A CHRISTMAS WISH

Chapter 22: Comfort

HERE IT IS!

I kno it has been a really long time but i had a few problems i had to sort out and writing wasn’t priority number one. I have been stealing a few hours every now and then to write but everything is quite rough. I have written the next five chapters and am working on the sixth but i have only edited this one. As i find more time i will keep editing the others and putting them up, but i cant promise to be as fast as i once was. I will try to put one up once a week but my exams are coming up at the end of September and i don’t have a lot of time to devote to this novel. Hopefully i will find just enough to complete it before then. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT IF YOU LIKE IT! LOL.....

CHAPTER 22

Dinner was a tense affair.

Well not really, at least not for her. For Iain it might have been a different scenario but when it came to him Sarah had little sympathy. If he thought she was going to tell him about every little thing in advance he had another thing coming. She couldn’t fathom why he was sending her those smouldering looks but Sarah had decided to ignore them for once and enjoy her meal.

She hadn’t had a thing to eat all day, to be fair the Highlanders had offered her some of that hideous mouldy cheese along the way but Sarah had declined.

She sat at the little table chomping through a surprisingly delicious beef stew which was finally bringing her out of her stupor. Sarah hadn’t realised how hungry she really was. The meal was simple, peasant food basically, but at that moment every single morsel of the stew and sour bread she ate tasted like manna to her.

Sarah looked up every so often from her meal to glance at the others. And every time she did she saw Helen standing in the background staring at her imploringly and urging her to broach a subject that Sarah was surprisingly reluctant to bring up.  Now that she had some food in her rumbling stomach and her sense of rebellion had simmered down from a roiling boil to a tepid bubble, Sarah was starting to have deep reservations about what she had promised Helen.

Iain would definitely see it as interference, Sarah was sure of that. She glanced up one more time to look at the man sitting across the table. She had to look back down immediately. What was it with him and those narrow eyed looks of his?

He looked quite imposing sitting there just a few feet away with that thin white scar glistening on his unshaven face. Imposing and dangerous; Sarah swallowed nervously and looked back up again. This time her gaze encountered that of the Helen standing forlornly in the background wringing her weathered hands. 

Sarah finally decided to jump in, regardless of Iain. Luckily for her he had just taken a mouthful of food and was busy chewing, he couldn’t very well tell her to shut it if he had something in his mouth now could he? Perfect opportunity!

“Helen’s daughter Brigitte is married to one of your clansmen, Quinlan. Isn’t she?”

Surprised silence greeted that bald question. The Highlander’s looked up from their trenchers and eyed her suddenly.  Sarah almost cringed at her wording, but there it was she had never been great at subtlety. Even as a little kid no one told her any secrets because she could never keep her big mouth closed.

“Aye,” Quinlan replied hesitantly darting a swift glance at Iain sitting quietly beside him. “She is married to Ailean milady, and is a credit tae our clan.”