Ann Carr Read Online Free Page A

family were experiencing should have gone a long way to calming her own nerves and if it wasn’t for her own feeling of doom perhaps it would. But before she had any more time to analyze her feelings her father’s big voice boomed down the table.
    “Elizabeth! I want to talk to you now!” and with that announcement he pushed himself up from the table and stalked towards the hearth not looking behind to see if she was following.
    She watched him walk as if in slow motion, as though seeing him for the first time; he was a tall man, maybe six foot, with a head of golden hair carrying only the faintest dusting of silver at the temples. He was approaching his fiftieth birthday but still had the powerful build of a warrior and the blood thirst of a man half his age.
    He turned and his eyes met Elizabeth’s for a fleeting instant, Elizabeth would have sworn that in that moment a look of regret seemed to pass through her father’s eyes. But then he turned away and it was gone, only an image in her mind which she quickly rejected.
    Slowly she approached her father; he had his back to her, facing the roaring fire in the enormous hearth. He turned again when he sensed her presence behind him and indicating a stool to his side he bid her to sit in the gentlest voice she had ever heard leave his lips in all her nineteen years. Feeling as though she was in a dream she quickly sat down before her now wildly trembling legs gave way beneath her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, she was in a state of shock before she had even heard what her father had to say, but it was his gentle voice which had sent her senses scrambling.
    Taking the large oak chair opposite his daughter, Gabriel leaned forward slightly, so that his elbows were resting on his knees. He raised his head so that his gaze met hers before beginning his story.
    “What I’m about to tell you is not something that I’m particularly proud of, or something that I’ve ever had the need to tell another living soul!” He paused as though searching for the right words to begin. “When I was nine years old my father sent me away to live under the protection of Lord Arthur, where I was trained and taught the art of becoming a knight. By the time I turned sixteen I was the biggest and strongest apprentice there, graduating to knighthood two years earlier than expected.
    “Just after I turned seventeen I went to Scotland, alongside Lord Arthur to fight with my countrymen as we held Castle McKinnock under siege. It was my first opportunity to fight against the Scots and at that time I was eager to put the skills that I’d trained so hard to acquire into use. I was confident in my skills and had no doubt that we would walk away the victors” he paused.
    Perched on the edge of her stool, and eager to hear more of the story, Elizabeth prompted, “What happened father? Did you win?”
    Smiling, Gabriel reclined back in his chair, resting his hands on his slowly expanding stomach, he still recalled that day as if it was only yesterday; he remembered the sights, the smells, and the exhilaration of being part of a successful English siege.
    Coming back to the present, he sat up straight, “Well of course we won child, and I got to kill more Scots than even I had dreamed of. It took months, but we eventually captured the castle and claimed it as belonging to the English”, his smile was one of self-satisfaction, “And it still does!”
    “Inevitably this made me believe that I was invincible and instead of going home with Lord Arthur a group of young knights and I decided that we’d ride into a Scottish castle and capture it from behind its gates. We basked in the thought that we’d be the thing of legends!”
    “But that didn’t happen! It couldn’t have happened! For I’ve never heard it mentioned before!” Elizabeth interrupted. Puzzled. Eager to hear more.
    “Our first mistake was choosing the castle belonging to old Campbell. You see; he had the reputation of