Free Highland Guard by Hannah Howell

like her. She had been the lady of a busy, prosperous keep for too long. At five and twenty she should be able to cease leaping from one thought to another and just act. She was letting her emotions rule her thoughts, pulling her in every direction. Just decide, Annys, she told herself. Aye or nay. It is that simple.
    A noise from deep within a narrow alley to her right drew her attention and she welcomed the distraction. Annys stepped into the mouth of the alley that was little more than a narrow, stony path cut between two houses and running down to the burn. She listened closely, heard nothing over the sounds of the busy market, and was just about to return to wandering through that market, when the sound came again. It sounded very much like an animal in some distress. Annys hurried down the alley, going deeper into the shadows, and silently scolded herself for having a too-soft heart. The stable master had already complained about the number of cast-aside or injured animals she had brought home. He would not be at all pleased to see another.
    When she first saw the cat, she cursed and hurried toward it, idly wishing it was a puppy. The stable master liked dogs. Someone had tied the cat to a small stake in the ground, the binding visibly tight around the animal’s back leg. It stood there looking utterly exhausted and she knew it had struggled mightily against its tether. She may need to have another talk with the children about how they should treat the animals that shared their homes and lands. Annys did not care if people thought her concern strange, only that they followed her wishes in how they treated their animals.
    Speaking softly, she crouched in front of the cat. It hissed but she did not flinch for the warning was not accompanied by a show of claws. Cautiously she edged closer to its trapped leg, pausing to gently scratch the animal’s ears, a touch that was slowly accepted. Just as she reached out to see if she could easily untie what imprisoned the cat, someone grabbed her from behind. The cat hissed and tried to leap at something, claws out, only to be pulled back by its tether. Before she finished drawing a breath for a scream a gloved hand was slapped over her mouth. Someone had used her too-well-known softness for animals against her.
     
     
    “I cannae see her,” Harcourt grumbled as he searched the crowded market for some sign of Annys.
    “Joan said she was here, that she had seen her near the ribbons,” said Nathan, pausing to smile and wink at one of the younger women selling ribbons. “That woman usually kens right where her lady is at all times.”
    “True. She does keep a verra close watch on the lass. Doesnae trust that fool Adam. Nor do I. Too much anger, e’en hatred, in the mon. Aye, greed and envy as weel. I believe he sees Lady Annys as the reason he isnae sitting in the laird’s chair right now. As if David was too witless to ken what he wanted and what would be good for the people of Glencullaich.”
    “Sir David was a verra learned mon, wasnae he?”
    “Aye. And he ne’er stopped trying to learn more. He stirred a greed within me to do the same.”
    “Your kinsmen prize learning from all I have heard. Did they nay teach ye that?”
    Harcourt chuckled. “They did. They still do but young lads are nay always interested in such things. I was too busy learning how to wield a sword and woo the lassies. But, David read to me whilst I was trapped in bed healing from my wounds. Nay only clan histories or bards’ tales, either, but learned books, ones that taught ye something aside from who sired whom or who sighed after whom. I discovered I liked it e’en when what he read left me with as many questions as it answered. I gained a hunger to find those answers. It hasnae hurt me none.”
    “Nay,” agreed Nathan, “and that hunger has certainly helped ye at Gormfeurach.”
    The sound of a brief scuffle from within the dark alley to his left caught Harcourt’s attention. He