Highland Island (Book 6)

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The thumping at the door had them all startling from the meal her mother had made around midday as 'Isla needs to keep her strength up.' As Isla had refused to be the only one eating before the evening meal, her father had announced he was hungry and needed sustenance after long night of fruitless hunting. Meaning the loud, aggressive banging upon the door caught them unawares.

Dropping her spoon, Vika jumped to her feet, already in motion snatching the bowls from Isla and Gilbarta as she issued whispered orders. "If they are knocking they are not sure you are here. I am not having anyone harassing my daughter. Gilbarta that walk you suggested, I think that may actually be a good idea after all. However, I'm afraid the door is a little difficult to use at the moment. You may have to go through the shuttered area over there." Vika pointed towards the shuttered window, the wooden slats the only thing keeping the elements out.

It was, unfortunately, going to be a tight squeeze through. Vika raised her eyebrows as the thudding came once more. "Yes, girls, I have changed my mind. Now I suggest you get a move on before my door is broken down." Isla glanced at her father who had stood and was currently waiting stone faced by the door. His eyes flicked from her face to the shuttered window, his brows raising as if to ask what she was still doing sat down.

Being the first jump to her feet, she was the one to grab a hold of Gilbarta and pull her to her parent's bed. The ticking groaning a little as they opened the shutters and had to slither and squeeze themselves through backwards, otherwise she would have taken a head first nose dive into the dirt at the back of the cottage. Her soft booted feet hit the solid earth soundlessly, even as she grunted a little at the scraping of her hips and sides by the edge of the now open wooden shutters.

Just spotting her mother placing their used bowls into the bucket they used for washing, she finally dropped out of the window and slithered to the side of the building so that Gilbarta could make her escape as well. She could hear the murmurs of the men on the other side of the building, the banging upon the door, a call for the door to be opened. As Gilbarta's legs started to flail before her, she realised that her friend was a little stuck. Grabbing her hips, Isla started to tug, a grunt and curse from her friend her thanks. As with a final tug, Isla landed harshly upon her buttocks, only for less than a second later, Gilbarta landed solidly on top of her. The wind knocked out of her, she barely noticed her mother slamming the shutters shut as her father grumpily answered the door.

Pushing her friend off of her, they both had to scramble to their feet, before making their way as quickly and as quietly as possible for the tree line. Isla grabbing at her ribs as a stitch crawled over her rib cage as she still tried to catch her breath. When she lagged behind, her hand was taken in a steel grip and she was pulled unmercifully forward. Nearly tripping over her own feet at the trajectory she was being pulled, she glanced back as they broke through the trees. The figure that she thought looked familiarly like Donald was just rounding the back of her cottage, a moment later he disappeared from view as she was pulled behind a tree.

Hands on knees, she heaved in huge gulps of air as she tried to catch her breath, as Gilbarta heaved her own breaths in, standing before her. "Who'd have thought..." a heavy, painful breath in, "my mother would change her mind so easily." A grinning glance between them before Isla slid down the tree at her back, bracing her ribs in her hands, as if that would help with the sharp pain in her side.

"Remember that next time, all you need is the head guard pounding on your door, and your mother on your side to have her agree to a choice she had already firmly said no to." A shrug of Isla's shoulders to her friends comments.

"Nothing too much to expect in the future then." A short laugh from both as Isla could finally feel the pain disappearing from her side, though her head had begun to throb a little after their trip into the forest.

Gilbarta glanced further into the green lit forest, the light filtering through the fresh green leaves, and the smell of blooming wild flowers reaching her from the forest floor. "We need to be meeting Moira. She should already be waiting for us."

"Moira? I thought her father would have her under house arrest after what happened last night." Isla pushed her way up the trunk, the bark scraping at her palms as she stood.

"She thought so to, but he has the opinion that she needs to get back into a routine. That the shock she had would only get worse if she did not get on with life. As such, she was sent to the Keep this morn, but the Laird has declared that all of us involved last night have at least this day to recover." Gilbarta was trying to see into the forest, work out if anyone was out there watching them.

"I'll bet Cook loved that decree." Stepping forward, she passed her friend and headed in the direction of the brook.

"Someone could be following us." The hiss barely reached her ears as she passed through the trees. She didn't even turn as she threw the comment back over her shoulder.

"They could also have followed Moira if she was supposed to be at the Keep right now." A shrug, "either way, we are in trouble or not. Only one way to find out." Her strides and voice held more confidence than she felt, but she had learnt that from her mother. So long as she could look confident, others would think it so.

Keeping to their own thoughts, the pair made their way slowly through the dappled green light of the forest. Letting the cool breeze was over her, bringing with it the scents of damp moss and new life. The flowers bringing bright spots of colour in between all the differing shades of green and brown which surrounded her in a comforting blanket. It was as if the earth gave her a security that she felt nowhere else. Even in the depths of night it was still coloured with safety. The threat of being followed, of being found a traitor could not dint that feeling for long. The weight of the threat was a stone in her stomach, but her shoulders felt lighter.

Stepping lightly around a towering oak, she sprung over a fallen branch and was finally in sight of the brook. Still singing sweetly, burbling away as she stepped into the sunlight once more. The smile tugging at the corners of her lips. This was her place. The place that called to her soul.

And there at the opposite side of the brook stood the man who had entered her life and stayed there in her dreams as well. His large form was well built, to her eye anyway. It showed the physicality of his life, whilst the majority of her clansmen had good hearty meals to strengthen their bones, it seemed his strength came from the very air he breathed. As if the highlands themselves gave him the very sustenance that he needs to survive.

Catching his eye the moment she stepped into the clearing. Her smile took over her face before she could censor it in anyway. And when she finally thought of her reaction, she found she did not care at all that he knew her joy at seeing him once more. Yet, in no more than a moment, the entire picture was broken.

"Isla!" Moira came flying across the stepping stones, within moments, Isla was rocking backwards in the tightest of embraces. Moira's voice flowing like a flood directly in her ear. "Oh, I thank the Lord above that he delivered you here safely. I am so very sorry for falling apart as I did last night. I did not mean for it to happen. I promise that I will be a better friend from now on. I will make this up to you Isla, I promise. I am so glad you are safe. That you are alive and we have not been found out at all." The arms around her tightened even further.

Gingerly patting at Moira's back as she caught her breath. She took a moment to try and figure out her own words as the tirade paused. But as she went to speak, Moira was once more in her ear again.

"And when I got here, I thought they would attack me. But they have treated me so well. As if they owe me, when all I am now is a traitor. Your man is so silent. But so very handsome. It's like he is a very part of the forest, standing as strong and as stoic as the trees themselves. But his friend, his friend is..." as Moira trailed off her arms loosened enough that Isla could pull back and see the red flush which crossed her cheekbones and crept up her neck.

"His friend? Hmm." The red deepened, Isla could not help from laughing as Gilbarta smiled widely. The entire tension from the night before finally flowing away, the brook taking their worries and washing them downstream. At a movement behind Moira, Isla watched as Carrick and his 'friend' has crossed the stepping stones and were heading slowly towards them. "I think, ladies. That we see what 'my man' and his 'friend' have to say."