Chapter 21
“Where now?” Owen barked: his heart on fire.
It had nothing to do with the strain of carrying Heather across his shoulders, for he barely felt her weight, but the persistent snag and snare of the forest undergrowth kept sapping at his strength.
He could only stumble so many times before he actually dropped Heather, and, with the English close behind, he could not risk that sort of lapse.
Edith, now running as swift as a doe on her own two legs, with her bow and arrow in hand, gestured ahead. “The entry to the forest path is just through those trees.”
“Can ye run?” Owen cast a sideways glance at Heather, who hissed and groaned on his shoulders.
She nodded. “I believe so.”
As smoothly as possible, he set her down and took hold of her hand, half-dragging her toward the tree line. As he went, he put his fingers underneath his curled tongue and whistled as loudly as he could.
Off to the right, the thunder of horses made the ground tremble. It was far too easy to mistake for the sound of soldiers, and his heart lurched in his throat as he saw Edith swing her bow around toward the incoming creatures.
“Horses! They’re our horses!” he shouted, and not a moment too soon, for Edith had loosed an arrow. But she must have heard at the very last second, for she swung her arm out. The arrow sailed past the ear of Owen’s mount and landed harmlessly in a tree.
Reaching open ground, beyond the tree line, the horses came to abrupt halts beside the fleeing humans. In a frenzied mess of climbing and pushing, everyone got onto the first horse available, until Brandon was the only one sitting alone.
“Ride! Ride as fast as ye can, to the mountains! We’ll meet at the pass!” Owen hissed, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. He did not want the English to know where they were headed.
With that, he squeezed his thighs and set his horse into a lope, which soon stretched into a gallop. Brandon rode ahead, with lesser weight to slow his mount, while Sawyer and Edith drew alongside Owen and Heather.
Owen glanced back only once, in time to see the English soldiers bursting out of the forest with their swords in hand, waving the weapons in a frustrated fury as their prey escaped.
“We did it,” Heather whispered, turning into him. “We got her, my love.”
It was the first time he had heard her use such a term of endearment.
Despite the tension of what they had just endured, he felt his heart swell with warmth.
Perhaps, it was seeing the devastation of a wife who had not known her husband was dead, reminding him of how short life could be, or maybe it was just what was already in his heart, but he vowed that he would not hesitate any longer.
I love ye, Lass. I’m nae just fallin’ in love anymore. Once we’re at the castle, I’ll tell ye properly. He encircled her waist with his arm and urged his horse onward, more determined than ever to reach home with everyone in one piece.
They might have evaded the English this time, but Owen had an awful feeling that the soldiers’ failure would only incense Elias further. He would come again. Of that, Owen had no doubt.
The weather decided to look kindly on the bereaved young woman and her rescuers.
Plodding along the mountain pass, the storm clouds rolled back in apology, and the night sky cleared to a blanket of glittering constellations.
Even the high shelves of stone that flanked the pass saw fit to protect the riders from the cold winds, though they still shivered in their wet clothes.
“How did you come to meet William?” Heather asked sleepily, from the crook of Owen’s arm. She had been curious ever since hearing of the union, and the stillness of the mountains urged the question to her lips.
Edith, who sat with her back to Sawyer, her bow resting across her legs, mustered a small, sad smile.
“It was an accident. I was runnin’ from some angry farmers, after I stole two chickens.
I shouldn’ae have done it, I ken, but I was starvin’.
” She paused. “See, I havenae had much fortune in me life, always bein’ chased from village to village for things I havenae done.
Stealin’ those chickens was me first real crime. ”
“Is that anythin’ to do with yer grandmaither bein’ called a witch?” Sawyer interjected: his broad shoulders supporting Edith.
She nodded. “Aye. It follows a lass, wherever she goes. If there’s witchin’ in the family, everyone seems to ken of it.
So, I journeyed south, and I was so hungry I didnae ken what I was doin’ or where I was.
I didnae even realize I wasnae in Scotland anymore.
” She dipped her chin to her chest. “I got lost in a forest, and that’s where he found me. ”
“Which forest?” Heather frowned, wondering if she might already know the answer.
“The ones surroundin’ that ugly castle of yer faither’s,” Edith replied, confirming Heather’s suspicion.
“He gave me shelter and kept comin’ out to feed me and give me medicines.
By the time I was healed, I was in love with him.
I kent I shouldn’ae, so I told him I was goin’ to leave.
He proposed, we were married at a small church nearby, and…
that was it. I thought we’d have all our lives together. ”
A gasp escaped Brandon’s throat. “Was it St. Augustus?”
“Aye, that’s the one.” Edith nodded.
“The priest lied twice.” Brandon’s face contorted into a grimace of displeasure. “He must have been the one to marry the pair of you, as he is likely the one who informed the Earl.”
Edith shrugged. “We fled back into Scotland, and we went to the cottage, where we stayed for almost a month together. Then, news came to the village of the war with Cromwell, and he left. He said he’d return.” Her voice cracked. “Would it hurt less if he’d died in battle? I daenae ken.”
“The Earl must have discovered the truth not long before William marched to war, for that was when he kept saying that his life was in danger. I thought he meant his actual life, and perhaps that is still true, but now I wonder if he meant you, too.” Brandon scratched the stubble of his unkempt chin.
Many weeks of riding hither and thither had taken their toll on him.
Edith ran her fingertips along the sleek fletching of her arrows. “William said he feared men might come, if our marriage was discovered, so I already had protections in place.”
“Did William ever write to you?” Brandon pressed, clearly perplexed by the entire situation.
She lifted her head. “Aye, he did. He told me the Earl kent about us.”
“He did?” Heather interjected, for though she had heard all of that before, she had not quite believed that her father and brother could hide such an enormous secret from her.
Edith sighed wearily. “It must’ve been before he left for war, as Brandon said.
William told me, in one of his last letters, that yer faither demanded that he leave me, and never return to me.
William refused and it seemed like everythin’ might be all right.
He explained that yer faither had come around to the notion, as he’d asked to meet me.
Obviously, that never happened, as William—” She trailed off into a sob and, for a long time, no one spoke at all.
They just concentrated on the path ahead of them, listening to the trill of birds that roosted nearby.
“He told me to hide whenever he wasnae with me,” Edith added, ten minutes later.
“He told me to run from anyone I didnae recognize, so that’s what I’ve been doin’.
Even though he’s nae here anymore, he’s been protectin’ me.
The peculiar thing is… I think I kent he wasnae comin’ back.
One day, I felt this hollow feelin’ in me chest, and…
maybe that’s when it happened. Maybe there’s some witch in me after all. ”
The group gave her the respect of remaining in a reverent silence, letting her have a moment to dwell upon what she had lost. It felt almost like a sermon to Heather, who put her hands together and sent up a prayer to her fallen brother.
We will keep her safe, William. I will ensure that she never feels alone, with you. I will do what I hope you would want me to. She will not be forsaken, and I hope you are watching us with a smile. A cloud passed the moon, and the silvery glow beamed down, as if it were William’s heavenly smile.
“There’s somethin’ I cannae understand,” Edith said, wiping her eyes. “Why would yer faither send men to come for me? Why would William be so concerned? If they’d caught me back there, what do ye think they would’ve done?”
Heather shook her head. “I do not know, dear Edith, for I no longer feel as though I know my father at all. He has become… erratic in the wake of William’s death.
Yet, you say the soldiers were searching for you before then.
” She sank back into Owen’s chest. “Do you think he was attempting to arrange that meeting that William spoke of? Perhaps, he thought William would not bring you, so he took steps to bring you himself.”
A strange prickle pulled the intangible strings of the air. It was not mockery, exactly, but something akin to grave doubt. Clearly, she was the only one who still had a speck of faith left in her father, despite his former behavior.
In the end, Brandon was the one who spoke first. “There is a chance that the Earl might have been searching for Edith, in order to inform her of William’s death. Or he might be in the midst of the same mission as us, believing that Edith might have information that we lack about William’s passing.”
“It would explain why he wanted M’Laird out of his castle,” Sawyer half-agreed.
“It wouldn’ae make the Earl look too good if Edith proved M’Laird’s innocence.
He likely thought he could capture M’Laird and Edith, to hear what she had to say on the matter.
Either way, it wouldn’ae have ended well for M’Laird. ”
Edith frowned. “Why would anyone think Laird Dunn was the culprit?”
Taking on the role of mediator, Heather explained everything that had occurred prior to their meeting, with a few interjections from Sawyer and Owen about their time in the encampment. After all, she had not been there for those parts, though it did nothing to shake her faith in Owen.
“Ye were with him when he took his last breath?” Edith looked distraught, as tears came again.
Owen nodded. “I did me best to keep him alive, but… there wasnae anythin’ more I could do. He was too badly hurt.”
“At least he… wasnae alone.” Edith hiccupped, turning her face away from the last man to see her husband alive. “Thank ye for… tryin’ to help him. Thank ye for… bein’ there.”
It astonished Heather that, without a single doubt at all, Edith believed Owen. In a way, it made her feel guilty for ever thinking that Owen could have been responsible. Then again, Edith was not hampered by a learned hatred for a country of people she did not even know.
If I had never met you, Owen, I would still feel that way. How foolish I was, to think such things. Heather realized that, while her brother had been raised with the same, constant diatribe against the Scottish, he had never spoken ill of them. Evidently, he had been wiser than her.
“Where is he buried?” Edith asked, a short while later, as the horses made their descent toward the flat of open fields. In the daylight, Heather might have been able to see Dunn Castle from the lofty height of the mountains.
Brandon sighed. “His body was brought to Gallagher Castle. He is buried in the family tomb.” He paused. “One day, when all of this is over and resolution has been made, I hope we might be able to take you there to pay your last respects.”
“I’d like that,” Edith replied quietly.
An air of disquiet fell across the group, as they drew nearer and nearer to their safe haven.
They had rescued Edith from an unknown fate, that much was true, but there was no denying that it was bittersweet.
For they had staked their last hope on her, and she had no information to give. What would that mean for the future?
Heather stared off toward the twinkling horizon, nestling into Owen’s embrace. One war had just ended, but she could not help the dreadful feeling that another one was brewing, somewhere out there in the shadowed landscape. It was not a matter of if it came to their doors, but when.