Hiding Katherine by GG Shalton (reading women .txt) 📗

the storage room. She escaped through the back door. A large man whistled, and she turned hoping it was Dunn and not someone else who would catch her.

“Miss? It’s me, Dunn.” He wrapped a plaid around her and placed a brown cloak over her head. “Stay quiet and follow me.” He reached for her bags and held them in front of him. She walked beside him trying to keep up with his long strides. After walking up a hill, they entered a trail in the woods. The silence was a bit deafening, but they kept walking for at least thirty minutes. Katherine tried to remember the trail, so she could backtrack to find her sister. They finally arrived near a huge hollow tree that had two horses tied to it. Dunn tied the bags to the saddle and turned to her.

“Here is where I will leave you. The tree is hollow and good protection if it starts to rain. Derrek will be here in a few hours after he is relieved of his duties for the night. They will expect him to get a few hours of sleep before he goes to the market. He will use that time to find you.”

Katherine nodded watching the man leave. She hadn’t had much time and wanted to follow him back to the keep. After he disappeared, she started back down the same trail hoping she could find her sister quickly. She stumbled over a few of the rocks trying to stay on the trail as fast as she could. A faint noise scared her as she turned around feeling a hand cover her mouth.

“Shush!! It is me.” Katherine immediately recognized the voice and stopped struggling.

“Why did you grab me like that?”

Deanna shrugged and said, “Because you were running so fast, I couldn’t yell after you in case the man heard us.”

“I was so worried!” She hugged her sister and Claudia.

Deanna whispered, “It was a miracle that we saw you come out the back door. It was dark, but I recognized your hair before that man put the cloak over you. We were hiding by the stables. After he took you up the trail, we followed you through the woods. It was quite a hike going as fast as you were. Can you believe they left two horses for us?”

Katherine shook her head. “We can’t take their horses. They would find us and punish us for sure.”

Deanna laughed. “You don’t think they will punish us anyway? Think Katherine! We can get a lot farther and faster if we have horses.”

“We can’t!”

Deanna grabbed her sister’s hand. “Katherine, listen to me. They were going to sell us both. Do you think they would give us any of that money? No! We are not theirs to sell, but that is not stopping them. We must survive Katherine, and those horses will help us. Now let’s go!”

Claudia let out a whimper and cried, “I am afraid to get on that horse—it’s too big.”

Deanna shrugged. “Then you stay here.” She mounted the horse and looked at Katherine. Katherine took a deep breath and mounted her horse. Claudia was crying but mounted behind Katherine and the girls took off through the woods of Scotland in the dark.

Katherine followed close behind Deanna trying to keep up. It was dark, and the light of the moon gave very little light. Deanna yelled back, “Let’s go through the stream and try to lose the tracks.”

Katherine followed through the stream and waited as Deanna made false tracks going back into the stream and around the trees. “This should throw them off.” She took the horses through the trail as the branches scraped the girls.

“These branches are too thick, we must find an opening.”

Deanna sighed in frustration. “Quit whining! We are dealing with warriors who can track our horses.”

“You mean their horses.”

Deanna ignored her comment and kept moving. After a few more minutes they reached an opening and took off across the field. Katherine yelled at her, “Slow down, we can’t see out here and it could be dangerous!”

A crack of thunder made Katherine jump as rain started to pour down on the girls. Deanna looked back laughing. “The tracks will wash away now. We must keep moving.”

The girls kept moving forward for a few more hours as the rain turned to sprinkles. Deanna slowed down to a stop and said, “We must rest the horses. Let’s ride near that loch and let the horses drink.”

They steered the horses near the loch and huddled underneath a tree using the blankets Katherine brought. They ignored the dropping temperatures, grateful to be free.

After a few hours, the sun peaked on the horizon. Deanna sat up and said, “Let’s go. The horses should be ready now. It’s near dawn because the sun is starting to rise.”

“I agree, Sister. Derrek should be aware of our deception by now. The laird may know too. They will not be far behind.”

Deanna stared at her not saying anything. They mounted the horses and took off toward the sun. “Let’s keep riding toward the sun.”

Katherine looked at her. “How do you know that is the right way? Which way is England?”

Deanna paused. “It has to be the right way. We have to stick to our plan.”

Chapter 5

The women kept riding all morning ignoring the rumbling in their stomachs. Katherine finally pulled out her oatcakes and shared them. It was all the food they had left. Not knowing how to hunt, they would have to find some berries to eat soon.

The woman heard some voices and they stopped the horses and looked at each other. Deanna put her finger up to her mouth to silence the women. She held her hand up for them to stay as she took her horse near the opening in the woods.

Katherine’s heart beat faster within her chest. Could they have found them? She heard her sister’s voice, unable to decipher whom she was speaking to. The trees obstructed her view as she