Highlander Unchained (Highlander Trilogy 1)
She wanted to run but where? As much as she wanted to return to Lila, she dare not for fear that her friends would suffer for her disobedience. She was trapped, always trapped and she could do nothing but face her fate.
“Come here,” Cree ordered.
She walked over to him and as much as she wished to walk with her chin high, she kept her head bowed in respect and out of fear of punishment.
“Look at me,” he snapped.
She raised her head.
“You are safe now. You have nothing to fear.”
Did she believe him? Did he truly mean her no harm?
“I gave you my word and I will keep it. I will let no harm come to you.”
She nodded and placed her hand to her chest in a show of appreciation. She then anxiously pointed toward the door and then herself and back to the door again.
“You want permission to leave.”
She nodded vigorously and rocked her folded arms as if she held a babe.”
“I forgot. You’re friend has birthed the babe?”
Dawn shook her head.
“You want to be there when she does.”
Another vigorous nod.
“Go, but return later. I wish to speak with you.”
She nodded apprehensively, bowed her head, then turned and hurried out of the keep.”
Sloan walked over to Cree. “Do you truly wish to speak with her or ease the ache of lust?”
“Watch your tongue, Sloan, or I’ll cut it from your mouth.”
“I think not. You have never punished anyone for speaking the truth.”
Sloan walked off to tend to his duties and Cree silently cursed him.
Chapter Thirteen
Dawn smiled at her friends and their newborn son. Lila had delivered Thomas not long after she had returned to the cottage. Elsa, the healer, had done a fine job of calming Lila and delivering the babe with more ease than Dawn had thought possible.
The babe was swaddled in a soft wool blanket his mum had made and slept contentedly in her arms. He had full cheeks and a few sprouts of red hair on the top of his head and he was the most beautiful babe that Dawn had ever seen.
“Elsa tells us that Cree will treat the villagers well and that we will not be sorry that he is our new lord,” Lila said with a smile.
“It is true,” Elsa said. “He is the new lord of this land and he will do right by the people. Speak truthfully to him and do your fair share and you will have a good life under his leadership.”
“He will explain to all at the gathering in front of the keep not long from now,” Paul said. “Lila will be excused from attending since she just gave birth but I must attend.”
Dawn didn’t wait for him to ask, she motioned that they would go together.
Paul gave an appreciative nod and turned his attention on the babe who was yawning.
“Let us talk. I am curious about your loss of voice,” Elsa said slipping her arm around Dawn’s and moving her along right out the door.
Dawn shivered when Elsa closed the door. She understood that this time was for Paul and Lila and their newborn, so why did she suddenly feel left out?
“There’s a good place,” Elsa said pointing to a bench on the far side of Lila’s garden.
Dawn followed along recalling how she and Lila had often worked in the garden together. And how Paul had built the bench from a fallen tree branch he had found in the woods. It was sturdy enough, though he would have been sturdier if Paul had been permitted to cut down a tree instead of picking from the decaying ones on the ground. But the villagers were not allowed to cut the trees or hunt the animals. The woods, and all in it, belonged to their feudal lord Roland Gerwan the Earl of Carrick.
Elsa sat, the bench creaking under her ample weight. “So you have been without a voice since you were born?”
Dawn nodded.
“You made not a sound when you were born? Not a cry, grunt or groan?”
Dawn shook her head. Elsa looked perplexed as most people did.
“Usually, at least in my experience, a voiceless person can still manage a grunt or a groan. Never have I known someone to be completely voiceless. It is quite odd. How do you manage to speak with others?”
Dawn held up her hands and then snatched up a stick off the ground and did a quick drawing of the cottage.
Elsa smiled, her full cheeks plumping. “Amazing. Your drawing helps you to communicate. You are talented.”
Dawn gave a nod of thanks.
“I wish there was something I could do to help you. But I fear that since you were born voiceless, there is nothing that can be done. It was simply meant to be.”
Dawn had never thought, hoped, or prayed that one day she would suddenly start speaking. She had accepted her lot a long time ago. This was who she was, a voiceless person, not that she could not make herself heard, though she had learned that silence had its own rewards.