Her Fierce Highlander (His Highland Heart #3)

Chapter 1

Fiona Rose turned from the mercer’s stall where she had been haggling for several skeins of sturdy woolen mending thread and saw smoke, black and billowing, climbing into the clear Highland air.

What was happening? It appeared to be rising from far enough away to mark a blaze on the other side of the River Ness, but buildings between the river and where she stood in the Inverness Mercat Square blocked her view.

In moments, others noticed the smoke, and the rumbles of concerned voices began to spread.

“What is burning?” she asked passersby, as she hurried toward a nearby lane that should let her see down to the water. No one she spoke to had any more idea than she until panicked voices preceded people running up the hill.

Dear God, was the village on fire?

“They’re burning the bridge!” someone shouted.

Fiona froze. That couldn’t be right. The bridge at Inverness was the only one to cross the river for miles. Why would anyone destroy it?

“’Tis burning!” someone called. “The town is next!”

“Invasion!” others shouted as they ran past Fiona and other stunned watchers. “Get to safety!”

“They’ll burn the town?” Shocked voices echoed around Fiona.

Who would do such a thing?

The alarm in the voices around her galvanized Fiona into turning back instead of trying to see down to the river or watching more smoke darken the sky, thick and foreboding.

Embers floated on the breeze, glowing harbingers of worse to come.

If the fire was climbing the hill into the town, she had only minutes to get her young charge, Lia, from the house they occupied and escape. She ran.

Lia greeted her when she burst through the door. “What’s amiss?”

“We’re being invaded,” Fiona said, as she brushed past the younger lass into the house. She fought to keep fear from her voice. She didn’t want to frighten the lass, but she did need her to understand that they must hurry. “The bridge is burning. We have to get away before they reach us.”

Lia gasped. “Nay!”

Fiona waved a hand toward Lia’s chamber upstairs. “Go. Bundle only what ye can carry. Make haste!”

“This is a bad idea,” Lia warned, standing her ground rather than hurrying upstairs. “We shouldna run. We should defend the house. Hamish will help us.”

Fiona shook her head. Lia’s friend Hamish wasn’t here and there was no time to find him.

“Ye dinna want to be a lass in the way of an invasion. They may no’ kill ye, but ye will wish for death before they are done with ye.

And if the fire is coming, everything will soon start to burn.

Ye dinna want to die in a fire.” Fiona mounted the stairs to the house’s upper level.

“But the house! ’Tis the only home I ken,” Lia objected, her voice carrying up the stairs.

“Do ye wish to die in it?” Fiona turned at the top.

Hands spread as if Fiona’s words were finally sinking in, Lia asked, “Where will we go?”

Fiona paused, torn, fear making her heart drop into her belly where she could feel it beating under her hand.

None of her choices were good. Stay and burn or suffer worse at the hands of invaders.

Or go home to a future she didn’t want. Yet if she meant to live, she had only one recourse.

“To Rose.” It was the only haven she knew—if they could reach it.

Lia clutched her skirts. “I’ve never been there.”

Likely Lia had never been anywhere but Inverness in her fifteen summers.

She’d served Arabella, their recently deceased hostess, for most of her young life.

“Dinna fash. Ye’ll be with me.” Fiona debated whether to send Lia to find her friend Hamish.

But she feared if she sent Lia out into the town, anything could happen to her. She might never be seen again.

“Get up here and pack what ye need,” Fiona ordered, out of patience with the lass and her own fears.

Fiona didn’t wait for Lia to agree to go.

She went to her own chamber and began gathering possessions they would need.

She selected clothing and the pouch of Arabella’s jewelry that could be sold or bartered on their way to the Rose keep.

If they had to walk, it would be a long journey.

Thinking of that, she donned one of her larger dresses over the clothes she wore.

She’d be thankful for the extra layer keeping her warmer and keeping the dress underneath it cleaner.

The scent of smoke drifted in the open window. They had no time to tarry.

“Do ye smell that?” She called down to Lia. “’Twill soon get worse. Ye must gather yer things. No more than ye can wear and carry.” Fiona set aside the bundle she’d packed. “Do ye need me to help ye?” The smell of smoke was getting stronger.

Lia failed to answer. Fiona ran downstairs to a window and spotted her outside with Hamish and a horse.

He stood by its head holding the reins and shifting from one foot to the other, the only sign that he was nervous and anxious to get away.

He’d come for Lia, at least. Since her chamber was on the front side of the house, she must have heard him call her name.

But where had he gotten a horse? Fiona opened the door.

Would they ride off and leave her behind?

The thought gave her chills. The three of them together would be in danger.

Fiona traveling on her own would not fare well unless she was very lucky.

Lia waved and ran to her. “Hurry, the smoke is getting thicker. The fire is coming. They released all the horses from the town stable. Hamish brought one.”

“It must belong to someone,” Fiona objected. “We shouldna take it.”

“They’re all running free,” Lia told her. “So we may as well make use of it.”

Fiona nodded. “Very well. Go finish gathering yer things.” As Lia ran inside, Fiona looked over their transportation.

The horse seemed old and tired. Why Hamish had grabbed that one and not another?

Still, she was grateful for how it would ease their trip.

One horse couldn’t carry all of them and their belongings, but they could take turns riding, which meant they could travel farther each day.

Fiona waved to Hamish, then ran back upstairs to get the bundles she’d packed and a few necessities of her own.

Plaids and her warmest cloak, and spare boots.

Even summer nights could be cold enough that they would be useful.

Inside her skirt in a pocket she used for small items at the market, she tucked her cache of coins.

She’d earned them by selling her needlework on market days and doing mending for coin.

Her expensive needles and tiny scissors she wrapped in a square of linen and added them to her pocket, along with the small pouch of jewelry Arabella had given Fiona before she died.

She would have to abandon everything else.

She hated having to leave behind her bundles of good embroidery thread but they could be replaced.

Perhaps if the fire wasn’t too bad, things like pots and pottery in the kitchen would survive.

But they were too heavy to carry, as was furniture.

They, like clothes, were replaceable. Lives were not.

After packing some food from the kitchen, she went outside to join Hamish and Lia, turning to take one last look at the most important thing she’d ever owned.

It tore at her to abandon Arabella’s home.

Nay, hers. And now it might burn to the ground.

She didn’t know whether to feel angry or sad at this sudden change of fortune.

By now, others were running past them in the street, carrying bairns as well as bundles similar to the ones Fiona had prepared. Mongrel dogs ran with them, barking, some nipping at heels in excitement, veering to chase more interesting prey as a riderless horse cantered past.

She nodded to Lia when she joined them. “Ye ride with Hamish. I’ll walk with ye.” Lia’s and Hamish’s bundles were already tied behind the saddle where Hamish now perched.

As he reached down to pull Lia up in front of him, Fiona asked, “How did ye manage to get this horse?”

“I was near the stable when they opened the stalls. I kenned this one, so I borrowed it.”

“Borrowed it?”

“Aye, I ken the man it belongs to, and ’tis one of two he keeps in the stable. The other was gone before the horses were released, so he’s likely gone to check on his croft. I’ll return it when we can come back.”

Satisfied, Fiona nodded. But his final words echoed in her mind…when we can come back. Would they ever be able to?

“Tie those packs with ours,” Lia suggested.

“Later,” Fiona said. “Let’s go.” She wanted to carry them for now. They gave her a small sense of security knowing they were in her hands and not on a horse that could run away.

They joined the fleeing crowd. As they crested the hill at the outskirts, Fiona looked back to see what damage had been done, but trees blocked her view.

Heavy smoke still hung in the air over the river valley, confirming her fear that the fire had spread.

Was it an accident rather than an attack?

Should they wait? Surely those following them would have news.

The people around them seemed to contradict each other with every tale of what they’d seen.

All fled from the threat of fire, but no one had actually seen an attack, and only one or two had been near enough to the bridge to see the extent of the blaze.

At the time, it had been confined to the bridge, but Fiona doubted that was still the case.