Chapter 12
The following day, Islay awoke to the sun shining.
She went to the window and looked out at a world cleansed by the storm.
Grass glistened, and flowers seemed even more vibrant than they had been before.
Birds soared through a pristine sapphire sky, and the townspeople were out of their houses, tending to their land and inspecting the state the storm had left them in.
The ground was muddy, and even from this vantage point, Islay could hear men curse their feet getting stuck in the mud.
She strained her eyes and could see a group of men trying to push a cart out of a ditch, for the mud had clung to the wheels.
The people here were industrious; it was a delight to see them all working together.
It reminded her of the community in Kilin, and she wondered if she would ever be able to leave it.
She spared a thought for her friend Elspeth, a common girl who had suffered great tragedy.
She had left Kilin even though it had been her home, and she had gone from strength to strength after having been married to Islay’s cousin.
But then again, Elspeth had always seemed like a girl well suited to marriage, for she tended to the home well and had a big heart.
Islay wasn’t sure she shared the same qualities.
She went down for breakfast and met with Callum and Jean. They were sitting in silence, eating their meals. Callum rose and greeted Islay with a smile, while Jean remained sitting and offered only a twitch of her lips.
“Did ye sleep well?” Callum asked.
“I did, thank ye.”
“I’m glad. I thought the storm might hae kept ye up.
Seems as though the gods were angry last night.
I wonder what they were fighting about.” Callum looked to Jean, who rolled her eyes.
He shook his head and let out a dry chuckle, turning to Islay.
“For a lass who likes stories, she doesnae like the ones we were told as children. I was thinking, Islay, now that the weather haes improved, would ye like tae accompany me on a walk around the grounds? I’m sure ye would like tae explore yer new home. ”
“I think that would be lovely,” Islay said.
“But first, I would like tae visit the library.” As she mentioned this, Jean stiffened, as though she took offense at anyone threatening her realm.
She had no cause to deny Islay the right to visit the library, and Callum nodded in approval.
Jean quickly finished her food and departed.
When Islay had finished eating, she bid Callum farewell.
Callum seemed in good spirits, and he said for her to find him later when she was ready to be shown around.
She assumed he had the easy confidence of knowing they were going to be married soon.
He was almost acting as though they were married already, and while she had to admit that there was an easy, natural ambiance to the place, she didn’t yet feel like she belonged.
The library was actually a long set of adjoining rooms filled with shelves upon shelves of books.
There was a musty smell lingering in the air, and there were so many books that Islay did not know where to start.
There seemed to be no order to the arrangement of the books that she could discern, although she had no doubt that Jean had a method behind her madness.
Perhaps it was her way of making the place inhospitable to anyone who might dare interrupt the peace and silence of her sanctuary.
But Islay was determined, so she moved from row to row, finding books that piqued her interest. She found some books detailing marriage traditions of the clan, and then the history of the clan itself.
She pulled this out and read about the history of Callum’s ancestors.
The Connall clan had a prowess for warriors.
In the past, this castle had belonged to a tyrant who looked down upon his subjects with ire.
A band of brothers rose, four of them in all, to challenge the tyrant’s rule.
They battled all the mercenaries and guards that the tyrant could muster, and fought their way up to the castle, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
The Connall brothers eventually made their way to the castle, where they slew the tyrant, ending his dark reign and promising that they would never again see a shadow fall upon this place.
Those who sided with the tyrant were punished and exiled, while those who had suffered were given new hope and a glimpse of prosperity.
Wealth was shared more fairly, and good-hearted people were rewarded.
Hard work made this place a success, and people flocked to live here, for they knew that the Connalls would protect them.
Although there were challenges over the years, the Connalls had defeated them all.
War ran through their blood. All kinds of weapons were their specialty: axes, maces, hammers, swords—there seemed to be no type of weapon that the Connalls hadn’t mastered over the years.
She skimmed over gruesome stories of the battles, not wishing to read about all the grisly details, and whoever had written these tales had delighted in the grisly details.
Names blurred together as great deeds were written about each of the lairds in turn, and notes were made about the offshoots of the family that descended from the four brothers.
Even Callum’s father had a good chunk written about him, but when it came to Callum, the pages were still blank, and she wondered who was going to write the story for him.
She realized that because of the scope of the book, it couldn’t have been just one person writing it all these years; it was like a patchwork of history.
As she gazed at the blank page, her thoughts turned to her own future and what a story might say about her.
Would she be the woman who shirked her duty and turned away from marriage, or would she be joined with Callum and become a part of his proud history?
The book was filled with tales of valor and heroism, of people who put the good of the people above their own self-interest and did what they knew was right in their hearts.
Islay wanted to be worthy of one of these stories, and instead of finding a reason as to why she and Callum could not get married, she had actually found a longing to be a part of history.
She had a newfound respect for Callum, and as she started to think more deeply about her reasons for not wanting to get married, she found them becoming more elusive.
When Islay rose, she stretched her back and moved her neck from side to side.
She glanced out of the window; when she saw the position of the sun, she realized she had spent more time in the library than she had intended.
Callum must have been wondering what had happened to her.
She moved gingerly, for the aches in her body stabbed at her as she made her way back through the castle.
She had no idea where Callum was, but she assumed she would bump into him at some point.
She was passing through a hallway that looked out onto the stables when she saw something that caught her eye.
It was Callum, and he was standing beside Cloud, doing something to her.
Islay’s brow furrowed at the thought that he would dare to interfere with her horse.
Worried, she rushed through the castle, flinging herself down the stairs, and sprinted towards the stables.
When she arrived, she was panting and her cheeks were flushed.
A golden ponytail swung across her back like a pendulum.
She slowed her pace as she approached the horse and could almost laugh at herself for being so worried.
Callum was standing there, speaking softly to Cloud.
He stroked her cheek and fed her a carrot.
Islay heard the crunching sounds of satisfaction and a whinny of delight from Cloud.
“She doesnae let just anyone touch her,” Islay said.
Callum twisted his neck around and smiled.
“Well, she must hae good judgment then.” He stroked her mane and patted her flank as she finished off the carrot.
He couldn’t have been that bad a prospect if he had Cloud’s approval.
The horse was a discerning animal, and sometimes, Islay trusted her judgment more than that of any person.
Callum turned to face Islay. “Would ye like tae gae for a ride with me? I can show ye the land,” he offered.
Islay nodded. She didn’t agree to this because she felt obliged, but because she wanted to.
Although she had come here with the intention of finding some way to sabotage the wedding, the more she got to know Callum, the more inclined she was to think that perhaps marrying him wasn’t the worst idea in the world after all.
She conceded that she at least needed to make an informed decision and shouldn’t dismiss him without due cause.
It was the first time she had ever felt excited to spend time with him, and she tried not to think about this feeling too much as she didn’t want to twist into a ball of anguish.
Because she had slept in a little later than usual and then spent most of the day in the library, time had dwindled, and the twilight of evening was going to set in.
She hadn’t expected to spend this much time with Callum at all, but she wasn’t ready to leave yet.
Before they left, Callum sent to the kitchen for some bread and cheese, which they ate as the horses were prepared.
Callum’s horse was a huge stallion with a white coat that was flecked with black specks.
Callum called him Thunder, which she understood because of his fascination with storms. He cut an imposing figure as he sat upon his horse, looking all the world like a king.
She could well imagine that he would bring the storm with him, although the storm the Connalls carried was a storm of swords rather than lightning.
Their cry of war would be like a cry of thunder ringing through the land, sending the same type of fear through anyone who dared oppose them.