Chapter 3 #2
He tightened his mouth, then took a deep breath and blew it out. He set the cup aside, then took his brother’s other hand in his own. Tears were running down his cheeks, but he didn’t seem to notice. He put his hand over Sunny’s resting against Breac’s neck.
Breac’s pulse slowed.
And then it stopped.
Stillness descended. It wasn’t unlike what she felt surround her at the birth of a child.
The worlds of seen and unseen seemed for a moment to mesh and become one.
Sometimes it was a peaceful meeting, sometimes a loud, noisy collision.
With Breac, though, it was very quiet and very sad, as if heaven was sorry that it had to be so.
Sunny looked down at a very handsome young man and wondered why it was that he had died while others lived.
“Is he gone?”
Sunny leaned over and put her ear against Breac’s chest. There was no heartbeat, but she hadn’t expected to find one. She remained there for a minute or two, then sat back on her heels and looked at Cameron.
“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly.
He shook his head. “I didn’t expect him to live.” He looked at her. "I had to try.”
“Of course you did.”
He reached over and closed his brother’s eyelids. He stared down at him for several minutes in silence, then looked at her. “Thank you.”
“I wish there was something I could have done,” she said very softly. “He was very strong to have lived as long as—”
She was interrupted by the door being flung open behind her. The woman who had been screaming before burst inside, came to a teetering halt, then began to scream again.
Sunny stood up to get out of her way, but found herself borne back to the ground with the woman’s hands at her throat. Perhaps Patrick should have taught her how to defend herself against a grief-stricken, half-crazed medieval clanswoman.
The woman scratched, kicked, bit, and shrieked like a banshee. Sunny heard Cameron shouting, then felt him pulling the other woman off her. She managed to disentangle her hair from the woman’s fists, then sat up in surprise.
“She killed him!” the woman shrieked, her eyes wild with grief and anger.
“Stop it, Gilly,” Cameron said, pinning her arms down to her sides. “Of course she didn’t.”
“She’s a witch,” Gilly said, fighting against him. “I’ll kill her in return for this!”
“Enough,” Cameron said, struggling to keep her under control. “She is no witch and your husband was dead before he left the field.”
Sunny watched Gilly continue to thrash about as if she were truly on the verge of losing her mind.
Her fiery hair was long and stringy, and it hung down in front of her face, giving her a truly crazed appearance.
At one point, she managed to get Cameron’s hand close enough to bite him.
Cameron bellowed and cursed her, but he didn’t let her go.
Sunny listened to Gilly grow increasingly incoherent and wondered if now would be a good time to be heading home. She got to her feet and hesitated. It seemed disrespectful to ask Cameron if there was anything else she could do, but she didn’t think she had a choice.
“If you don’t need me anymore,” she began slowly.
He nodded toward the door. “Go find something to eat downstairs. I’ll see to her.”
Sunny hesitated. “I’m so sorry about your brother.”
That sent Gilly into a new round of shrill accusations.
Cameron shook his head and nodded again toward the door.
Sunny sighed and crossed the uneven wooden floor.
She paused at the doorway and watched as Gilly finally freed herself from Cameron’s arms and threw herself onto Breac.
She shook him, as if she thought by doing so she might bring him back to life.
She stopped, then shot Cameron a look full of hate. “This is your fault,” she said coldly. “You’ve ruined everything!”
Cameron folded his arms over his chest and merely looked at Gilly, silent and grim.
Sunny shut the door softly before she had to hear any more, then made her way back along the hallway. She found a garde-robe and made use of it quickly, then went to look for water to wash her hands.
She stepped into the great hall and found that it went silent quite suddenly. Men in plaids looked at her suspiciously. One man crossed himself before he spat over his shoulder. Others followed suit.
Well, even she knew that wasn’t good.
She went in search of the kitchen before she was the object of any more scrutiny.
Why wouldn’t the men think she was a witch?
She was dressed in a leotard, with a long flowing skirt of modernly loomed linen, and she was covered in blood.
If she hadn’t known better, she would have been frightened of herself.
All the more reason to be on her way as quickly as possible.
She found water, washed her hands, asked for and was given a bowl of the dregs of supper’s soup and a hunk of stale bread.
She ate and considered her next move. Obviously, the first thing to do was get out of Cameron’s hall.
She could hide in the woods and walk south when the sun came up.
After all, dawn couldn’t be too far away, could it?
She thought about going back out to the great hall, then thought better of it.
If the men were already crossing themselves against her, it didn’t make any sense to keep herself in their sights.
She would simply wait for dawn, then be on her way.
It could have been worse; she could have found herself in Cameron’s dungeon.
She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
She’d forgotten how cold a medieval castle could get when the fire had burned low.
She looked up into the darkness of the kitchen and thought warm thoughts.
It wouldn’t be long, then she would be sitting in front of Moraig’s fire after having run out the tank of water in the shower Jamie and Patrick had built her in the fall.
She might even go so far as to indulge in a small cup of hot chocolate.
She never kept things like that in her house for herself, though she did humor Madelyn by stocking them for her.
When she got home, she thought she just might have to raid the stash.
She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. She heard the hall beyond the kitchen settling down and she could no longer hear Gilly screaming upstairs, though very far off she thought she heard another woman weeping.
What a brutal life.
She would be very glad to not be a part of it for much longer.