Page 20 of Desire of a Highlander

They looked a sorry and ragged bunch. He wondered how long they’d been on the road.

“Put the youngest children on Angus,” he instructed. “He can carry them easily enough.”

Within minutes several small children had been settled onto the gelding’s broad back and their weary parents looked grateful enough to weep.

Ronan took Angus’s reins. “Everyone stay together and follow me.”

As they set off, Elodie fell into step beside him. Ronan wanted to ask her why she had left so suddenly, without saying goodbye, but he kept his mouth shut. It was almost an unspoken rule that you didn’t pry into another person’s business. Yet Ronan found himself wanting to break that rule. He found himself wanting to get to know Elodie better.

He found himself wanting to know everything.

THE JOURNEY BACK TO the settlement took far less time than Elodie expected. This was partly because Ronan actually knew where he was going, unlike her, who it quickly became apparent, had been leading everyone around in circles.

But it was also partly because she spent most of the journey trying not to think about how relieved she was to have Ronan walking by her side. It was ridiculous. She’d known the man for less than a day yet the moment she’d seen him coming towards them on that huge horse of his, something inside her had unclenched. The panic she’d been carrying all day had simply...evaporated.

She glanced sideways at him. Ronan held the horse’s reins loosely in one hand while the children perched atop the horse, Morag included, looking around in wide-eyed wonder. The refugees followed behind in a long ragged column.

Ronan looked in his element. He was alert, blue eyes scanning the terrain around them and a slight frown on his face, and yet he looked...calm. Assured. As though escorting thirty desperate strangers through the wilderness was the most natural thing in the world.

Perhaps for him it was. After all, she knew exactly nothing about him. But she was curious. Oh yes, she was curious. The swords hanging on the wall in the forge. The huge horse that was clearly a purebred. The way everyone deferred to him and the quiet authority that seemed to surround him.

None of it fit with the image of a simple blacksmith.

Questions burned on her tongue yet she knew better than to ask them. Now was not the time and she doubted she would get any answers anyway. So she contented herself with walking along by his side.

Had he come after her? Or had he merely been out looking for these people? She couldn’t hope helping it was the former. Which was also ridiculous.

Around them, the landscape began to change until eventually Elodie found herself walking downhill through scrubby trees, into a cut in the land that was all but invisible from above. As they reached the bottom of this cut, the hidden valley of the Steading appeared before them.

The refugees slowed. Several gasped. Others simply stared. The settlement wasn’t large, but after days on the road it must have looked like paradise. To be honest, after her experiences wandering around the wild countryside this evening, it looked a bit like that to her. Smoke rose from chimneys. Children played in the street. So...normal. Even if it was hundreds of years away from everything she was used to.

As Ronan led them along the track, villagers began noticing the newcomers. Heads turned. Conversations stopped. Faye came hurrying and the healer’s expression darkened as she took in the group.

“God save us,” she muttered.

Ronan stopped in front of her. “We’ve more folk.”

“I can see that.” Faye’s gaze swept across the refugees. “There are thirty if there is one.”

“Closer to thirty-five.”

Faye closed her eyes briefly. “We’ve barely enough room as it is.”

“We’ll make room.”

Faye sighed then looked over at Elodie. “Ye found our wayward sheep as well then?”

Ronan’s gaze flicked her way. “Aye. And our wayward sheep has brought the rest of the flock with her.”

Behind her, the refugees shifted nervously and Elodie recognized the expressions on their faces. The uncertainty. The fear of being unwelcome. Without even thinking about it, she turned around and began addressing them.

“Right,” she said loudly. “Everyone listen up!”

Old habits, it seemed, died hard. Years of project meetings and crisis management made the words slip out before she could stop them. “Families stay together. Anyone with sickness or injury needs to see Faye. Children first.” She glanced at the villagers who were gathering around to stare at the newcomers. “We’ll need something to eat and drink for everyone.”

Several villagers hurried to help, obeying her instructions without question. Ronan said nothing, merely watched with a slightly bemused look on his face as she began ordering his people around.

It took some time to get everyone settled but the whole village turned out to help. It seemed the arrival of new folks was nothing out of the ordinary and they all clicked into action smoothly, settling most of the newcomers in an open-sided barn to get warm and dry whilst a barrel of ale was cracked open and bread and cheese brought for the famished arrivals.