Kilted Seduction – Bonus Prologue
December 1298. A few hours earlier…
She hadn’t wanted to leave her brother Kai’s wedding, but Thora MacLeod knew when a vision was coming, and knew it was best to find a quiet place to let it come. Resisting her visions never came to any good, any more than ignoring the warnings they gave her. And this one felt exceptionally powerful, which meant the warning was far too important to let it pass her by.
Foresight. Sometimes a gift, more often a curse in her world, it plagued her with dreams in her sleep and visions or vague premonitions in her waking hours, and only long years of experience, as well as the occasional success in thwarting some grim fate, had resigned Thora to the whims of the MacLeod Gift she had inherited from her mother’s blood.
She found a quiet space and closed her eyes, then surrendered herself to the Gift that had plagued her for so many years of her life.
Flash: War. Bloody war, and fires that burned over the Highlands. Violence, and the cries of the dead, dying and destitute, filled her mind. Warriors littered the field, a spectacle so grim it might have been the Morrigan’s handiwork of old. Her own kinfolk lay among the fallen, or among those fighting for their lives, and she knew with a sense of despair that all of them were doomed. And over it all, drifting above the scenes of horror and destruction, flew the colors of Clan Ross and the personal standard of Lachlan Ross.
Flash: There was little enough food, and less of anything else. The fields were practically barren, the store houses and barns empty save for half-starved livestock, but the grim-faced soldier on the horse cared naething for the despair in the gaunt, weary faces of the nearby villagers as he loaded a wagon heavy with grains claimed in tithe to the laird. A familiar sash adorned his chest, emblazoned with the colors she’d seen in her previous vision.
Flash: Two men stood opposing each other on a field. One wore the colors of Ross, the other of Cameron. Both wore the rank torcs that marked them as lairds of their clans. One was older, one younger. The vision wavered, a split in time. On one road, the men stood side by side, and desolation filled the world as the younger one fell. On the other, they faced each other in combat, and the future wavered like the waves of a storm-tossed sea.
Flash: The Ross standard was replaced by Cameron, and instead of desolation, life flourished. The fields prospered, the livestock grew fat and strong, and the villagers were hale and healthy. The storehouses were full, and warriors maintained the easy, watchful guard of peacetime, rather than the weary, wary tension imposed by strife. Everywhere, there was a sense of plenty and peace. A sense of happiness filled Thora, a joy so pure it was enough to make her wish to weep.
The visions released her, and Thora sank against the nearest wall, spent and shaking. It was rare to See so much and so clearly, rarer still to know what the visions meant. But this message, she could decipher with ease.
Clan Ross would bring devastation, a fact she’d no doubt of, for Lachlan Ross and her brother Domhnall had already come to blows in the past and opposed each other fiercely. She’d met him once in her lifetime and come away feeling as if she’d narrowly avoided being bit by a viper. Her brother Magnus refused to be in the same room with the man for years.
Now, according to her Gift, Lachlan Ross had set plans in motion that would devastate the Highlands and destroy everything – including her clan and kinfolk. What those plans were, she had no idea, but it was imperative that they be stopped before they could come to fruition. Otherwise, all of Scotland would be endangered by Lachlan’s ambition.
According to what she had seen, Clan Cameron and its laird were the keys to stopping the horror. If they could be brought to stand against Laird Ross, then disaster might be averted. More than that, there was a chance that all the Highlands could benefit.
Unfortunately, there was a problem with that scenario. Ross and Cameron had long been allies, as Ross and MacLeod were foes. This made clan Cameron a foe too. It would be difficult – nigh – impossible, to convince Laird Cameron to turn against his ally, based on the words of a woman who was kinfolk to one he might see as his enemy.
Clan Cameron and Clan MacLeod had no formal disagreements, but from what Thora had heard of Laird Cameron, his honor would hold him to the alliance and induce him to view his ally’s opponents as his own. Therefore, the first difficulty would be in convincing him to listen to her. The greatest difficulty would be in convincing him that his clan was better served by breaking away from his alliance with Clan Ross.
As to the first, she could use another name, pretend to be a lass from some village or an overseer’s daughter. Or perhaps even the daughter of some distant, smallish clan, or subordinate clan. He would have no cause to be suspicious of her then. But how to convince him to go against Lachlan Ross?
Another vision came to her, this one weaker but still clear enough for her to be sure of its content. It was a vision of Yule – specifically a yuletide festival.
Yuletide decorations, the Yule log being lit. Laird Ross’ stronghold. He angrily mumbled something about Cameron’s absence to his advisor.
Lachlan Ross was hosting a grand Yule festival at Ross Castle. Domhnall had not received an invitation of course, but it was no secret. As an ally of Clan Ross, Laird Cameron had surely received an invitation as well.
Somehow, Thora needed to ensure that Laird Cameron attended that feast, and she had to be there with him. She didn’t know why, but she knew she did. Her presence was essential to the discovery of the truth – whatever truth it was that would turn the course of fate in favor of prosperity, rather than destruction.
That would present another difficulty, for how was she to accompany Laird Cameron? An unrelated lass in a laird’s company would surely invite talk, and rumors, and she couldn’t pretend to be his sister. That lie would be all too easy for a man like Lachlan Ross to see through.
Of course, there was another role she might play. Thora felt her cheeks flush, and she pushed that thought away. She could worry about that part of her plans after she had ensured that Laird Cameron would attend the Ross Yuletide celebration.
Of course, first she had to make her way to Laird Cameron, and speak with him. That was a difficulty in and of itself.
Domhnall would never let her go. He knew to trust her visions but asking him to let her walk into enemy territory alone was too much. He would insist on her having a companion, assuming he permitted her to leave. And yet, she was certain she would fail if she had anyone else with her. Only by going alone could she succeed.
Thora sat for a few moments, thinking over everything she had Seen, and everything she had gleaned from her Gift. Then she rose, her face settled in a steely expression of determination.
She would go tonight. It stung to have to leave in the middle of her brother’s wedding celebration – especially given that he had married her close friend Ava – but it was the only time she could be sure that everyone was too preoccupied with other things to pay any attention to her absence. If she left within the next two or three candle-marks, it was unlikely that she would be noticed, and no one would question her absence til morning.
By the time they not only realized she was absent but searched the castle for her and discovered she was missing, she’d be on the birlinn to the main island, if not already disembarked and riding for Castle Cameron. And if the weather turned troublesome again, as it probably would, then it would both obscure her passage and delay them searching for her. With a little bit of luck, she would reach Castle Cameron before they could even confirm that she’d left the Isle of Skye, let alone follow her.
It would be a perilous journey, and a difficult one, especially alone in the middle of winter, but Thora was determined to manage. The fate of her clan was too important to shrink from the possible hardship.
She had to pack – practical simple clothing, and one or two days of food. Neither would be difficult to secure. She also had to write her brother a note. She didn’t dare tell him the full extent of her plans, but the last thing she needed was Domhnall sending messengers to every clan in the Highlands in an effort to find her. If nothing else, such an action might alert Laird Cameron to her true identity.
The path that lay before her was one tangled with unseen obstacles and uncertainties, but Thora refused to turn away from it, even as the enormity of what she was about to undertake confronted her.
Whatever it took, and whatever the cost, she would go to Laird Cameron and secure his aid in thwarting the disaster that threatened to engulf all of them.