The next thing she knew, she was sitting up. Blair was on his knees beside her with his hand over her mouth.
He could see that her eyes were filled with terror and he knew she might be afraid of him when he got that close in the night, but he couldn't let her keep screaming. He quickly put his mouth close to her ear. "You are safe."
She remembered her nightmare then and her whole body shuddered. Charlet closed her eyes, slowly released the memory and let her muscles relax. When he took his hand off her mouth, she wanted to explain. "My parents died in a fire and I saw them burn. I do not always have that dream, just sometimes."
He nodded. "I must sleep next to you." He stood up and went to get his bedding.
"Why?"
"So I will not have so far to run the next time you start to scream. I will not hurt you."
She did not truly trust him until she finally realized something. If Blair harmed her in any way, Kevin would kill him and that made her feel safer than she had since the fire. She turned on her side facing away from him, listened while he spread his plaid and felt him lay down beside her. "Blair?"
He turned on his side with his back to her. "What?"
"How far?"
"Half a day. You will like it there."
"What will I like?"
"Go to sleep, Bridget."
*
The next morning, Kevin, Connor and Rachel stood on the landing of the Keep and watched Anna ride out of the hold. Just beyond the bridge, she turned on her horse to look at her husband. She smiled to reassure him, waited until her guards surrounded her and then rode away.
But Kevin didn't have much time to regret letting her go. A rider swiftly came to tell him Fergusons were on MacGreagor land and were coming this way.
"How many?"
The boy's horse danced around, but he finally got control and then answered, "Two, their laird rides with them and they are unarmed."
"Let them come." Kevin looked at Connor. "What could he want?"
"You know what he wants, he is unmarried."
Kevin sighed, "Send someone to find Kenna."
*
Laird Shaw Ferguson led his men up the road toward the MacGreagor hold. Not two years before, the Fergusons had gone to war with the MacGreagors, the MacGreagors easily won and Kevin killed Laird Ferguson. The new laird was well aware he was not welcome on MacGreagor land, but he wanted peace between the two clans. His elder brother had been an unkind man and Shaw Ferguson was not sorry Kevin killed him.