“Com’ere,” he whispered, and I peeked over the covers.
Uncle Callum pulled her tight against him, pressing her head to his chest while she sniffled, the weight of the world crumpling her petite frame.
“They destroyed oor clans,” she choked.
“Ah ken, darlin’, ah ken,” he said, stroking her back the same way my father once soothed my mother.
I slipped the covers back over my head, rubbing my cold nose against the thin blanket. The sting of tears gathered before I could stop them. I tried to swallow them down.
I’d help them.
I’d find work.
Hard labour and long hours didn’t scare me—it never had.
Working for the Sassunnach scum who sought to destroy us left a bitter taste in my mouth.
But I’d do it for Hamish, Angus, Moire, and Ranald.
Our young had to survive.
Even if I had to choke on my pride to make it happen.
? ? ?
Dawn had barely touched the sky when I woke.
Uncle Callum was already pulling on his worn boots in the corner, his movements slow but sure, the same way he’d moved every morning since Da died. Aunt Flora was up too, shaping oatcakes with quick, efficient hands, sliding them into a cloth beside a wedge of hard cheese. The faint smell of toasted oats filled the house, warm and familiar.
My breath clouded faintly in the cold air as I sat up.
“Uncle Callum,” I said quietly, so as no’tae wake the younger bairns,“I want tae go wae ye. I can work at Eilidh House. We need the coin.”
Aunt Flora gasped, her hands freezing mid-fold.
Uncle Callum frowned so deeply that the creases carved new lines across his brow.
“Naw. Yer too young fur it,” he said gruffly.
“Naw, am ar’nae. Ah can graft, an’ye know it,” I snapped back before catching myself and lowering my voice when the bairns stirred on the pallet beside me.
“Am nineteen, am no a child,” I hissed.
Aunt Flora pressed her lips together, then gave a slow, solemn nod.
“She’s right. I cannae do it, but she can.”
“Are ye both mad?” Uncle Callum said, looking between us like he’d woken into a nightmare.
I exhaled, rubbing my arms as I remembered the soldier, fear pricked the back of my neck.
“There might be some trouble wi’me down here,” I murmured.“I had an altercation with a Sassunnach soldier. He wuz a high-ranking wan.”
His face dropped. Aunt Flora’s hands shook.
They knew one or two soldiers still patrolled the area with the Lowland betrayers. Even the whisper of trouble was dangerous.
“Wit did ye do, lassie?” Uncle Callum whispered.
