My True Love Read Online Free

she nodded once, a sharp jab of chin. Concession, then, in a gesture.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    A nne thought that the only jarring note to their journey was the ease with which it was accomplished. Her parents had departed two days earlier for Edinburgh. It was a coincidence of timing due more to her father’s wish to sign the Solemn League and Covenant than to happenstance. But to Anne it was as unexpected as it was blessed. It made their own departure from Dunniwerth one performed without explanations.
    They wound their way south from Dunniwerth. A strange procession comprised of herself, Hannah and Ian, the tormenter of her childhood now grown and one of her father’s most trusted soldiers. Douglas, a sweet young man of slow wits and amiable disposition, made the fourth.
    Hannah lost no opportunity to voice her displeasure of this quest. Ian seconded each complaint. He’d refused to accompany her at first, had agreed to do so only afer she’d made it clear that she would continue her journey with or without him.
    “Tell me why you’re set to go to England, at least,” he’d said.
    She’d studied him for a long moment, wondering if he would understand something so fey as her visions, her dreams of Stephen. Or would he ridicule her just as he had when they were children? She’d said nothing, remaining silent even in the face of his obvious disapproval.
    Anne felt suspended in time as the days passed, neither wishing to go back, but almost afraid to reach their destination.
    What would she say to Stephen when she found him? I have seen you since you were a boy. Do you remember the time you raced over the meadow? Your horse threw you, and you lay there for the longest time. I was afraid you were dead. But then you began to laugh, arms and legs flung out on the grass, your face lifted to the sun .
    A hundred memories. She’d become accustomed to his presence in her life. A nightly ritual. Washing her face and hands, kneeling for her prayers, scrambling in between the sheets and waiting until sleep came. At that moment before dreams, murmuring his name. A blessing or perhaps a summons. It did not often happen, but when the visions came, when she saw him, she smiled her way into her dreams.
    She was a Sinclair, and Sinclairs were always brave. A family motto if not a clan’s. She would need her courage. Not only if she did find him, but more importantly if she did not.
    You do not even know if he’s real . Hannah’s words. The only rebuttal? The image of Stephen laughing at something hidden from her. The sight of him standing so straight and tall atop the tower, staring into the distance as if he could see his future there and anticipated it. A hidden fist clenched as he endured his father’s harsh words. She’d watched as he sat intent upon his studies and other times when he’d laughed with abandon.
    Could she have simply wanted him to be real so much that she had imagined him? No.
    As an only child, sometimes she had been lonely. Her free hours had been spent in drawing and imagining. She was, upon occasion, even known to talk to Stephen as if he were a playmate she’d devised for herself. There were nights when she’d begged for another story from Gordon, who was talented in such things. She had sat there captivated by heroes and mystics, curses and prophecies.
    She could not deny that she had been a child immersed, sometimes, in a world of her own creating. Even her sketches mirrored her love of fantasy.
    But she had not imagined Stephen. Not a boy with midnight blue eyes and a dimple on his left cheek. Not a man with a tiny scar near his right eye.
    If she had dreamed him, she would have made him less sober these last years. Given him a smile that came more often. She would have given him back the laughter he seemed to have lost in his childhood.
    He was real. He had to be. And somehow she needed to find him.
    It was not fancy that sent her on this journey. Nor boredom. She had been to Edinburgh twice, and the