Read Online WINDDREAMER by Charlotte Boyett-Compo - Free Book Online

was gone.
    "Let's get going before the sun sets," Duncan warned. "I've no desire to be tramping out there in those caves after dark."

    * * * *
    Storm had saddled Seachange, Conar's black steed, and Duncan's piebald was ready for him also. Riding out of the bailey, the two men had to skirt crumbled stone and stray timber before making their way to the road leading south beyond the keep.
    "How far is the cave?" Conar asked.
    "Two, maybe three miles."
    Conar looked at his brother. "Why didn't you just put the women on your horse and lead it to Ivor?"
    Duncan shook his head. "I wanted to see you first. The women could have been looking for someone not loyal to the Wind Force. I wanted to make sure before I brought a nest of vipers into the keep."
    The men traveled nearly thirty minutes in the buffeting rain and sleet. They were drenched, their hair plastered about their damp faces. The protection of oilskins had done precious little to keep them warm and both men shivered.
    Rounding a bend, Conar barely made out the figures of two women, trudging forward from out of the drenching rain.
    "That's them," Duncan said.
    One woman's head came up. She instantly put out a hand to stop the shorter woman at her side. Before either Duncan or Conar could call out, the women disappeared into the trees.
    "A bit skittish, they are," Duncan informed Conar. "The young one didn't say a solitary word." He put a finger to his ear and made circles in the air. "A bit of brain parts missing, I believe." He looked away from Conar and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Ho, there! It's Duncan! I've come with help, Miladies!"
    Conar saw a pale face peer out from behind a scrub oak tree. The woman studied them as they cantered toward her hiding place. Conar stilled his mount. Squinting, he realized she looked familiar.
    "Where were they heading, Duncan?"
    "Ivor." Duncan dismounted. "She was looking for her husband."
    Smiling, Conar swung his leg over his steed's head and slid to the ground. After tying Seachange's reins to a jutting low branch, he called out to the woman.
    "Mary van de Lar?" He felt Duncan's surprised glance. "It's me, Conar."
    The woman stepped cautiously out from behind the tree, putting up a hand to shield her eyes. "Your Grace? Is that you?"
    Conar laughed. "Aye, Milady. It's me."
    The woman beckoned her companion out of the trees.
    Duncan put his hands on his hips. "Is there a woman in Serenia you do not know, Conar?"
    "Very few." Conar hurried forward to meet the women.
    Following, Duncan snorted when the older woman sank gracefully to a deep curtsy, her head bowed.
    Conar gripped her arms and pulled her to her feet. "I'll have none of that." He hugged the woman. After kissing her cheek, he looked at the younger woman, cowering, head down, trembling with the cold and rain. "Jenny?"
    The girl lifted her head a fraction. A brilliant smile lit her face.
    "Do you remember him, Jenny?" Mary van de Lar asked.

    ----
    Jenny van de Lar was in her early twenties, a pretty blond lass with pale azure eyes and long hair twined in two thick braids that reached to her hips. She stood not more than five feet tall, and possessed dainty features, long golden-brown lashes and a pert, upturned nose. Her complexion in the rain appeared a creamy ivory with just a hint of rosy blush at her cheek from likely both the chill and the excitement touching her pretty eyes. This was a woman who turned heads wherever she went, but her innocent, child-like actions seemed those of the little girl.
    She came to her mother's side and stared at the smiling man, gazing back at her with such beautiful dark eyes. I know this man, Mama, she thought. I know him well. I have dreamed of him all my life.
    She scanned his face, her smile becoming tremulous at the sight of the vivid scars on the man's left cheek. In her child's mind, he was all there had been in life worth living for, and to see him before her after all these years, was like a miracle. She walked past her mother and