by Sky Winters
“Gourds?” she said quizzically.
“You’ll see. Take that stuff back to your hut and I’ll be there soon with the wood and tools to build your cot,” he told her. Anna nodded and left with the armload of things he had given her. The camp was beginning to get a bit fuller with people she assumed were returning from elsewhere. Several of them looked at her curiously as she passed and a few greeted her politely or introduced themselves. She had to admit she felt a bit awkward here among strangers as she ducked into her hut to hide out until Rory arrived. He was only minutes behind her.
“Let’s get this done. It is getting late and I want to start a boar on the spit for our dinner,” he replied.
“Our dinner?” she replied.
“Yes, unless you are planning on going out and slaying game of your own, I expected we would eat together,” he told her.
“I am afraid I lack any hunting skills,” she told him.
“I am not surprised. They don’t usually teach such things to royalty,” he replied.
“Royalty?” she said, her heart suddenly beating rapidly in her chest.
“Yes. You didn’t really think I didn’t know who you are, did you, Murdina?” he said with a smile.
“Are you going to send me back to my brother?” she asked fearfully.
“No. Your brother is a monster. I know that he was trying to wed you to Lord Cannon. Both of their reputations are known far and wide and you will find that no one here supports them. However, it would be best that you keep your identity between the two of us. No one here would try to ransom or reward you back to him, but we do have some people who talk too much. I don’t think any of them will recognize you on their own,” he said.
“How did you?” she asked him.
“Let’s just say I’ve spent a great deal of time in the kingdom bartering without being noticed. You are not the only one your brother would like to see come to a miserable end,” he said.
“Thank you, Rory. It means a lot to me that you would help me even knowing that I lied to you and that I have such a terrible sibling on my trail,” she said.
“He and his knights do not frighten us and we won’t let them frighten you either as long as you are here,” he replied. Murdina stood there with tears falling down her face. It felt good to be safe and not scared of him finding out about her and sending her away. Relief truly washed over her as he pulled her to him and held her close, smoothing her hair with his broad hands. She jerked away as they were interrupted by one of the men in the camp clearing his throat in the doorway.
“You need help, Rory?” he asked.
“That would be great,” Rory replied, not bothering to explain why she had been in his arms. “Duncan, this is Anna. She will be staying with us for a while. There are some men following her and if they are stupid enough to follow her here, I will need help in making sure she is kept safe. I need that kept between us.”
“Understood,” Duncan replied before turning toward her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Anna. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“Pleasure is all mine. Thank you, Duncan,” she replied. Wiping the last of her tears away, she moved to one side while the two men began working on a bed for her. It didn’t take long for them to finish it, leaving her a sturdy wooden frame with a heavy animal fur suspended firmly in its center. It would be warm and comfortable.
“That all you need? Duncan asked Rory.
“Can you slap me together a small table for the other side for her?” Rory asked.
“Better than that. I have one already built that I was going to barter. I’ll give her that one and make another in the morning,” he said.
“I don’t have anything to pay you with,” Anna interjected.
“You’ve no need to pay me. We work together here. At some point, I’ll need a favor and when I do, I trust I can ask you,” he said with a smile before saying a farewell.
“Let’s get these gourds up,” Rory said, using a sharp pointed piece of metal to poke holes near the top and string the chord through them. She watched as he suspended them from the entrance to the hut, getting them into place just before Duncan returned with the table. He cursed as they clacked all around his head when he entered. Rory laughed and looked at her. “And that is what you need gourds for. We will have to find you a makeshift door of some sort. In the meantime, you’ll know if anyone tries to come in before they get to you. More importantly, the people around you will know, as well.”
Duncan sat the table to one side of the hut and rubbed his head where the gourds had hit it. “Is this a good place?” he asked her.
“It’s perfect. Thank you, Duncan,” she replied. He nodded and left the hut.
“Alright, I’m going to get to work on that pig. Settle in the best you can with what you have to work with and I’ll be back to fetch you in a while. You have a bed and covers now, so if you just want to stretch out and rest for a while, you are safe and can do that. I promise no one will harm you here,” he told her.
“Thank you again, Rory. I just don’t know how I will ever be able to thank you enough for all you are doing for me,” she replied.
“You have been greatly wronged, your highness. I promise you that not only will I keep you safe, I will see to it that you are returned to your rightful place,” he told her.
“Perhaps my rightful place wasn’t in a palace, after all,” she replied. “I think you might want to just stick with calling me Anna. I might well become a permanent name for me.”
“We will see, Anna,” he said with a smile before leaving, carefully navigating the long strand of gourds to one side as he went out.
Anna looked around at her sparse accommodations. It wasn’t much, but it beat sleeping out in the woods with the insects and wild animals like she had expected to when she had left the palace. She lay the covers across her bed and placed the drinking vessel on the table before climbing beneath them and falling into an exhausted sleep. When she awoke, it was just beginning to get dark outside and it had cooled considerably from the warm day. Stepping outside, she found a pile of things sitting at her hut door.
“They are gifts from the camp,” Duncan told her. She had not even seen him standing nearby and the sound of his voice startled her. “I didn’t mean to alarm you. We have a patrol that begins as night falls. There are always a few of us keeping an eye on camp once the daylight passes. There are few that dare venture into these parts, but we like to be prepared. Anyway, those things are yours to keep.”
“I can’t believe how kind everyone here is,” she told him.
“We can be as brutal as we are kind. We believe that you reap what you sow here,” he told her. Anna merely nodded, not sure how she should respond to that. She busied herself retrieving the items that had been left for her as he made his way to elsewhere in the camp. There were pots, pans, trinkets and even food. A tightly wound cloth revealed assorted dried jerky and fruit. Another revealed hard bread and a jar full of some sort of jam. There was even a simple dress, a much needed one at that. She only had the one she was wearing and it wasn’t her own. She had traded her own dress to a stable boy for the horse and his riding clothes.
“Anna?” she heard Rory call from outside the hut.
“Come in, Rory,” she replied. He stepped through, pushing the gourds to one side and smiled at her.
“I see the village has left their customary welcome gifts,” Rory laughed, looking at the table’s contents.
“Yes. Everyone is so wonderful here,” she replied.
“They are, for the most part. I’d avoid the widow O’Connor for a bit. She is a hopelessly bitter woman, but a sublime seamstress. I’d wager it is she that left you the dress,” he said, motioning toward the garment she had lain across the bed.
“I’ll keep that in mind, though I would like to thank her for the dress,” she replied.
“I’ve got the pig on the spit and need to get back to it. Would you like to join me and talk for a bit while it cooks?” he asked.
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“I would love to,” she replied, walking toward him. He turned to leave and she followed him out. Rather than making a beeline to the spit, he stopped off and introduced her to several of the other people that lived in the camp. She could see others watching them from a distance, no doubt wondering who she was and where she had come from.
“Where were you before you came here?” she asked him as they sat looking into the fire.
“My family had a village not far from here. We lived in peace while your father was alive, but after he passed, your brother wanted us off the land. He had his knights come to our village in the night and burn it down, murdering anyone that might oppose them. Those of us that managed to escape or fight our way out survived in the woods for a while before coming here. I found this place and then sought out other survivors to join me here,” he said.
“You are the highland rebels!” Anna suddenly exclaimed, only just now making the connection.
“Is that what they call us in the kingdom?” he laughed. “Rebels? It wasn’t us that started this.”
“Then why would you shelter me? We are enemies,” she said.
“We are not enemies. Your brother is my enemy and he is just as much an enemy to you. Do you know why he wanted to marry you off to Lord Cannon?’ he asked.
“To be rid of me, no doubt. He has kept me under lock and key out of his way since our father died. It was his way of being done with me once and for all without having to actually kill me, though he would have been fine with it if Lord Cannon had chosen to do so,” she replied.
“Perhaps that is true, but it is not the main reason. He wanted more land. Land he couldn’t just take from an unsuspecting clan of Highlanders. Lord Cannon agreed to sell him the land he wanted in exchange for you,” he told her.
“What? Why? Lord Cannon could choose from any woman in the kingdom,” she replied.
“All but one. He couldn’t just choose you and you have something very valuable to him,” he replied.
“I have nothing special,” she said.
“You have royal blood. Marrying you, makes him family and there are a lot of advantages to that sort of leverage. There is even more of it if you conceive a royal heir to the throne,” he said, watching her eyes widen.
“Never! I’d rather die first!” she said.
“Yes, I saw that on the cliffs. It is how I knew you were worth saving,” he said softly.
Anna remained quiet, looking into the fire as the night fell around them. It was a lot to digest, but she had no doubt that any of it was true. He brother was even more diabolical than she could have imagined, burning out an entire village just to take their land. She felt ashamed that this was the legacy for which her family would become known.
“I will never go back there,” she told Rory suddenly.
“That is up to you, but either way . . . your brother has to go. You understand that, don’t you?” he said.
“Yes, I do,” she replied.
“Good. Let’s eat and talk of something more pleasant. Would you like some wine?” he asked.
“Yes. I would love some!” she told him. It was considered unladylike for her to drink wine under her brother’s iron thumb, but here, the rules no longer applied. She and Rory sat by the fire eating sections of the perfectly roasted pig and drinking wine until they were full and a bit tipsy. No doubt their laughter could be heard all across the camp as they shared more pleasant stories of their childhoods.
“I guess I best get you back home,” he told her as the fire began to die out and it grew late.
“I suppose so,” she replied as she stood and held out a hand to help her up. Before she could register what was happening, he bent down and pulled her to him, kissing her passionately. No man had ever kissed her like that before and she felt that same shockwave she had when he had touched her earlier. She had only just met this man and in one day, he had saved her, given her shelter and made her feel more womanly than anyone ever had. She let out a deep sigh as he pulled away from her.
“I’m sorry. That was inappropriate,” he told her.
“I don’t mind,” she replied. He wasted no time in pulling her back to him and kissing her again. It made her insides quiver as she felt a sudden rush of heat spread through her body. Folded into his arms like this, she knew nothing could harm her. She felt safe and she felt wanted. Even more, she wanted him.
“Let me walk you back to your hut, before we do something we shouldn’t,” he said as he pulled himself away again.
She could tell he was as heated as she was. She didn’t want to go back to her but, but she knew it was best. She took his hand and they began walking back. He left her at the door with only a kiss on the cheek. Anna went inside and lay down, her thoughts jumbled with thoughts of what it might be like to make love to a man such as Rory. He was a Highlander, a fighter whose people were well known for their skill on the battlefront. There was no doubt that he could be as brutal as he needed to be, but that was hard to reconcile with the kindness and generosity he had shown her this day.
The months that followed would change Anna’s life forever, more than it had already changed. Just as she had expected, her brother’s knights had come for her again. This time, all the way into the depths of the woods. The men had protected the small village the best they could, but when it was breached, Anna had found herself standing face to face with the very knight that had attempted to drive her from the cliffs.
“Well, look what we have here. If it isn’t the missing princess,” he growled.
“I’ll go with you. Just leave these people alone,” she told him.
“That is very nice of you to offer, but I have my instructions. I’ll be taking you back with me and relieving these people of their mortal coils,” he told her.
“You’d be better suited to worry about your own,” came a voice from behind him. Anna looked down to see blood soaking his shirt around the tip of a sword that had been driven through his back and out his front. As he dropped to the ground, she found herself face to face with the Widow O’Connor smiling at her. Anna wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but didn’t have time to consider it as she was suddenly pulled away by Rory.
“I want you in the cave,” he shouted, pushing toward that direction.
“No. I will earn my keep. Give me a sword,” she shouted back at him.
“No, Anna. Earn your keep elsewhere. This is not your fight!” he yelled back at her.
“It is my fight. They came here for me,” she told him, pulling herself free and yanking the sword from the now dead knight before running off in the opposite direction.
Rory ran after her, fighting by her side as they defending the village against the knights that had not already tucked tail and run. It was a gory business and Anna found herself repulsed by it, but it was something that needed to be done and she was not going to sit in a cave and hide while people died because of her, but there were so many of them. It seemed the more they fought off, the more came through the woods for them.
As she fought one off, another one suddenly lunged through and fell upon Rory, pinning him to the ground. She ran toward him, raising her sword, but stopped it in midair as she watched something completely unbelievable. He was changing before her eyes. It didn’t make sense, but as you looked at him in disbelief, she saw him change shapes. Fur sprouted from everywhere and he suddenly rose high above the knight as one of the largest black bears she had ever seen. A few swipes with his tremendous paws and the knight was no longer moving.
Anna continued to watch as the large bear made its way around the camp, taking out any knight that dared come through the woods. After a while, there were no more and other bears began emerging from the woods and approaching various huts. They stood there long enough to be certain no more knights were coming before shifting back into their human states. Rory, Duncan, and a half dozen others retreated into their homes. She stood there, looking shocked, until Rory reappeared and told her to come with him. She allowed
him to walk her to his cave, despite her shock.
“Anna, I know what you just saw was frightening for you,” he said.
“Something like that,” she replied, still a bit in shock.
“I should have told you before you saw it. We normally don’t have to change in camp. We fight our battles elsewhere,” he said.
“You turned into a bear,” she said slowly as if in a dream.
“Yes. The McKordia Clan has a high prevalence of shape shifters. Many of us are capable of turning into bears,” he told her.
“I’m in love with a bear,” she said.
“You’re in love with me?” he said.
“I don’t know,” she said, feeling confused.
“I’m still me, Anna. Sometimes, yes, I turn into a bear,” he said softly as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
“I was frightened of you,” she told him.
“You have no need to be frightened of me. Even in a bear state, I know who my enemies are and who they are not,” he told her.
“It is just so unnatural,” she replied.
“To you, it seems unnatural. For me, I’ve never known anything but this,” he told her, pulling her close to him. “I love you too, Anna. I love you more than I know how to say.”
She pulled away from him and looked up with a weak smile. He pulled her right back to him and kissed her the way he had been kissing her all these nights since the first one they had shared. Tonight, she had no intentions of letting him send her home with just kisses. She could feel the warmth of his body pressing against hers as she leaned into him, guiding his hands around her waist so that her ample bosom was pressed against him.
“Let’s get you home,” he told her, pulling away.
“No. I want to stay here,” she told him.
“Anna, we can’t,” he replied.
“Why not?” she asked.
“You are royalty. I’m just common,” he told her.
“I am not royalty. Once upon a time, I was, but not anymore. Now, I’m just a woman living in a small village with a bunch of human bears and a crazed widow,” she replied.