The Highlander's Promise (Highland Rogues #4) - Mary Wine

Chapter One

Duncan land…

Terin Campbell sat up in her bed.

The chamber was still and quiet. Her bedding was clean, and there was the lingering scent of rosemary clinging to it. The staff was doing their best to gain her favor now that her mother-in-law, Benedicta, was no longer their main focus and making it clear that her daughter-in-law wouldn’t ever be the mistress of the stronghold.

Terin didn’t belong there any longer now that her husband was dead.

It was a feeling she was very used to. She’d expected it to fade in the first year of her marriage, but it never had. Benedicta and her sons had seen to that. Could she have fought harder to make a position for herself? Yes. Of course, she’d needed a son to do it, and she’d just never been quite able to make herself grovel to Goron the way he’d insisted she do to get into his bed. There were plenty of people who would tell her she’d squandered her opportunity to be the lady of the house. If she had a son, she’d have a position. Somehow, Terin just couldn’t lament her choice.

Was it so wrong to think a child should be born into a happy home? Just because she was born the daughter of a laird, did it mean her future was to be one riddled with scheming and power plays?

Well, you have spent four years pondering the matter…

She had. Terin stood and walked over to the window. She opened the shutters and looked out into the yard. Night was losing its grip. The sky was brightening as the stars began to disappear. Still, the first birds had yet to sing.

She felt like those birds. Nestled into her bed while waiting for the morning sun to awaken her.

She was so tired of waiting.

She was sick of waiting. It felt like poison in her veins. Either she fought it off, or it would kill her in the worst possible way.

Slowly. Allowing her to notice every drop of her life dripping away.

No …fortune favored the bold.

Terin turned around and walked to the wardrobe. Inside, there was a spare length of wool. Some maid had placed it there in case Goron ever passed the night with her and needed a clean kilt. It was an extravagance to have a length of wool going unused. But Goron had expected such luxury.

So perhaps she would make use of it. Perhaps it was past time to see it going to use, to see herself having a purpose.

What are you doing?

Terin wasn’t precisely sure, but once she began, there was no stopping herself. She pleated up the wool on the floor and then went back to the wardrobe in search of a shirt. It was too large on her, but she moved the buttons on the cuffs so they would close tightly around her wrists.

She lay down on the wool and used her own belt to secure it around her waist. When she turned to look in the mirror, she saw a lanky lad, if she discounted her waist-long hair. Her legs hadn’t been on display in a decade since she became too old to run wild with her brothers. If the Church discovered her dressed like a man, there would be dire consequences, but that didn’t dissuade her.

She’d done all the things she should.

Now, she was going to do the things she dared.

Determination flared through her. Terin reached for her sewing scissors and hacked off a foot of her hair. She tied a section back from her eyes and tugged a bonnet down over her forehead. The last thing she did was press her fingertips into the soot at the edge of the hearth. She smeared the black ashes on her face to disguise how soft her skin was. A quick look in her mirror showed her a grubby youth. Or at least, it might hold up if she kept her head down and her mouth shut. She gathered up the money she’d hidden around the chamber in case she needed to escape. It wasn’t much, but she wouldn’t starve so long as she wasn’t too picky.

The first bird sang as she walked out of the stronghold.

Terin smiled. The truest, most genuine smile she’d experienced in four years.

*

The seasons didn’t answer to any person’s whim. Terin tugged the section of her kilt that she’d left attached to her shoulder up and over her head. The rain had turned to slush as she traveled. Now it was snow. The wind blew