Her Healing Touch.

Chapter 5.

       "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, MY SISTER IS GONE? YOU FOOL!"

Laird Richard Baldie said as he shouted at his first in command,  Fergus.

    "I mean what I say, Laird..., she's no longer at her cottage. Her clothing and her other belongings are no longer within the cottage. It looked like she was in a hurry to flee too!"

I swore silently under my breath. Many people thought that Bella was my sister, but that was untrue, she was a bastard born and was found by my late father when she was a newborn in the forest. No one knew how she ended up there, but at the time, my father didn't care. My mother lost her baby two nights prior and it was a girl, so when father was out scouting his lands and conversing with the villagers, he happened to hear the sound of a baby cry in the forest. When he investigated after the sound, and found her lying next a dead woman's body, father immediately gave the poor woman a Christian funeral and vowed to himself to take in the baby and raise her as his own. So that is how I so happened to get a sister.

However, mother was unhappy the day that father brought her home. She immediately regarded the child as one of father's bastard children, and hated her from the start.

I later found out the truth when I was a teenager after I had an argument with my mother. After I found out the truth, I made sure to watch her closely as she grew up. Later when she was thirteen, my mother became ill in the head. I didn't want the headache to deal with the old crone, so when she was lost in thought, and standing by the open window in her bedchamber, I pushed her and she fell to her death. I blamed Bella, and made her flee the keep soon after.

She was lucky though. The old lady who lived on the outer edge of the village, took her in and taught her the healing arts, which allowed Bella to stay away from the castle. This suited me just fine growing up. Now, however my situation has changed. I needed a wife, and what better way than to have relations with a woman whom you knew intimately, instead of seeking out one. My thoughts on Bella were interrupted when Angus, my second in command came through the servant's entrance to inform me, that Robert Crane wished to speak to me in private.

"My Laird..., I know where that evil sister of yours, fled to."

      "WELL, WHY ARE YOU HESITATING? SPEAK!"

Robert swallowed deeply and sneered at him. It was a shame that their clan was being run by a greedy and selfish man, like the present laird. He too had a secret that no one knew about, the legitimacy of their current laird. Robert knew that if he had his way, he would be the laird instead of Richard. He was, in fact, Richard's elder brother and should be the one to be in charge! Too bad, that this was a fact that Richard's late mother Iona Baldie had kept hidden from her late husband..., Donald.

      "That 'Witch', ran off with a large and strong man. I think you know him..., his name is Laird Cambryn Mckladdon. I smashed my fist upon the desk and gritted my teeth tightly. It just had to be my worst enemy to take Bella away from me. Thinking about the Mckladdon, made me remember a beautiful girl I came upon in surprise one day. When I raped her all those years ago and killed her and had one of my men take her back to her family and inform them of her death, I could remember clearly how satisfied I felt when the previous laird felt discovered who the girl was, and how I inflicted damage and sorrow on our enemies...The Mckladdon clan.  This could prove to be the perfect opportunity, I thought as I rubbed my chin in glee. Certainly, I could pay a visit to the Mckladdon lands again, of course with the company of my army and either I could take Bella by force or try to find a way into their stronghold.

      "CRANE! DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY CURRENT ENEMIES BESIDES MYSELF THAT THE MCKLADDIN'S ARE FIGHTING AGAINST?"

      "I know that their current enemy is the McKenzie's. In fact, the reason why Cambryn was here on our lands was that he became injured from a blow that he suffered from Laird McKenzie's broadsword." He replied to me in a conniving voice. I strode over to the bell pull and rang for Fergus to come to the solar. When Fergus arrived, I whispered quietly so that Robert could not hear my command. Robert looked at Richard and wondered what the secret words were that he had spoken to Fergus.

     "So what are we to do Laird? How are we to proceed with rescuing that Witch of a sister of yours?"

I picked up the empty wooden bowl that sat at my right side and threw it at Robert's head.

      "BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU CALL MY SISTER A WITCH! IF I HAVE TO HEAR THE 'W' WORD  COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH ONE MORE TIME..., I WILL COMMAND FERGUS TO RIP OUT YOUR TONGUE WITH HIS DAGGER! 

DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Thankfully Robert was able to duck before the bowl hit him, and he gave Richard an ugly look and feigning obedience, Robert bowed to his brother and then he made his way out of the solar and began making plans of his own to deal with Bella and his weak and pathetic son Kellen!