Read Online Amanda Scott by Highland Treasure - Free Book Online Page A

that will delay them for a bit.”
    “Aye,” Chuff said doubtfully. “We’ll see. I dinna like that sky.”
    Mary did not like the darkening sky either. As they sped across the open space to the safety of the forest, she saw that the gathering clouds loomed darkest in the north, the very direction they would head. For a moment she hesitated, wondering if it would be wiser to take the shore road along Loch Linnhe. It was cold enough for snow, and they would be less likely to meet with any if they avoided the passes, but no sooner did the notion cross her mind than she rejected it.
    “Do you know this forest, Chuff?”
    “Aye, a good bit of it,” the boy said. “Flaming Janet lives yonder.” He pointed to the left.
    “Who is Flaming Janet?”
    “She’s by way o’ being our mam.”
    “Do you mean she is your foster mother?”
    Chuff shrugged. The little girl imitated the shrug and said not a word. Her blue eyes seemed overlarge in her thin, freckled face.
    “Do you want to go to her?”
    Both children shook their heads fiercely.
    “Where exactly does she live?”
    “I’ll no tell ye,” Chuff said. “Ye’ll tak’ us there whether we will or nay.”
    “What is your sister’s name?”
    “She’s Pinkie,” Chuff said. “She doesna talk much.”
    “I can see that,” Mary said, smiling at the little girl, whose fair hair and thin body were draped in a thin plaid shawl that she held clutched shut beneath her pointed little chin. “Will she be warm enough, Chuff?”
    “Aye, she’s a tough lass, is Pinkie. Where will ye go, mistress?”
    “I want to go up Glen Creran,” Mary said. “That’s the one where the loch below us begins. It’s some distance to the river glen from here, though, and we dare not show ourselves in the open or along the shore, so we must keep to the woods as much as we can. I don’t know these woods, though, and we will all find ourselves in deep trouble if we should become confused, or get lost.”
    “I willna get lost,” Chuff said. “I ken fine a good bit o’ the way up the glen.”
    “Once we get into the glen, I shall know the way,” Mary assured him. She had been looking around the dimly lit forest, and only now did it strike her that nearly every tree she could see had a slash mark on it, as if someone had scarred the bark with a knife. Recalling what Ewan had told her, and hiding a smile at the memory, she looked at Chuff to see that he was watching her with solemn curiosity.
    “Do you know why the trees are all marked like that, Chuff.”
    The boy shrugged. “They been like that long as I can remember.”
    “Me, too,” Pinkie said, speaking for the first time.
    “How old are you, my dear?”
    “She’s seven,” Chuff said.
    “Seven,” said Pinkie.
    Mary chuckled. “And how old are you, Chuff?”
    “Nine,” the boy said. “Least the laird said I was nine and so I’m old enough now tae work harder, but Pinkie’s too small yet tae work in the scullery. I didna like them in the kitchen touching her. We go this way,” he added, drawing Pinkie forward with a gentle tug.
    Watching them walk ahead of her, Mary wondered what on earth Ewan had been thinking to set the fragile little girl to work in the scullery. She had seen no sign of ordinary maidservants anywhere at Shian, and to think of the child working for the rough men she had seen there made her shudder.
    “How came the pair of you to be working at the castle?”
    Glancing back at her over his shoulder, Chuff said, “Flaming Janet said it was time we earned our keep.”
    “If she is your mam, why do you call her Flaming Janet?”
    “It’s her name,” Chuff said simply. Then, apparently deciding he could trust her with some small part of their history, he added, “She isna our real mam though, only like you said, a foster one. Our real mam was her sister. She was called Red Mag MacLachlan, and she died when Pinkie was nobbut just borned.”
    “Then Flaming Janet is your aunt. But why did she