Fergus then slumped to the ground, unconscious.
CHAPTER TWO
“God willin’, I will have ye married off by the end of the year,” Bennet Forrest, her father, growled, and Jeane huffed out a breath through her nostrils.
She knew that was what her father wanted—to get her out of his house. He had been trying to marry her off since she turned of age, but she had managed to dissuade any potential suitor.
“Why? I do plenty around the house,” she argued, but her father just scoffed.
“Like what? Ye cannae run a household. Why would anyone marry ye?”
“I can run a household,” she said petulantly, but it came out weak. She had no interest in running a household. She had no interest in marrying. Sheespeciallyhad no interest in marrying Laird Fraser, who was known for his womanizing. He was alwayswooing three or four women at once, and she doubted his behavior would improve after marriage.
It was not that she did not have dreams as a child of marrying, of wearing a beautiful wedding gown, but the more she grew and the more she dealt with men… She supposed she had become jaded.
She only had her father and his men to compare a potential husband to after all.
Her father shook his head, walking back into the main house, and Jeane stood there, shoulders stiff, for a long moment. She knew her father went down for a nap about this time every day. She had a couple of hours before he would come looking for her.
Maybe… maybe she could get out of here. Get far enough away so that he would write her off.
And if not… well, at least she might catch sight of that doe. Being in the forest with those animals was her only escape after all.
Jeane hurried back into the house, striding up the stairs to her room. She slipped by her father’s room, hearing him already snuffling and snoring. He started drinking the mead as soon as he woke up, and it made him pass out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
She gathered a few supplies in a small bag and draped it over her shoulder. It was not much—a few days’ worth of hard bread andrabbit jerky, a couple of apples in case she did find that doe, and a novel that she had been reading.
She did not dare pack any clothes or toiletries, knowing her father’s maids would report it to him. The staff was kind to her, but they were loyal only to her father, and it was not the first time that Jeane had tried to escape.
Once that was done, she crept past her father’s bedroom again and then descended the stairs, being careful and quiet as she passed the kitchens and then snuck out of the entrance hall. The fresh air and sunlight on her skin made her feel like perhaps she had a chance of getting away.
Two days later, Jeanne was still wandering in the woods, following the tracks of a deer she had been feeding recently. She took every opportunity she could to get away from her father these days.
Where is she? I ken that she’s close, I can see her tracks,Jeane thought, creeping around the forest edge.
The doe she had been following would take an apple right from her hand, and Jeane found herself looking for it daily.
She had never particularly gotten along with her father, and she did not know how to mend things now. She was not sure shewantedto mend things if she was honest with herself.
But she grew bored with all the sewing and knitting lessons her father forced her to take, and she spent most of her time in the woods. Her father accused her of wanting to be a boy, but that was not exactly it.
Jeane was just… restless. She felt she had been born restless, and she did not know how to cure it.
She kept her footsteps light as she tracked the doe, stepping over tree branches bleached white by the sunlight. She heard hoofbeats in the distance, too heavy to be the light-footed doe. She had camped in the woods for nearly two days now, having brought her bag full of food and some flint, and she had heard plenty of horses. It was probably her father, come to find her. It wasn’t the first time she’d hoped for escape, and it likely wouldn’t be the last.
He’d find her, but at least she could find that doe and get a small reprieve from the awful, boring life she led.
She ignored the horses, just following the tracks the deer had left for her.
“Ye’re teasin’ me,” she whispered, listening to the sounds of the forest as she walked as lightly as she could. There, just before the clearing, the doe stood, her eyes wide and alert, as if she were about to prance away at any moment.
“Come now,” Jeane said. “I brought ye yer favorite.”
She held out a piece of an apple in her hand, and the doe stared at her, as if they were locked in a battle of wills.
The doe slowly approached her, nosing into her hand and taking the apple slice delicately.
Jeane smiled.
