Wee William's Woman, Book Three of the Clan MacDougall Series by Suzan Tisdale

any good, strong male influence in her life. The same could be said for John as well as Nora. She could barely remember the last time she was made to feel deserving of anyone’s kindness or charity, let alone the feeling of being liked as a person.
    Nora only half listened to her little sister who happily chatted away about all manner of things, from faeries to ogres, her time at Castle Firth, her favorite foods, flowers, and colors. Daniel, bless him, was thoughtful enough to listen patiently and only occasionally interjected with his own opinions.
    Every so often, Daniel would hand Elise off to John while he and David would break away to scout for any signs of interlopers, the English, or other ne’er-do-wells. It went on like that all throughout the morning.
    While Elise asked a million questions, chattered incessantly about nearly every topic under the sun, Nora contemplated the future. Slowly, doubt began to creep in. She prayed she hadn’t made a mistake by agreeing to go north instead of south.
    When she had made the decision to go to Scotland with Wee William and his men, she had not given much thought to what would happen afterward. Her only thought at that time was getting John and Elise as far from Firth and Penrith as she could. But now? She worried about how would she support her family, how would she make a living and where would they live.
    She had been so caught up by their offer of help to free her brother and sister, as well as their offer of protection, she hadn’t given much thought to anything else. Had she not been so desperate, so anxious to get away from the cottage that held so many bad memories, would she have made a different decision? Had she not been so anxious to get to John and Elise, would she have been able to think more clearly?
    The further away they rode from the only home she’d ever known, the more worried she became. While it was true that they couldn’t have survived the trip to southern England with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and an ox-driven cart, at least there she would feel some semblance of familiarity. She very well could have secured a position in a manor home or a castle or perhaps as a seamstress with a dressmaker shop. That was if they had survived the trip.
    The more she contemplated her current situation the more frustrated she became. She cursed herself for making such a hasty decision with no thought to the future.
    Wee William could sense her unease for she had begun to sit upright. Her fingers worried and rubbed the seam on her cloak.
    “Something bothers ye, lass?” he finally asked. His soft yet deep voice startled her.
    Nora did not want to seem ungrateful for their help and kindness. How on earth could she tell him she was having second thoughts without seeming ungrateful or immature?
    “Ye worry over the future,” It was a statement, not a question.
    Nora turned abruptly to face him. “How do you know that?”
    His lips curled into a warm smile before answering. “Ye wear yer heart on yer sleeve, lass. I suspect I’d be worryin’ over it as well, were I wearin’ yer shoes.”
    Nora turned away and shrugged her shoulders. What difference did it make what she worried over? She had made the decision and must follow through with it. They were too far away to turn back now. Besides, she didn’t have the heart to ask them to make such a sacrifice. She also worried that if she voiced her concerns they might just leave her and the children here, alone and in the middle of nowhere, without any means of going back. ’Twould serve her right for being so foolish.
    Wee William chuckled softly and gave her waist a slight squeeze with his arm. “Lass, ’twould make sense that ye worry over yer future and that ye’d long fer yer homeland. I fear ye worry that ye made a decision in haste when we offered to help ye, am I right?”
    Nora wondered how on earth he was able to read her mind!   “I worry over all manner of things, William, but it