Free Highland Mist by Donna Grant Page B

that. She reached the top and nodded to a soldier as she walked to a secluded spot where she could look over the landscape.
    The loch was still as stone, not a ripple in the water, and to her left, nothing but beautiful, rolling grassland. In the distance, but not too far away, the mountains rose up and showed their snow-covered peaks, some mist-shrouded.
    If there was a more peaceful, stunning place in which to live, she had never seen it. And it probably could be her home if only she wasn’t who she was and there wasn’t Iona.
    Before Iona had left MacNeil Castle she had given Glenna a warning. “There will come a day when you’ll need to confess all. It will seem the darkest of days but a light shines through the clouds.”
    Iona had always talked in riddles, never answering directly. Glenna still had no idea what she was referring to unless it was to tell Conall what she knew of Iona and…everything else.
    “It’s very lovely to look upon,” Gregor said as he came to stand beside her.
    She looked over and was surprised he wasn’t wearing his usual leather vest but a saffron shirt instead. “Aye.”
    “Do you know how long I stayed at the MacNeil’s?”
    She was surprised he had come out and asked her so quickly. “Nay, but that doesn’t surprise me. I knew very little of what went on there.”
    “You were hidden away.”
    “Aye,” she said, and looked away from his dark, probing eyes. “I’m not sure why the MacNeil was ashamed of me. I’ve never done anything to him.”
    “Does Conall know how the MacNeil used you?”
    Her head whipped around to look at him. “What are you talking about?”
    “I was there that day MacNeil wanted to show you the Mackenzies.”
    She felt the blood leave her face as she recalled that day well. She had rejoiced to learn she would leave the castle for the first time, but that had quickly turned to fear when she had been taken to battle. “I…I…”
    “Did MacNeil never tell you that you did it?”
    She closed her eyes and heard the Mackenzie clan screaming while their homes burned around them. “I didn’t do that.”
    “Why else do you think MacNeil wanted you by his side?”
    “He said he wanted to show me the cruelty of other clans,” she said, and opened her eyes to stare into his black ones. “Just how do you know so much about my clan?”
    He lifted a shoulder. “I listen. Fathers want to protect their children from the harshness of war, not bring them to the fight.”
    She had thought the same thing, but when she had asked MacNeil he had become so angry she hadn’t pressed further. “The Mackenzies had taken a boy from our clan and hung him. They left him for the world to see.”
    “That was a Mackenzie lad. And your clan hung him.”
    Her knees threatened to buckle. The enormity of what she had done weighed heavily on her heart. She still saw the desolation in her dreams. Nothing she could say or do would forgive her for the destruction of the Mackenzies.
    “To have the ability to control fire is a great gift,” Gregor continued, his eyes intent upon her.
    “But I can’t control it.”
    “Why do you think Iona was sent to you?”
    That thought had never occurred to her, but now that she thought of it, Iona had asked her many questions about fire. “She wasn’t able to teach me everything.”
    He ran his hand through his blond hair. “You’ve learned just enough to be dangerous. MacNeil didn’t want you knowing too much. You were a pawn to be used.”
    Nay , her mind screamed. She knew her father had done horrific things, but surely he wouldn’t have used her like that. She narrowed her eyes and took a step closer to him.
    “How long where you at the MacNeil’s?”
    “Too long,” he murmured, and quickly lowered his eyes. When he raised his gaze, the shields to guard his feelings were back in place. “MacNeil doesn’t know I’m here. Not yet anyway.”
    “What are you proposing?”
    “I can get you out of here. Conall trusts