‘Please don’t... please don’t ask me for her...’
‘I do ask you for her. I plead with you for her. Can you not understand how it would be for me to be riding such a horse when I arrive at the court of Prince David?’
Mairi sobbed and buried her face in her hands.
Fiona waited tensely for her answer and as the girl continued to sob and showed no sign of giving in, she shot her last arrow and it went home.
‘You are the devil’s child,’ she cried, ‘you have no heart! I saw the white mare in a dream and I saw myself riding it beside Sir Kenneth. Would God have shown me that vision if He did not intend it to come true?’
Mairi suddenly sat up and her face was wild and tear-stained.
‘I am not the devil’s child!’ she screamed. ‘Take it! If God meant you to have it — take it! But if you are lyin
