Free Broken Highlander's Blood Oath by Missy Strom

lost elf, nestling her nose and mouth into his chest for comfort.
    “Analise,” he whispered close to her ear, but she said nothing and continued to hum, then she began rocking a bit.
    Donan sent a worried glance to Shancy who shrugged as though to say she was a fragile lady seeking comfort. Donan might have agreed except something deep inside him spoke of other things. He’d seen Analise’s courage, her impishness, and her stubbornness. This was something else—somehow to do with the foolish notion that she called herself simpleminded. There was nothing simpleminded about sweet Analise. She was fresh air and sunlight through and through.
    Donan sighed heavily and tilted his head to Shancy in a silent gesture that they should proceed on. He would give Analise a bit of time—he would hold her to him even though he knew he shouldn’t.
     
    ***
     
    At their simple meal that night in the camp they’d made for the evening Donan judged Analise was finally more herself. Nonetheless, it had taken most of the day with her barely speaking two words. He'd not pushed her, because some inner sense, which spoke to him about her gentle soul, whispered to him to let her find her own way back to him.
    She'd visited another place today and he felt if he pushed her, he might lose her to that other place. He was more worried about what to do when she came back to him. He would have to be very careful.
    It hadn't been until several hours after midday that their travel on a wooded path had frightened a clutch of white-tailed quail into a flurry of feathers and darting flight. The sound and the sight had caught Analise’s attention with a look of wonder and delight, dispelling her earlier vacantness as if it were a ghostly spirit never there.
    Her impishness and her affection came alive like a golden rain drenching him with its warmth. Donan forgot his worries, forgot his own stubbornness over certain issues, and for a few moments he forgot that he was hopelessly crippled and not a man for any sweet and fragile lass.
    Nevertheless, reality crept in with the closing of the day when he needed to be slung off his horse and later helped to relieve himself. But then slowly, they settled around a warm glowing fire that turned the yellow highlights of Analise’s fair hair to golden sprinkles, as he lay propped on his side and he watched her laughing at Shancy’s gregariousness.
    “It’s not true!” Analise was giggling over one of Shancy’s outrageous tales involving a rabbit, a young maid, and a clumsy knight, which he told the whole time while swearing that it was true. “Cheval, my sister would never believe such a thing,” Analise exclaimed. “She would say I was too gullible ... And so I shan’t believe you either!”
    “You have a sister, lass?” Shancy asked, suddenly growing serious.
    “I do,” Analise murmured as Donan watched her. Analise reached out her hand toward his and he unconsciously reached forward and clasped her hand feeling its warm softness against his own rougher palm.
    “It’s alright, lass,” Donan said, smiling at her, encouraging her.
    “And where is this sister of yours, sweet lady?” Shancy asked.
    “She’s—” Analise squeezed Donan’s hand.
    “Tell us, lass,” he encouraged her quietly.
    “She is at Saint Angelicas Convent. B-But, I do not know if she is alive.”
    Donan pushed off his supporting arm just in time to catch Analise as she burrowed into him, flinging her arms around his neck. He held her close looking at Shancy, and then he said, “Analise, I don't want you to be afraid.” He lifted the hair off her shoulder, and he murmured in her ear, “Don’t leave me again, nightingale.”
    She pulled backward a bit to look up at him. He could tell that she was struggling to be brave for him. “I don’t want to go,” she whispered.
    “That is good.” He caressed her cheek lightly. “Do you think you can tell us about your sister now? About what happened to her? I know you told