3. The stranger
1482 A.D., Scotland
The pile of wood weighed down on Sidheag’s slender shoulders, while she hurried down the path which would have taken her home. The sun had set and the moon wasn’t bright enough to light the path. But she knew every nook and cranny of these parts, every tree root, every stone and every bush in that wood, so she carried on confidently.
She would survive.
She had sworn to do it, despite the fact that Bran had been taken away from her in the worst possible time, before their union had been recognised by God and by the Flaith. Even her father had had to leave for war and so she had been forced to go live on her sister Fionnaghal and her husband Barrfhionn’s isolated farm.
Now her sister’s belly was swollen and Barrfhionn looked at her in an inappropriate
