alastair macleod 
The Hebridean 

’The wind was from the sea and the smoke drifted over the links to the land beyond.
He had noted the wind. The air never seemed still here.

He had learned his bride’s name from Morfor.
She was called Mairwen, the fair one.
He would soon see. He hoped for some signs of the fairness, for so far she had been so cloaked and covered in feathers that he could not say, except that her eyes were of amber and the lips nicely shaped. Thick dark hair had strewn out below the feathers indicating vigour’