Highlander´s Angel: A Historical Scottish Romance Novel

by Matie Cole

  “Oh dear, you are in a terrible state, my dear. I think it best you come with me,” the woman declared. “I will not leave you here knowing that you are struggling with something. It does not feel right.”

  “You... you will help me?” Maisie staggered to her feet, so surprised to have found someone nice. “Thank you.” Perhaps running away was not going to be such a terrifying situation after all. “Thank you so much.”

  The woman took Maisie’s arm and half carried her in the direction in which she was going, all while tugging a trailer filled with food items behind her. Maisie had no idea who this woman was or what she was doing, but she was happy to find out. Right now, she needed kindness more than ever.

  “This is my home,” the woman finally declared as she led Maisie inside. “Feel free to undress and change or do whatever it is you need to do. I will make the pair of us something hot to drink.”

  Maisie glanced down at her outfit. She was far more scruffy than she would have liked so she figured it time to change into her spare clothing already. She hoped that this kind stranger would eventually lead her to some water where she could wash everything as best as she could herself, something that she would have to learn as the time came, so that she could start to make a better impression on people.

  “You know, that is an interesting medallion,” the woman commented as Maisie took it off while she changed. “It looks like it has come from a very fine family. How did you come across it?”

  Maisie did not answer. She could not reveal her true identity for fear of people having already heard the rumors about her and despising her for it. Instead, she made some sort of mumbling sound, but said nothing. She knew from this moment, that wearing it so obviously around her neck was not going to work anymore though. Not if she wanted to remain hidden from prying eyes.

  So, as she dressed herself quickly, she hid the medallion, tucking it deep inside her sock, and back into her boot. She did not enjoy hiding her mother away, but it was for the best to keep her safe.

  “Here is the drink.” The woman handed it to her, and Maisie immediately found herself intoxicated by the smell. It was unlike anything that she had ever been given to drink before. “I hope you enjoy it. Please, as we drink, tell me more about yourself. I would love to be able to help you as much as I can.”

  Maisie wanted to open up to her new friend, but she was confused about how much she should share. She did not know how much it was alright to reveal about herself. She had grown up too sheltered and this stranger was filled with street smarts, that much was obvious to Maisie instantly.

  “Well, my name is Maisie,” she started as she glugged back a whole lot of the drink, she had become thirstier than she knew. And the drink was good. Better tasting than she expected. “And I have traveled far. I had to get away from my home, it was no longer viable for me to stay there...”

  “And the medallion?” The stranger was suspiciously interested in the medallion.

  “It is not valuable or anything like that,” Maisie giggled awkwardly. “My father simply made it for me when I was young...” She was still too tired. Maybe even a little dizzy. “To... to make me feel like a princess...”

  “And yet it looks so precious.” The woman was coming closer to Maisie now, but she was struggling to keep her eyes open so she could not work out why. “As does the food you have stashed in your bag. I spotted that right away. You have what I need, so unfortunately, I need to...”

  And that was the moment that Maisie felt a blinding pain to the right side of her head. One that came more than one time. It was too many times for words, the pain felt like it was shattering her brain, destroying the whole of her body, so she could not stop the world from going black.

  The first friend that she had made since running away was killing her, and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

  Chapter 3

  T he snake crept up on the woman, she knew that it was coming, but was somehow frozen to the spot, unable to move, much less escape it. It did not matter how much her brain screamed at her to move, she could not. Something had her fixed in place, just waiting for the venomous fangs to grab her.

  “Argh!” All of a sudden, a scream erupted as if from nowhere, shaking her chest, making it too painful for her to continue on with her eyes closed, attempting to block out the world. She prized her eyes apart and allowed the world to seep into her vision, allowing her to adjust to the lush green forest around her.

  “I am hurt,” she muttered to herself as she pressed in on her arms, feeling the bruises beginning to form there. “What happened to me? How did I end up here? Here in the middle of nowhere... with nothing...”

  The woman patted herself down and stared at every part of her surroundings, willing a memory to come back to her but there was nothing in her mind. It was like a big black hole. Nothing was there.

  “Who am I?” She staggered upwards to her feet, the pain radiating hotly all the way through her as she did. “What is my name? Where am I from? Has someone taken everything that I own?”

  As she attempted to walk, something sharp dug into her foot. Since the woman was already in more than enough pain and filled with enough stress to last a life time, since she did not know who she was, she sat backwards on the soft forest floor once more and slid off her boot. Inside her sock, she found a golden medallion. A jewel that seemed to be worth some serious money, but whoever the woman was, she knew that she was far too attached to the medallion to ever sell it. It meant something meaningful to her.

  “Who is this woman?” she asked herself as she stroked the face carved into the metal. “She is... important to me. I can feel it. Perhaps she is a family member. A mother of mine, maybe.”

  The woman was a stranger to herself, so she could not yet work out who the woman holding a rose was, but she was a special woman. She was someone who needed to be found.

  “This medallion...” the woman muttered to herself. “I need her. She will remind me of who I am.”

  She stood up once more, determined to remove herself from the forest, to return to civilization where someone would be able to help her. Since she was clearly no good to herself, and the raging pain inside of her skull was only getting worse, she had no choice but to utilize other people.

  “I have a feeling that I do not trust other people well,” she commented to herself. “But that is a personality trait of mine that I will need to overcome to survive. Otherwise I will be a stranger forever.”

  The woman staggered, the pain too much for her, until she found what looked like a crossroad. She could not explain it, even to herself, but something about taking the left-hand lane felt like trouble to her. She may well have not been able to recall any of her memories, but she knew that taking the left-hand path would take her into danger. There was still a gut instinct or perhaps a muscle memory which knew that would only take her somewhere bad. She could not stand any more trouble.

  “I do not know the right-hand path,” she muttered quietly to herself. “I do not believe that I have been that way before, but it is safer. Not knowing is better than knowing that I am headed into trouble.”

  As the woman walked, she muttered to herself, trying to work out who she was because she found the quiet of the forest eerie, but any noises that came from within its mysteries frightened her as well. Talking to herself was so much better than jumping every few seconds.

  Plus, it was not normal to wake up with no memories, just a feeling linked to a medallion. It did not feel right to have nothing going on inside her head. What could possibly cause such a sensation? For her to not even know her own name, her own story... it was as if a real trauma had overcome her.

  “What have I experienced?” she muttered to herself. “Who has done something to me? Why has my family not sought me out? It makes sense that I must live somewhere near here because this is where I have woken up, so soon I hope to find people and find those who know me. Someone has to know me.”

  She reasoned with herself th
at a woman cannot go through life without knowing anyone else, without having someone around to care for them. That was no life at all. She had surely had an impact on someone. On the woman with the rose. Otherwise why would she have something so precious?

  “I might be someone worthwhile,” she told herself hopefully. “Perhaps I come from a wealthy family. Maybe I am even a princess... or perhaps I am the daughter of a poorer family, but one that is filled with love. Either way, I would much rather be with other people than here. I do not like being alone.” She chuckled to herself, but it was a mirthless sound that she had simply forced out in an attempt to make herself feel better. “I might not know my name, but I know that I do not like being by myself.”

  It was not much information, but for a person who had absolutely nothing, it meant a lot. It was a piece of information that the woman knew she could hold on to until she had something else.

  “A river...” The woman was surprised to see a river. She could not ever remember spending time by trickling water before, not even in the depths of herself, there was no flicker of anything, which had the woman intrigued. The sound of the tinkling water intoxicated her and made her feel safe. “What is it about you, river? Why can I feel alright by your side, when really nothing is well? It makes no sense.” She took a seat on the riverbank and lost herself in the tinkling ripples. “I do not know who I am, I have no idea where I am going and who I might be looking for, and the pain in my head and the rest of my body is making it impossible for me.” She sighed heavily. “I have a feeling that I have been through something terrible. But why can I not remember it? Why do I not know anything about who I have always been?”

  The emotions really started to get to the woman. She could hardly handle it. As she leaned forward, she stared at her own reflection, discovering an image of a woman that had to be herself but that she did not recognize at all. Not knowing who she was pained her. So much that she could not stop the tears from pouring down her face. The woman watched herself cry, it was awful, but she could not help it.

  “What... what has happened to me?” she asked herself. “Why am I here? Why do I know nothing?”

  Her head fell into her hands and the sobs rocketed through her body. This made it even more painful, but the flood gates of crying had opened now and there was no way of closing them. The tears were not going to stop coming no matter what she did. Whether this was normal for her, whether she was the sort of person who cried a lot or not... well that was simply something that she did not know.

  “Who are you?” she cried out to the medallion. To the woman pictured there. “Please, brain, please tell me who this woman is. I need to know, I have to figure it out. What is the significance of the rose? Is there a significance? I do not know. I cannot keep fighting when I do not know which way to go.”

  She slumped forwards to the floor. She leaned her head on the ground, banging her forehead on the floor to see if that would bring anything back, but the only thing that brought with it was more pain. It made her sleepy again. Unusually sleepy. For a moment, she wondered if that was a sensation she had experienced before, it felt like she had already been made to feel unnaturally woozy previously... but before she could grasp on to that memory and make it something real, it slipped through her grasp like grains of sand. No matter how much she wanted to curl her fingers around and grab on to it, she could not.

  “I cannot keep fighting this battle,” she muttered quietly. “I cannot win with nothing.”

  Her eyes were flickering shut once more, her body giving up on everything that was happening around her. With no solution and nowhere to go, the woman simply wanted to remain by the river where she felt an intense sense of safety. The water would protect her somehow, it would ensure that whatever happened when she woke up would be better than before. It would save her from any danger...

  Only as she slipped back into sleep, she found herself vulnerable to everything. She did not see the snake again, but she could feel it, she could sense it, it was in the same vicinity as her. The snake wanted her dead, it wanted to eat her alive. The snake was her enemy for sure.

  “Do not kill me,” she heard her own voice screaming out in her dream, but it did not seem to be coming from her lips. “I do not know who I am, much less why I deserve to be killed. Please, stop.”

  “Oh, you deserve it,” the snake hissed back. “You have forgotten because you do not want to accept who you are, what sort of person you are, but that does not mean you can escape it.”

  “I am… bad?” the woman asked. “But... but I do not feel bad. I feel like I am a good person. I feel it in the bottom of my stomach that I am not a bad person, that I have done nothing wrong.”

  “Then why are you alone?” the hissing continued. “Why do you have no one? People who do nothing wrong are surrounded by people, looked after by family, yet you are by yourself.”

  The snake was hissing out the words of her deepest fears, allowing her to really experience the thoughts that she wanted to push to one side. Her subconscious was not letting her get away from that.

  “You sense trauma in your life,” the snake continued. “You know deep down that things are not right. You wish to be saved, you want a knight on a white horse to rescue you, but that will not happen. Only the worthy get saved, not those with no names who have destroyed everything around them...”

  “Destroyed?” she muttered, terrified. “Ruined? Killed? What have I done? Who have I hurt? Why do I need to escape?” The snake would not tell her, it enjoyed the torture. “What is going on here?”

  The woman curled into herself, sobbing as she slept, she was so afraid that everything her mind was telling her was the truth. That the snake with its poisonous fangs was in fact just the truth of her past coming to catch her. If she was on the run, then what was she running from? And how would she survive?

  Chapter 4

  “A nice,” Bryson muttered to himself as he sat atop his glorious grey steed, Pharaoh, who was trotting through the forest for a nice leisurely ride. This was supposed to be his relaxing time, it was not easy being a MacGregor in charge of a very large clan, but he could not stop his mind from whirring. “What can I do for you, Anice? Only five years old, and you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

  Perhaps that was not exactly accurate. Maybe that was more him projecting his own worries on to his daughter, but he could not imagine that she went through every single day without missing her mother. She might not have ever gotten to know her properly because Jane died in childbirth, but Bryson believed that Anice knew there was a hole in her life. She got that something was missing. The older his darling daughter became, the more she started to understand that she was not like everyone else.

  They were not alone. Bryson did not consider it just her and himself, as the whole clan helped him to raise her, but none of them were her mother. That was a role that could never be replaced. It was a tragedy. No child should ever have to grow up without her mother, Bryson believed, but fate had dealt them a bad hand. It was up to Bryson to ensure that Anice was as happy as she could possibly be.

  A lot of the time, life was normal. Bryson and Anice were used to living without Jane now. He did not like it one bit, it was dreadful to not have his child’s mother by his side, but they got on with life just fine. But there were times, such as this one, when the pain and guilt racked through him so hard that he found it challenging to breathe. Those were the times when he needed to get away, to have a moment for his own reflections.

  “But there are no solutions, are there?” he continued to talk sadly, glad that no one was around to hear him. This was another reason why he liked to ride alone in the forest, because there was nothing but trees to absorb his words. He could put them out into the universe and hoped that things might change. “I cannot bring Jane back to life. I cannot give Anice the mother figure that I believe she needs, so what can I do? I am hopeless here, useless. I can only be a father to that young girl, which might not be enough.”r />
  Some had suggested that he get remarried, that he start the search to find someone else to be his wife, but Bryson was not sure that was the right path for him. He could not imagine himself falling in love with another woman. He could not marry just anyone. It would have to be someone incredibly wonderful, and also someone that Anice fell in love with as much as him. A new wife would have to slot into his family, and he was not sure that now was the right time to make that happen. He would certainly not marry someone just because he felt guilty. He took the idea of marriage far too serious for that.

  “What is that?” All of a sudden, he was dragged from his thoughts by a white glowing figure lying by the river. At least, it looked like a glowing figure because of the way that the sun was shining off of the body. And he was pretty sure that it was a body he was looking at. That was a person. “Oh, my goodness!”

  He guided his horse over to the figure and leapt down as soon as he was close enough. He stepped cautiously over to the body, his heart racing with nerves the entire time, wondering what he was about to come across here. He did not like the idea of finding someone who had passed on, he was not sure what he would do with a body considering there were a few towns around this woodland, a lot of clans that this person could belong to and Bryson did not want to interfere with other’s lives...

  “Oh...” But it immediately became clear that this was not a body. Instead, it was a figure. A beautiful woman lying by the river like an angel who had been sent from the heavens for Bryson. “Hello?”

  She did not move. She did not look like she had been taken by death, but she was not waking up either. Bryson was anxious that he was overstepping the mark by moving closer to the woman, but he could not simply leave her as she was. He was afraid that she might fall into the water if he left her.

  “Wow.” She truly was breathtakingly beautiful. Unlike anyone that Bryson had ever seen before. Petite, blonde haired, blue eyes, svelte, angel like, sweetheart shaped face. She was young, a little younger than he was, which gave her an innocence look that pulled Bryson in a little bit further. He found himself intoxicated, fascinated, absolutely stunned by the woman. He could not drag his eyes away, no matter what.