Chapter Twelve
“I am nae dead,” Rory finally managed to say over whoever was screeching it so loudly that it pierced his ear.
“I am, however, freezing,” he added, opening his eyes with some difficulty.
His lashes seemed stuck to his skin. When he finally did get them open, he saw faces looming over him—Iain, Lady Marion, MacLeod, Caleb, Lenora…
Lillith’s family was crowded around him, all wearing matching expressions of relief, but where was Lillith?
He started to sit up, and the crowd of MacLeods who’d been gathered to watch the ice plunge challenge cheered. Iain and Royce reached to help him up, but he waved them off. “I’m fine.”
They ignored his protest and helped him sit up, and for one moment, the world tilted around him before it righted itself once more. He locked gazes with Iain. “Did I win?”
Iain frowned, then shook his head. “Nay. When ye passed out—”
Rory quit listening. He stumbled to his feet, sweeping his gaze over the hundreds of MacLeods and his own men who were staring at him.
He didn’t see Lillith in the crowd, but his vision was a bit blurred.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he pinched the bridge of his nose and willed his vision to clear.
He’d never done an ice plunge challenge, but clearly, he’d unwittingly started holding his breath when the cold began to affect him.
“Drink this,” Iain said beside Rory.
Rory opened his eyes and took the wine skin Iain had thrust in front of Rory’s face.
He tipped up the pouch and took deep swallows, savoring the trail of warmth the wine created inside him.
Lady Marion held a bundle of blankets in her arms, and she held one out to him.
“Take this. I brought one for you and Lillith,” she said, handing him the blanket while glancing around the circle around them, frowning, and then looking toward the water.
As Rory bundled up in the blanket Lady Marion had given him, he watched her turn in circles as the expression on her face went from baffled to concerned.
His own thoughts became clearer as his body warmed.
Where the devil was Lillith? He knew she was under no obligation to give him an answer to his question tonight, given he’d lost the competition to her, but he needed to assure himself she was fine after being in the icy water.
“Where the devil is Lillith?” Lady Marion said, as if she had read Rory’s mind.
Her family glanced around as Rory shoved past them to the water’s edge with his heart now pounding in his chest. Beside him, a plump woman with gray hair stood there as he started to kneel, but she put a hand on his shoulder.
“She got out, my lord. I saw her run up the seagate stairs with her hound at her heels.”
Rory looked to the stairs, but Lillith was nowhere to be seen.
He frowned, even as he started toward them, brushing past her family, who were giving him concerned looks.
He had a bad feeling. He couldn’t explain it, but it was like a warning horn inside his head, and his instincts told him that Lillith was in trouble.
“She’s nae in the stables,” Rolland said a long spell later.
That foreboding inside of Rory increased tenfold, and a glance around the faces of Lillith’s family, all gathered in the great hall, told Rory he was not the only one worried.
“What should we do?” Lady Eve asked her husband, her voice trembling.
MacLeod looked as worried as his wife sounded, which only heightened Rory’s concern further.
“We’ve searched the entire castle and the surrounding grounds,” Lady Marion said, wringing her hands.
“Twice!” Lenora added, her face white.
“We need to send out a search party to scour further before the weather worsens,” said Lillith’s Uncle Brus.
Sebille pointed a finger at her husband. “This is yer fault!”
“My fault?” Brus bellowed. “How do ye come to that conclusion?”
“She’s right!” Lillith’s Aunt Elena chimed in, but she was not looking at her brother, Brus, as she spoke. She was looking at her husband, Rolland. She poked him in the chest. “This is yer fault, too!”
“And yours!” Lady Marion growled, glaring at Iain.
Caleb threw up his hands. “I am nae involved.”
“Nay, ye’re nae,” Lenora said. She turned to look at her and Lillith’s father. “But ye are, Da! She’s run off. I can feel it in my bones, and ye all ken Lillith and I have an instinct for what the other one is doing.”
“If you men had not insisted she wed, we’d not be standing here!” Lady Marion bit out each word as if it were a weapon she was lobbing at the head of her enemies.
They all erupted at once. Accusations flew, fists shook, faces turned red, and fingers were pointed.
The women moved to one side and the men to the other, with Rory standing in the middle watching it all.
The noise was deafening, and the arguing was a dangerous waste of time.
Each moment Lillith’s family stood here casting blame was a moment when she was out there alone in the cold, possibly in danger.
Rory didn’t know why she’d fled or where she’d fled, but he knew he loved her, and he needed to find her and ensure she was alright, whether she wanted to wed him or not, whether she’d ever lower her guards and let him in or not.
With this in mind, he lifted his fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. The moment silence fell, he said, “Stop this, this instant. Ye are all casting blame when we should be finding Lillith. We need to break up and go out there and search for her.”
“Ye’re right,” MacLeod said.
“The voice of reason,” Lady Marion added.
“I’ll gather a group of men and look to the East,” Iain said.
“I’ll do the same and go to the West,” Rolland replied.
“I’ll take the North,” Brus inserted.
“I’ll go South,” MacLeod said.
Rory was about to tell MacLeod he’d ride with him when he recalled Lillith telling him about the Wishing Tree.
He didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to go there, and he wanted to do it alone.
If she were there, he wanted her to have a private moment to tell him she didn’t want to wed him, if that’s what she needed to say, but was fearful to do it.
“I’m going to the Wishing Tree,” he said, and when all gazes fell to him, he added, “alone.”
He got questioning looks, but no one argued or asked why, and the men started departing, but Rory noted that each of them hugged their wives, despite the unresolved argument, before they left. “Lenora, can ye give me directions to the Wishing Tree?”
Lenora nodded and rushed over to him, telling him quickly the way to take to get there. When she stopped speaking, he started to turn away, but she grabbed his arm, and he faced her once more. “I’ve something I must tell ye.”
“Aye?”
She nibbled on her lip and glanced back at the women of her family who were staring in their direction, as was Caleb. “I have nae ever broken a confidence of Lillith’s.”
“Is this about the wish?” Rory asked.
Lenora nodded, her eyes widening. “She told ye?” she asked, her tone awed.
“Aye, ’tis why I want to go there. She told me of the two of ye wishing for yer da to be ‘fixed’ to make him happy again.”
“Oh.” Lenora’s shoulders drooped, and she started nibbling her lip once more. “We did do that,” she finally said, “but there’s more that she did nae tell ye.”
“What?” he asked, leaning closer to Lenora.
“Lillith made her own wish,” she whispered.
“What did she wish?” Lady Marion demanded.
“Grandmama!” Lenora cried out. “’Tis a secret.”
“It’s a secret you’ll be telling all of us,” Lady Marion replied, her tone stern, “so we can help your sister and truly understand what’s occurring.”
Lenora nodded. “Lillith made a wish when we were eight summers, and Da would nae dance with us at the Summer Solstice Feast, and he growled at Lillith when she asked him to dance with us, and—”
“Lenora!” Rory interrupted, his patience snapping. “What was the wish?”
Lenora blurted, “She wished to nae ever have her heart broken! And then the seer Eolande appeared out of thin air, and she told Lillith that if that was her wish, she needed to guard her heart and nae ever give it to a man.”
The women all groaned in unison, and Rory cursed.
“Such careless words!” Marion hissed, shaking her head, “but this explains much.” She looked to Rory. “Do ye want one of us to go with you?”
“Nay,” he said, turning and heading toward the door. “This is between Lillith and me. Nae all of ye, and nae the king.”
Lillith stumbled over a root hidden by the deep snow, fell to her knees, and dragged herself back to her feet to continue up the hill.
Masie barked, and Lillith nodded. “I see the Wishing Tree, too, girl.” She heaved a tired sigh but kept going.
Her toes had gone numb quite a while ago, which was odd, because she was dripping sweat from running to the tree.
Her lungs burned, her side pinched, and her head pounded, but she welcomed the pain.
She deserved no less. The most significant pain, however, was in her heart. The shattered pieces of it ached.
Tears blurred her eyes once more as she saw Rory lying unmoving on the ground by the watering hole.
She’d killed him with her stupid challenge!
She’d killed the man she loved! Black fright swept over her once more, and she raced the remaining distance to the tree, falling before it to the frozen ground.
Her knees immediately began to throb from the hard hit, but she ignored the fierce ache and pressed her hands to the tree, squeezing her eyes shut. Beside her, Masie snuggled close.
“Eolande!” she called out. “Eolande, hear my wish, please, please. My deepest fear is nae any longer having my heart broken, it’s losing the man I love, Rory Matheson.
He’s dead! I killed him, but I did nae mean to.
Please, please,” she sobbed, pressing her forehead to the cold bark of the tree as well as her hands.
“Please grant me this wish. I wish ye to bring him back to me. I wish to experience the joy of love. I want to take the heartache that comes with it, if only ye will hear me and grant my wish!”
When no answer came, she repeated her wish.
She repeated it until her voice was gone from crying and bellowing her wish.
She began to hit the tree until her hands ached, as Masie whined, but no response came.
She shook with fear and sadness, and a grief so strong, so deep, she was certain she might die.
She shoved herself to her feet, stinging with cold, and turned, looking almost blindly around her.
What could she do? Eolande was not answering. What could she do?
She had no notion. She’d not wanted to love him, and now she did, and he was gone.
She’d not wanted to love and have her heart broken, but by the gods, she wished she’d just loved so that she could have that joy, those memories, that time with him, as well as this sorrow.
She turned toward home, not knowing what else to do, and took tentative steps at first, but then found herself running with Masie yapping at her heels.
She needed to see Rory. To say goodbye. She pushed herself faster down the hill, and then she hit ice.
Screaming in terror, she slid for one moment before her feet flew out from under her, and she fell.
Her head met rock, and darkness consumed her.
Marion sat by the fire with Lenora, Eve, Sebillie, Elena, and now Rolland, Caleb, and Brus.
The women had talked a bit at first, but as the hours dragged on, silence fell, and each time one of the men returned, driven home by the winter storm, the mood grew a bit more somber.
The door to the solar opened once more, and Iain and Royce walked in, and they cursed in unison when their gazes fell on the other men here, but no Lillith.
Lenora burst out crying, as did Eve.
Elena reached out and took Rolland’s hand in hers, and Sebille went to Brus, leaned over him, and hugged him.
Marion rose as Iain came to stand before her. Without a word, they hugged and, in unison, said, “I’m sorry.” Marion quickly told Iain what she’d already told the other men who had returned, about the wish Lillith had made long ago and how Rory had gone to the Wishing Tree to see if she was there.
“And he’s nae returned?” Royce asked, unshed tears in his eyes. Marion’s heart twisted for her son. She knew from the raw pain on his face that he blamed himself.
She shook her head. “Nay,” she finally managed to say, past the lump in her throat.
“He’ll find her,” Iain said, his tone confident. “He’ll find her and keep them both safe until the storm passes.
Marion squeezed Iain’s hand. “I hope so.”
Iain pressed a kiss to her forehead. “He will, and when he brings her back to us, we’ll tell her then what I’ve nae had time to tell ye until now.”
“What?” she asked.
“We signed a treaty with Rory for peace.”
“I do not understand,” she said, frowning.
Iain gave a small smile. “That man has more sense than we MacLeod men,” Iain said, and to Marion’s surprise, her sons and son-in-law all nodded. “Rory will take the peace treaty to the king if Lillith declines to wed him, and he has offered to take all the blame himself.”
Marion gasped. “But you’ll not let him!”
“Of course, nae, Sassenach. I’ll go with him to face the king if it comes to that, but Rory is clever to have thought of this. The king will be appeased, I’m certain, with the treaty. He wanted things settled between our clans so that the focus would be once more on him.”
“So you truly think Rory will find her?” Marion said, leaning into her husband’s broad chest.
“Aye, lass. He loves her. There’s nae a force strong enough to keep him from her.”
Marion smiled, feeling reassured. “Just like you and me.”
“Aye,” he said, kissing her right there in front of everyone. “Just like ye and me.”