Page 13 of A Fearless Rebel

“Ye should not go that way, lass.” The cook’s head nodded to the doorway. “Yer da and several men are drinking. They’ve drank quite a bit.”

“Thank ye, Maddie,” she said to the older woman. “I’ll find another way in.”

Once Ava was back outside, she hurried down a pathway and to a side door that opened by a staircase.

She hurried up the stairs that were partially hidden from the great room, thanking every saint for her father not seeing her.

Once in her chamber, Ava went to the window and peered out into the night. Her lips curved. It had turned out to be quite an adventure.

“Where is my sister?” Alastair’s voice boomed.

Ava quickly kicked off her shoes and pushed them under her bed. She then grabbed a tome from her bedside and leaped onto the bed.

When he opened the door, he found her reading, with part of her hair down and a comb in her opposite hand.

She looked up as if she’d been shocked out of her reading. “What is happening? Is Mother unwell?”

Alastair entered and went to the window where he peered out just like she’d just done. “I was told ye were out.”

“When?”

“Now. Someone came to yer chamber and did not see ye.” He looked around the room as if sensing her deception. “Men were attacked by a masked assailant.”

Ava put the book down and laughed at him. “Do ye think it was me?”

“Of course not.” Alastair’s expression of annoyance made her want to grin wider.

“Then why are ye coming to seek me?”

“I thought perhaps ye were escaping with whoever it was that attacked our men.”

“If I were to escape with someone, it would not be with a man, but with a group of darkly draped women. According to Father, he is to send me away to a nunnery if I do not do as told.”

Her brother had never been warm, but he was the closest she had to a friend. “Alastair. Who do ye think ye will marry?”

“Whoever brings our clan something worthwhile.” He gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “Personally, I could care less who she is.”

“Would ye not like it to be someone ye could grow to care for?”

This time, he looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “Ye have known me all my life. Do ye really think I could grow to care for anyone?”

Her chest constricted, and she fought to swallow. “Does this mean ye could never care for me?”

Although she knew her relatives were hard people, it was unfathomable that they truly had no feelings. Alastair neared and touched the tip of her nose with his index finger. “I will always care for ye, dear sister.”

The words rang hollow. It was as if he had to fight to speak kindness. But when she looked up, there was warmth in his gaze.

“I will not run off with a strange man then. I promise.”

Alastair looked back out to the night sky. “I will find whoever it is attacking my guards and kill him.”

*

Her horse was swift, and Ava couldn’t hold back laughter when her hair fastenings gave way allowing her tresses to fly around her head. Although the clouds gathered threatening rain, in the moment, she couldn’t care less if it stormed.

After managing to slip away unseen, she relished the temporary freedom that would soon be taken from her. She’d not go far, just to the border of her family’s lands to the neighboring Chisholm lands. In a small village not too far away, there was a woman who made the most wonderful sweet tarts. Once she purchased a few, she’d eat them all on the ride back.

The only danger riding alone was the proximity to the Fraser land border.