Daughter of a Ranger

Prologue

Alyss looked around the room in the tower. She had been taken silently in Celtica and swapped with a look-a-like. She rubbed her rounding stomach. Will was going to be so worried about her and the baby.

The room was round, like in a tower. It was boring and drab and Alyss knew she was going to be bored. Deparnieux's son, Oracle had put her here.

The baby was going to be born in a few months. She knew that it was going to be put to work by Oracle and so was she. They were going to be servants. She didn't know what the diversion was going to be, because Will would notice straight away that the look-a-like wasn't her.

This place reminded her of when she was locked in the tower in Malcolm's fief. She was scared. She didn't know why she was here, or what she was going to have to do.

All she could do was wait to see if Will would come and get her.

...

Halt, Gilan, Horace, Evanlyn, and Pauline were having coffee with Will. They knew how deeply he was feeling Alyss' loss after her recent death. But he wasn't even having coffee, he wasn't eating anything.

He didn't care about life.

The others knew that something must run deeper, as Will was on the brink of suicide.

"Will. We know that you are sad about Alyss' death. But why are you not eating anything? You haven't spoken in a week." Pauline said, knowing that she would have to take the first step.

Will looked up miserably. "You wouldn't understand."

Halt put his hand on Will's shoulder. "Will. Tell us."

Will took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn't want to talk about it, but the others had to know. "Alyss was three weeks pregnant when she died."

The others exchanged glances. They now knew the reason why he was extra gloomy. He had lost his soul mate and his unborn child.

Evanlyn walked forward and gave him a hug. She started to cry. She didn't know what it was like, but she knew that she wanted to be there for him.

They all did.