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"I think not, Monk Uisge is the true water of life Your brandy is for hland drink Now if you’re through orating, I ’ll hear what you’re about "
"Of course, I digress I was saying how our fine fighting Englishhland insurrection Indeed, other of your Highland chiefs and fellow Royalist insurgents have surrendered their arlish Parliareat leniency"
"Och, you ht them Well, I ’m not for sale
I ’m not pulled where the tides may take me Unlike yourself, as I understand it You were once a Royalist, is that not true? Your father spoke for the king, yet it becaht of it?"
Monk’s genteel façade momentarily flickered, and Ewen continued after only the briefest of pauses "Now if that ’s all you ’ve to say, our business here is through "
"I wouldn’t be so hasty if I were you, laird That is not all I have to say I ’nition of your custodianship of Cameron lands All you need to do is order your h potentially catastrophic for you, are for the English ares "
"You offer hlands are not for you to give " Ewen rose abruptly "I ’ll thank you to allow lanced back at Monk from the tent entrance "White queen to rook four Mate in two "
"Very nice, I ondering if you’d see that eneral’s ain, ah, what do they call you …Lochiel? You will soon learn that this is only the beginning The English Parliaht of its authority Croauntleted hand that imposes its will "
Monk took a slow, deliberate sip of brandy "You will cohlands are land Your lands merely the commons If you would keep your people safe and your lands intact, Ewen Cameron, seventeenth captain and chief of Clan Cameron, I recommend you considera preain, then, General " Ewen paused before exiting the tent "And one thing for you to think on My people have a saying ‘A shored tree staunds lang ’ It , in case you’ve not the Scots tongue"
This tihlanders as they left the camp
Ewen looked up at the position of the sun in the sky If they rode hard, they would be back at the Caood co it with a hotthe sun back to Tor Castle, and all they had to show for theirwere empty bellies and spentto buy every chief this side of Edinburgh, though he hadn’t fully credited it until his hlanders were aligning theeneral, and Ewen supposed he couldn’t blame them Offers of money, land, and security were hard to snub, especially as the redcoats showed no sign of halting their trail of blood and destruction through the Highlands The British soldiers laid waste to land and cattle as they went, cuttingothers prisoner to send off as slaves to English plantations in the West Indies If it were merely a matter of property or battles between men and men alone, it would be a different ardless of age or sex, inflicting horrors dependent on their iven day
Ewen had hoped to broker peace, but he wouldn’t sacrifice the integrity of his land and his people to do so
"We are sons of the hound " He fingered the brooch his father had given him
"And ill be on noat Baker Beach back ho her face to one side in the sand It was one of those rare San Francisco days where the sun was beating down Her body ar and flowing of the waves, which she felt echo through her body Her left cheek was hot and slightly dahtly, enjoying the sensual feeling of the earth cradling her body The warh, and little by little Lily ’sShe becaradually aware that she wasn’t on the beach The war into her cheek She began to realize that the heat didn’t eetting hotter Slowly, all the sensations of fever washed over her She becaht knee, the side of her neck, her eyelids The fever became more uncomfortable as her body seeround, which now felt painfully cold against the hot ache of her liht, to be hit by a fever like this, so out of the blue There had been a tremor of soot her eyelids fluttering If she had a head injury, she needed help i asleep could be disastrous
The entirecame back in total clarity TheShe h soht all around her instead of that hideous plant That would explain the nu the side of her cheek She shuddered at the memory of those drab leaves and black fruit that in retrospect see short of malevolent As painful as her fall was, she was relieved to be free of the labyrinth She hadn’t realized till then just how terrified she had been, how trapped and lost she had felt It was hard not to let her ied off notions of evil spirits toying with her
Lily lay there for aa physical inventory As acute as her fever was, it had been hard to feel anything but chills and heat gripping her body Now she becaht shoulder, which she assuers and toes Nothing seeed, but her body was on fire, and the chills wracking her told Lily that her fever hadn ’t stopped rising
She tuned back into the ground beneath her She re the pulse of the waves dru the beach around her She opened her eyes with a start She could feel so in the earth beneath her She could alh her body, growing in its intensity with each passing second She worried that the earth was sounding another coritted her teeth and pushed herself to her knees If an earthquake was to hit again, she was deterasped as pain shot through her torso, and looked in horror at her right ar limp at her side If she had a dislocated shoulder, which seemed the obvious explanation, she would need to th and find help i her useless arm to her side, she slowly rose to her feet and turned around and around to get her bearings Lily thought it odd that she could no longer see those mean leaves and branches of the plant in the ranite face that reached ten feet above her head The Scottish landscape was so uneven, Lily thought perhaps the e of one of the many Scottish hills and the force of the tree That would account for the dislocated shoulder and theto explain her suddenly high fever
She froze The thundering sound she had heard was getting closer Lily focused and thought she could hear a man ’s voice Horses, it was ravated look "Och, I thought this day could get no darker " He kicked Ares into a gallop just as the figure in the distance rose and began to stu some sort of breeches, the person was unht, except for her full bosom that any red-blooded ht blouse Her hair was its oonder, with thick white-blonde ringlets flying loose in the breeze Eondered what kind of woall to trespass on Cameron lands
They were upon her in seconds She didn ’t even have the chance to jump out of the way Time suddenly seemed to stop Lily had always believed that when her moment came, she would see her life flash before her eyes Instead, absurd and highly detailed thoughts flitted through her ht She s to be trampled by a troop of mad, hairy, dirty Scotsmen in skirts The impact knocked her back into unconsciousness
Ares reached her just as she was cruround The laird didn’t need to slow ather the lass up into his saddle, featherlight as she was Then they had lost a bit of time, forced as he ’d been to slip her ar an injury like that go untended They couldn’t risk the perilous amount of blood that would surely pool at her shoulder; as it was, he felt ill at ease not binding the arm immediately, but that would have to wait till their return home when they hadout her injury without reravation, but he wouldn’t have histhis woman He had no idea where she ca about this lass lying still in his arms couard: aspent with General Monk didn’t dispose one to think kindly of strangers As far as he was concerned, his people were at war, and he had to be skeptical of every person who set foot on Cale" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">