by Sky Winters
“Thank you so much!” Anna told her, taking her food over to the large flat rock and sitting down to eat. She had never tasted food like this before. It was quite delicious, full of unusual spices and consistencies. She had forgotten how hungry she had gotten and was done with the food in no time. She swilled down the last of her milk and sat looking around at the people working on various things around her. Feeling quite gluttonous, she took her empty vessels over to the edge of the water and began rinsing them in the flowing stream. Rory met her as she returned.
“Feel better now?” he asked.
“Yes. I feel almost like a person again,” she told him, smiling.
“Good. I found you someplace to stay. We will need to do some work to it today, but it will be yours for as long as you need it,” he told her.
“That’s great!” Anna told him, following him in the direction he motioned. She found herself standing in a run down little shack built with various branches and sticks. The floor was dirt and the wind whistled through it, but it seemed fairly sturdy.
“My friend, Haggis, built this for himself. He wasn’t quite done when we lost him. Quite the charmer, he was. It is only fitting that a damsel in distress take it over for him,” Rory said, the half-smile on his face very telling as to his affection for his lost friend.
“What happened to him?” she asked thoughtfully.
“An unfortunate hunting accident,” he replied with a grimace. “Anyway, let’s get this place set up for you. I’ll mix up some clay to fill in the holes for you so that you aren’t chilled to the bone. I have some blankets and extra things you can use inside. Of course, you are always welcome to borrow anything of mine that you need. I only request that you ask first and return promptly.”
“This is all so nice of you. I don’t know how I will ever repay you,” she replied.
“Just find some peace. That will be good enough for me,” he told her.
“I will do my best,” she replied.
“Okay, there is a broom and some old potato sacks over by where you got the porridge from May. I suggest you sweep out the debris from the floor and line it with the sacks to make it a little more habitable in there. Though you might want to hold up on the sacks until after we have filled the holes. Some clay is bound to escape inside as we work,” he told her.
“I’ll just sweep and then help you with the holes before I worry about the sacks,” she told him.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” he replied.
They both left the small hut. Murdina retrieved the broom while he mixed clay over near the river. By the time he returned, with two large buckets in hand, she had finished cleaning up a bit inside and was waiting, ready to apply the mud to her new home.
“Have you ever done this before?” he asked.
“No, never,” she admitted.
“You just scoop up the clay with your hand and smooth it into the cracks in the branches. The more we can cover, the warmer it will be in there for you. Watch me,” he told her, dipping one of his large hands into the bucket and slapping a healthy bit of the mud onto the branches. He smeared it all around, letting it pack into the cracks between the branches. Murdina followed suite, though her hands were much smaller. The branches scraped at her delicate skin as she worked, but she ignored the pain and tried to do her part as best she could.
After several more trips to the river for more clay and hours of working side by side, the hut was finally done. The two of them stood back, looking at it as it stood drying in the sun. Murdina felt quite proud of herself as she took in her handiwork. While it dried, she ducked inside and swept out the clay that had dripped onto the floor below before it could harden there. Afterward, she lined the inside with the potato sacks and retrieved some rocks to hold some of the edges down so that they didn’t shift about.
“Looks better already,” Rory told her as he stepped inside. “Where do you want your cot?”
“Cot?” she asked.
“Yes. I can’t very well leave a lady to sleep on the ground on sacks. I have some spare wood by my place. I can build you a simple cot to sleep on. You’ll find it much more comfortable,” he told her.
“I feel like you have done so much for me already,” she told him.
“I don’t mind. Come on and help me carry some of this over,” he told her.
Anna followed him over to where the rocks rose further up to a taller cliff on one side of the ones they were on. She watched as he stepped inside a cave entrance and then followed him inside and down a narrow passageway between two stone cave walls. Much to her surprise, it opened back up into a massive cathedral where he had set up his living quarters.
“This is incredible!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, it is,” he replied, gathering up some animal skins and wool blankets to hand to her.
“Do you live here alone?’ she asked, hoping it didn’t seem too personal.
“I do. I always have. I found this place a long time ago, when I first happened upon this clearing in the woods and the cliffs. In fact, I almost went right over the cliffs on my way through the woods that surrounded them. Injured my horse trying to pull back at the last moment and had to stay for a while to let him heal. There was nothing here and it was cold out. I found the entrance to the cave and initially holed up in the passageway. It wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered the rest. There is a lot more to it. I will show you one day when we have more time,” he told her, handing her a drinking vessel, some gourds and a length of twine.
“Gourds?” she said quizzically.
“You’ll see. Take that stuff back to your hut and I’ll be there soon with the wood and tools to build your cot,” he told her. Anna nodded and left with the armload of things he had given her. The camp was beginning to get a bit fuller with people she assumed were returning from elsewhere. Several of them looked at her curiously as she passed, and a few greeted her politely or introduced themselves. She had to admit she felt a bit awkward here among strangers as she ducked into her hut to hide out until Rory arrived. He was only minutes behind her.
“Let’s get this done. It is getting late and I want to start a boar on the spit for our dinner,” he replied.
“Our dinner?” she replied.
“Yes, unless you are planning on going out and slaying game of your own, I expected we would eat together,” he told her.
“I am afraid I lack any hunting skills,” she told him.
“I am not surprised. They don’t usually teach such things to royalty,” he replied.
“Royalty?” she said, her heart suddenly beating rapidly in her chest.
“Yes. You didn’t really think I didn’t know who you are, did you, Murdina?” he said with a smile.
“Are you going to send me back to my brother?” she asked fearfully.
“No. Your brother is a monster. I know that he was trying to wed you to Lord Cannon. Both of their reputations are known far and wide and you will find that no one here supports them. However, it would be best that you keep your identity between the two of us. No one here would try to ransom or reward you back to him, but we do have some people who talk too much. I don’t think any of them will recognize you on their own,” he said.
“How did you?” she asked him.
“Let’s just say I’ve spent a great deal of time in the kingdom bartering without being noticed. You are not the only one your brother would like to see come to a miserable end,” he said.
“Thank you, Rory. It means a lot to me that you would help me even knowing that I lied to you and that I have such a terrible sibling on my trail,” she said.
“He and his knights do not frighten us and we won’t let them frighten you either as long as you are here,” he replied. Murdina stood there with tears falling down her face. It felt good to be safe and not scared of him finding out about her and sending her away. Relief truly washed over her as he pulled her to him and held her close, smoothing her hair with his broad hands. She jerked away as they were int
errupted by one of the men in the camp clearing his throat in the doorway.
“You need help, Rory?” he asked.
“That would be great,” Rory replied, not bothering to explain why she had been in his arms. “Duncan, this is Anna. She will be staying with us for a while. There are some men following her and if they are stupid enough to follow her here, I will need help in making sure she is kept safe. I need that kept between us.”
“Understood,” Duncan replied before turning toward her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Anna. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“Pleasure is all mine. Thank you, Duncan,” she replied. Wiping the last of her tears away, she moved to one side while the two men began working on a bed for her. It didn’t take long for them to finish it, leaving her a sturdy wooden frame with a heavy animal fur suspended firmly in its center. It would be warm and comfortable.
“That all you need? Duncan asked Rory.
“Can you slap me together a small table for the other side for her?” Rory asked.
“Better than that. I have one already built that I was going to barter. I’ll give her that one and make another in the morning,” he said.
“I don’t have anything to pay you with,” Anna interjected.
“You’ve no need to pay me. We work together here. At some point, I’ll need a favor and when I do, I trust I can ask you,” he said with a smile before saying a farewell.
“Let’s get these gourds up,” Rory said, using a sharp pointed piece of metal to poke holes near the top and string the chord through them. She watched as he suspended them from the entrance to the hut, getting them into place just before Duncan returned with the table. He cursed as they clacked all around his head when he entered. Rory laughed and looked at her. “And that is what you need gourds for. We will have to find you a makeshift door of some sort. In the meantime, you’ll know if anyone tries to come in before they get to you. More importantly, the people around you will know, as well.”
Duncan sat the table to one side of the hut and rubbed his head where the gourds had hit it. “Is this a good place?” he asked her.
“It’s perfect. Thank you, Duncan,” she replied. He nodded and left the hut.
“Alright, I’m going to get to work on that pig. Settle in the best you can with what you have to work with and I’ll be back to fetch you in a while. You have a bed and covers now, so if you just want to stretch out and rest for a while, you are safe and can do that. I promise no one will harm you here,” he told her.
“Thank you again, Rory. I just don’t know how I will ever be able to thank you enough for all you are doing for me,” she replied.
“You have been greatly wronged, your highness. I promise you that not only will I keep you safe, I will see to it that you are returned to your rightful place,” he told her.
“Perhaps my rightful place wasn’t in a palace, after all,” she replied. “I think you might want to just stick with calling me Anna. I might well become a permanent name for me.”
“We will see, Anna,” he said with a smile before leaving, carefully navigating the long strand of gourds to one side as he went out.
Anna looked around at her sparse accommodations. It wasn’t much, but it beat sleeping out in the woods with the insects and wild animals like she had expected to when she had left the palace. She lay the covers across her bed and placed the drinking vessel on the table before climbing beneath them and falling into an exhausted sleep. When she awoke, it was just beginning to get dark outside and it had cooled considerably from the warm day. Stepping outside, she found a pile of things sitting at her hut door.
“They are gifts from the camp,” Duncan told her. She had not even seen him standing nearby and the sound of his voice startled her. “I didn’t mean to alarm you. We have a patrol that begins as night falls. There are always a few of us keeping an eye on camp once the daylight passes. There are few that dare venture into these parts, but we like to be prepared. Anyway, those things are yours to keep.”
“I can’t believe how kind everyone here is,” she told him.
“We can be as brutal as we are kind. We believe that you reap what you sow here,” he told her. Anna merely nodded, not sure how she should respond to that. She busied herself retrieving the items that had been left for her as he made his way to elsewhere in the camp. There were pots, pans, trinkets and even food. A tightly wound cloth revealed assorted dried jerky and fruit. Another revealed hard bread and a jar full of some sort of jam. There was even a simple dress, a much needed one at that. She only had the one she was wearing and it wasn’t her own. She had traded her own dress to a stable boy for the horse and his riding clothes.
“Anna?” she heard Rory call from outside the hut.
“Come in, Rory,” she replied. He stepped through, pushing the gourds to one side and smiled at her.
“I see the village has left their customary welcome gifts,” Rory laughed, looking at the table’s contents.
“Yes. Everyone is so wonderful here,” she replied.
“They are, for the most part. I’d avoid the widow O’Connor for a bit. She is a hopelessly bitter woman, but a sublime seamstress. I’d wager it is she that left you the dress,” he said, motioning toward the garment she had lain across the bed.
“I’ll keep that in mind, though I would like to thank her for the dress,” she replied.
“I’ve got the pig on the spit and need to get back to it. Would you like to join me and talk for a bit while it cooks?” he asked.
“I would love to,” she replied, walking toward him. He turned to leave and she followed him out. Rather than making a beeline to the spit, he stopped off and introduced her to several of the other people that lived in the camp. She could see others watching them from a distance, no doubt wondering who she was and where she had come from.
“Where were you before you came here?” she asked him as they sat looking into the fire.
“My family had a village not far from here. We lived in peace while your father was alive, but after he passed, your brother wanted us off the land. He had his knights come to our village in the night and burn it down, murdering anyone that might oppose them. Those of us that managed to escape or fight our way out survived in the woods for a while before coming here. I found this place and then sought out other survivors to join me here,” he said.
“You are the highland rebels!” Anna suddenly exclaimed, only just now making the connection.
“Is that what they call us in the kingdom?” he laughed. “Rebels? It wasn’t us that started this.”
“Then why would you shelter me? We are enemies,” she said.
“We are not enemies. Your brother is my enemy and he is just as much an enemy to you. Do you know why he wanted to marry you off to Lord Cannon?’ he asked.
“To be rid of me, no doubt. He has kept me under lock and key out of his way since our father died. It was his way of being done with me once and for all without having to actually kill me, though he would have been fine with it if Lord Cannon had chosen to do so,” she replied.
“Perhaps that is true, but it is not the main reason. He wanted more land. Land he couldn’t just take from an unsuspecting clan of Highlanders. Lord Cannon agreed to sell him the land he wanted in exchange for you,” he told her.
“What? Why? Lord Cannon could choose from any woman in the kingdom,” she replied.
“All but one. He couldn’t just choose you and you have something very valuable to him,” he replied.
“I have nothing special,” she said.
“You have royal blood. Marrying you, makes him family and there are a lot of advantages to that sort of leverage. There is even more of it if you conceive a royal heir to the throne,” he said, watching her eyes widen.
“Never! I’d rather die first!” she said.
“Yes, I saw that on the cliffs. It is how I knew you were worth saving,” he said softly.
Anna remained quiet, looking into the fire as the night fell around
them. It was a lot to digest, but she had no doubt that any of it was true. He brother was even more diabolical than she could have imagined, burning out an entire village just to take their land. She felt ashamed that this was the legacy for which her family would become known.
“I will never go back there,” she told Rory suddenly.
“That is up to you, but either way . . . your brother has to go. You understand that, don’t you?” he said.
“Yes, I do,” she replied.
“Good. Let’s eat and talk of something more pleasant. Would you like some wine?” he asked.
“Yes. I would love some!” she told him. It was considered unladylike for her to drink wine under her brother’s iron thumb, but here, the rules no longer applied. She and Rory sat by the fire eating sections of the perfectly roasted pig and drinking wine until they were full and a bit tipsy. No doubt their laughter could be heard all across the camp as they shared more pleasant stories of their childhoods.
“I guess I best get you back home,” he told her as the fire began to die out and it grew late.
“I suppose so,” she replied as she stood and held out a hand to help her up. Before she could register what was happening, he bent down and pulled her to him, kissing her passionately. No man had ever kissed her like that before and she felt that same shockwave she had when he had touched her earlier. She had only just met this man and in one day, he had saved her, given her shelter and made her feel more womanly than anyone ever had. She let out a deep sigh as he pulled away from her.
“I’m sorry. That was inappropriate,” he told her.
“I don’t mind,” she replied. He wasted no time in pulling her back to him and kissing her again. It made her insides quiver as she felt a sudden rush of heat spread through her body. Folded into his arms like this, she knew nothing could harm her. She felt safe and she felt wanted. Even more, she wanted him.
“Let me walk you back to your hut, before we do something we shouldn’t,” he said as he pulled himself away again.
She could tell he was as heated as she was. She didn’t want to go back to her but, but she knew it was best. She took his hand and they began walking back. He left her at the door with only a kiss on the cheek. Anna went inside and lay down, her thoughts jumbled with thoughts of what it might be like to make love to a man such as Rory. He was a Highlander, a fighter whose people were well known for their skill on the battlefront. There was no doubt that he could be as brutal as he needed to be, but that was hard to reconcile with the kindness and generosity he had shown her this day.
