1
I awoke as though in a dream. I imagined I lay in my father’s strong arms, and he carried me through a dark forest like those that stood at the far end of the farthest hay fields.
“A lady shouldn’t need to walk,” he teased me.
“But I am not a lady. . .” I murmured.
He smiled down at me and his face changed. No longer was he my father, but the young Laird Campbell. The world around us, too, changed. The forest melted away and was changed to the dark halls of Castle Campbell.
“You will be,” he promised me.
My eyes widened, and the dream vanished. I lifted my head and looked around me in bewilderment. Gone was the laird’s strong arms, and in their place was the cold, hard floor of the passage outside my room. I lay atop the rough dirt and cool stones beside the open door. Mary
