiar about it, and yet Cailin could not place it. That face was now puckered with distress as she bent over the half-conscious woman. Her blue eyes filled with tears.
“Brenna!
It really is you! Ohh, I never thought to see you again!”
    “Maeve,”
Brenna said softly, but Cailin heard the affection in her grandmother’s tone. “You are still a fool, I see.”
    Maeve bent down and kissed the injured woman’s brow. “And you are still stubborn and filled with pride, my sister.”
    “Sister?”
Cailin looked at Ceara.
    “Maeve is your grandmother’s younger sister. Did you not know that, child? No, I see you did not.”
    “Why does Grandmother call her a fool?” Cailin wondered, realizing that Maeve’s familiar face was a slightly younger version of Brenna’s.
    “Your grandmother and Berikos were not a good