Charlet was quick to follow. "Can I ride her?"
"Not today."
"When?"
Connor finally stopped and turned to the girl. He found her attentions flattering, but he could do without them. Even so, she was very young and he always tried not to hurt her feelings. Experience taught him that paying her just a little notice was enough to get her to go away. "This horse belongs to Angus. You must ask him if you wish to ride."
"But Angus is an old man and he is grumpy."
Connor smiled. "True."
His smile was all Charlet needed. Her heart fluttered, she made her excuse and hurried away. As soon as she did, Connor glanced up the path just in time to see Rachel duck back inside her cottage.
*
It was true. Rachel was just a child when she came to live in the MacGreagor hold. She loved it there and all the people in it, save Connor. She thought him a twit of a man. He was too quick on his feet and she was hardly ever able to sneak up on him these days. It infuriated her. The last time she tried, he spotted her and asked her to marry him.
Marry him? The man was daft! Marriage was the last thing on her mind and she certainly wasn't going to end up with Connor. Why should she? All of the young men wanted her, she could tell. Some of the older men wanted her too, but every time she got one of "those" looks, she threatened to break an arm. She could do it too, her mother's friend, Athena, taught her how.
It saddened everyone when Athena died. They mourned the loss of her for the better part of two weeks before anyone could smile again.
When Rachel was younger, Kevin let her learn how to fight the boys using a wooden sword with a rounded tip. But he stopped that pleasure when she was ten and now she was only allowed to watch the men train. She watched their successes, their failures and planned how she could do it better. She even knew how to fix a broken nose by watching them.
*
Rachel studied the warriors practicing in the meadow nearly every day from behind a tree in the forest and this afternoon, she was especially fascinated. In the midst of the men in the meadow, Connor was challenging Kevin. Connor was one of their best fighters and more often than she cared to admit, she admired his skill -- but that was all she admired.
She heard someone coming and turned to find her sister, Anna, walking to her. "Have you come to watch the lads fight?"