Free Stuart, Elizabeth by Heartstorm

within her chest.
    The
lazy murmur of the sea beyond them grew nearer with each step the horses took.
Rounding a bend in the trail, they passed through a stand of scrubby ash to
find the brilliant blue sea stretching endlessly before them.
    MacLean
reined in, gazing calmly out at the glittering panorama. The white-crested
waves rolled gently up the rocky beach, dropping tiny shells and pebbles as
they retreated along the shore. Urging Cassie past him, Anne rode to the sea's
edge, mesmerized by the rhythmic rise and fall of the breakers and the graceful
dance of the gulls, swooping and climbing in the eternal pattern of their
lives.
    "It
makes you realize how small and unimportant you really are, doesn't it?"
Francis asked softly, still gazing at the shimmering face of the ocean. "I
come here sometimes... it helps me to sort things out."
    Anne
nodded, longing to freeze this moment in time like a jewel she could hold in
her hand and enjoy forever. She closed her eyes, feeling the warm sun on her
face, hearing the murmur of the sea, smelling the sweet tang of the air. She
committed each sensation to memory, knowing instinctively that she might have
need of this peace in the days to come.
    Opening
her eyes, she found MacLean watching her lazily, his own eyes as blue and calm
as the sky above them. "I knew you'd like it," he said smiling.
"I've another place to show you. Come."
    They
rode slowly along the coarse sand, the tracks of the horses quickly
disappearing as the surging waters erased all signs of their passage. Following
a narrow, rocky trail, they wound precariously up a steep hillside. To the
right a solid granite cliff crowded over the path while to the left, the trail
fell away—a sheer drop of several hundred feet led to churning waters beneath.
Great slabs of gray stone lay piled and broken at the foot of the cliff,
dislodged by some turbulent occurrence in the earth's history thousands of
years before. The green waters tumbled about the rocks in a white froth while
the ocean lifted and fell in lazy billows.
    Reaching
the crest at last, MacLean dismounted. He led the horses over the rocks,
pushing aside the scrubby bushes clinging tenaciously to the clefts in the
buffeting wind. Pausing in the shelter of a large jumble of boulders, he tied
the horses to a stubby tree.
    MacLean
helped Anne from her mount, then took her hand in a natural gesture, leading
her up the rocky face of a sloping cliff to the very summit of the headlands.
At the top, Anne caught her breath. The rugged coastline stretched away as far
as the eye could see in either direction.
    "Gull
Point," MacLean murmured. "Where sea and sky and land all meet, and
wars and politics have no place in time."
    She
nodded wordlessly, watching the snowy gulls hang motionless in the surging
updrafts sweeping about the headland. Leaning against the hard stone, she was
grateful for its protection from the fierce wind.
    She
gazed thoughtfully at MacLean's strong profile. He was not the man to enjoy the
political intrigues her father seemed to thrive on. Ian had assured her that
only his concern for his family had made him stoop to her kidnapping. "I'm
sorry about the Camerons," she said softly. There, it was out. She had
wanted to tell him ever since she had learned the truth.
    "Who
told you, lass?" he asked, never taking his eyes from the sweeping scene.
    "It
doesn't matter."
    "I'll
wager it was Donald," he said with a half smile. "The man's always
too busy about my interests."
    Anne
studied him silently, an answering smile curling her own lips. "He
couldn't bear I should think so poorly of his Laird."
    MacLean's
smile broadened, and he shook his head. "My people attach more honor to my
motives than I can justly claim."
    "Your
people trust you. 'Tis no small thing when the welfare of so many depend on
you. The responsibility must be irksome at times."
    "Aye,
but I'd no' have it any other way." He gazed out over the broad expanse of
rugged shoreline. "Do you realize