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“You cannot possibly care for everyone,” he assured her.
“I can try,” she said emphatically.
“You are but one person.”
“If not one than how many,” she snapped. “How many will it take to help those in need, those suffering, those children that wander alone, hungry and frightened.”
She certainly made him feel the selfish fool.
“You are good with children,” she said more calmly. “You will make a good father.”
“When the time is right,” Lachlan said.
“There is a right time for children?” she asked curiously and answered her own question. “I always thought a babe chose his time.”
“I will wed and have children in my time,” Lachlan confirmed with a nod.
“You are so sure.”
“I know what I want, and I will have it all in good time.”
“How nice for you,” she said with a gentle smile. “To be so sure of what your life will bring.”
“I am confident I will find the perfect woman to wed,” he said with a teasing glint and was surprised when she scrambled to her feet, a sudden scowl on her face, and he worried that he somehow upset her.
“I must go. I will be gone for a few days.”
He jumped to his feet, intending to stop her from running from him, while wondering why she felt the need. “I will go with you.”
“No, I will go myself.”
“No, you will not,” he argued.
“You have no right to dictate to me. I obey the church, not a Sinclare. Where I go you will not be welcome.”
“Then you will not go,” he ordered, thinking her too stubborn for her own good.
Her hands went to her round hips and the smirk on her face dared him to challenge her again. “I go where I please.”
“I am here to protect—”
“We protect ourselves! You remain here out of our generosity! Do not for once think you can command me!”
Lachlan stood staring at Sister Terese, the force of her voice and her commanding stance made him look twice to be sure he spoke with the same woman.
“Sister Terese,” Piper said appearing out of nowhere. “I need to speak with you.”
The two were gone in a flash, Sister Terese acknowledging her departure with nothing more than a bare nod.
He wasn’t sure of what had just happened, but he knew one thing. Sister Terese wouldn’t be going anywhere without him.
Chapter 7
Terese took a deep breath and walked around the back of the common shelter with Piper. Once out of Lachlan’s sight she took another deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and dropped back against the rough-hewn wall.
“You nearly lost your temper,” Piper said, though not accusingly.
Terese’s eyes popped open and she sighed with a nod. “He got me so mad, dictating to me.”
Megan approached having seen the whole exchange and followed the two sisters. “We have gotten too used to being on our own, with no one to give us orders, no one to command our lives. We live as we please.”
“I like it,” Piper said.
“As do we all,” Megan agreed, “which is another good reason we should find a new home.”
“Unfortunately, the search must wait,” Terese said. “We have more important matters.”
She shared the news about the mercenaries with Megan and the woman paled.
“What are we to do?” Megan asked anxiously.
Terese motioned for the two to follow her. They made their way a few feet into the woods where the dense trees and thick foliage concealed them from prying eyes and ears.
“I am going to speak with the mercenaries,” Terese said.
Megan objected with a firm shake of her head. “That’s much too dangerous. You take a serious chance of being harmed.”
“Not if I arrive wearing my nun garments and with news that would benefit them,” Terese suggested. “This would surely put me in their good graces and in turn benefit us. Besides, I must learn their intentions here.”
Megan stopped shaking her head. “It is an idea that could work, but it still remains dangerous.”
“I thought the same,” Piper added. “Though what other way is there?”
Megan nodded and asked, “Piper will go with you?”
“Yes, I need her. And it is wise that we take our leave as soon as possible and have done with this matter,” Terese said, “though I will need your help in distracting Lachlan. He thinks to come with me.”
A scream interrupted any response and excited, though unintelligible shouts followed. All three women hurried to see what the commotion was about. In the end it was the unexpected fuss that gave Terese and Piper the cover they needed to sneak away.
The three women were startled to see Beatrice and Harry fling themselves into the arms of a tired and ragtag couple who would have dropped if it had not been for the children’s hardy embrace.
That Beatrice and Harry should be reunited with their mother and father, everyone agreed, was nothing short of a miracle. Some chaos pursued since everyone seemed to be talking at once, while the children, teary-eyed, clung to their parents. Neither children nor parents expected ever to see each other again. They had been separated in the mayhem of a battle that had spilled onto their farm. The children witnessed the carnage and believed their parents dead. The frightened brother and sister left thinking they had no one but each other. Ever since that day the parents, George and Gelda, had searched tirelessly for them.
