The seer gazed at her. “Once that man confirmed he had won me trust, he forced his way into me bed. He wasn’t violent but persuasive. It didna happen only once. In time, I got with child.”
“Did the laird offer to marry ye?”
Raini snorted. “Ye are too naïve to understand that Scottish lairds doona marry women like me. Nay, he cursed me and abandoned me but threatened every vile punishment if I dared to leave his lands.”
“But how…”
“He cared enough about me to be possessive but hated me enough to banish me from his bed. A curse above all curses. For no other man could have me.”
“And the babe?”
“A wee girl who lived a few months and mercifully died.”
“Ye consider that mercy?”
Silence encompassed them both for several moments before Raini answered. “Can ye imagine what it would’ve been like living life as the laird’s bastard daughter?”
“But life is a gift.”
“For some,” Raini said sharply. “For others, it is a living hell.”
Compassion brought tears to Kali’s eyes as she pulled her friend into a tight embrace. “Why have ye told me this story?”
“How could I not?”
“Does Adam…”
“Never.”
“I understand,” Kali said softly. “Did she have a name?”
“Arlis.”
“And what did ye do with her wee body?”
“She is buried near the cave.”
“The best place to be, I think.”
No wonder Raini spent so much time at the mountain—’twas a sacred place for her. And the children… They had to provide some comfort for the loss of her only child. Nine babes in need of everything only a mother could offer. Only love could give.
“Come.” Kali shot up from her chair and pulled the old woman to her feet. “It is still early. If we gather the children, we can climb the top of the mountain, gather berries, and make it back before anyone will notice I’m gone.”
Raini leaned on her cane, considering Kali. “Ye canna cover up pain.”
“No, but ye can leave it behind for a bit.”
“Aye, that ye can.”
An hour later, with the children leading the way, the group made their way through the hills, joy once again touching Kali’s heart, and hopefully, Raini’s, too.
As they neared the path that would take them up the mountain, a pack of men on horseback, easily identified as a group of guards from Clan MacKay, halted before Kali. Unfortunately, she had left her hair uncovered, so there was no chance of hiding who she was. Raini stepped in front of her and the children, ready to defend them from whatever these men had to say.
“Captain Ramsey,” the seer addressed a dark-haired man at the center, his steed as pitch-black as the coals on a fire. “Why have ye halted our journey?”
The man lowered his head with obvious respect. “Mistress Raini, it is not ye or the children I was tasked with watching for.”
“Good,” Raini said in response, “then we shall be on our way.”
