Page 61 of Love Beyond Words
Freya smiled but didn’t move from her seat as she waved me over to her.
“’Ello, lass. I hoped I would have the opportunity to visit with ye soon. Do ye know how long it has been since I’ve had the chance to visit with a woman?”
“Decades?”
She didn’t look sad as she answered me and I was glad for it. It made it easier to be around her. It was heartbreaking anyway. If Freya appeared to be suffering or if she wallowed in despair, I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to stand it.
“Precisely, lass.”
I moved to sit next to her and stared at her with wide eyes until she broke the silence.
“’Tis fine if ye wish to touch me, lass.”
I was very curious.
“Will you feel it if I do?”
“No. Yer hand will sweep right through. Try. I promise ye, I doona mind.”
Hesitantly, I reached as if I meant to shake her hand. It felt no different than waving it through air, though I could see my fingers pass through her own.
“Wow. I…I’m sorry, Freya. I can’t begin to imagine what this is like for you.”
She shrugged rather nonchalantly.
“I made my peace with this long ago, not that I willna welcome a release from this place when it comes. I pray for it every day.”
“It will. Someday, you’ll be free. I truly believe that.”
She smiled and leaned in close.
“I agree, which is precisely why I am so verra glad that ye are here. It has restored my hope.”
“Why do you say that? I’ve far less power than the men that surround you here. I can’t see how I could possibly make you hope for anything.”
She shook her head as she spoke up to disagree.
“Ye are wrong about that, Laurel. Yer presence here has agitated Machara in a way I’ve not ever felt before.”
“That’s only because…” I hesitated. I hoped that saying Machara’s suspicions out loud wouldn’t give Freya any reason to believe them. “Machara worried that I might be here for Nicol. She’s very jealous of him.”
Freya laughed loudly.
“Lass, Machara is a lying shrew. She no longer cares for Nicol. If she is ever free, she wouldna take him for herself. She would kill him without thought or feeling. This state she’s placed me in, it ties me to her. I feel what she feels, and ’twas not jealousy she felt in yer presence. ’Twas fear.”
“Why would she be afraid of me? I’ve no power over her.”
“Why do ye think there are far more stories of faeries ruining the lives of men than of women?”
I hadn’t the slightest idea.
“I don’t know.”
“Men would have us believe that we are the emotional ones, but they only tell themselves that to hide from what they know is true. We hold the power, lass. Faeries know this truth. They know that we are too wise to make the same bargains men strike with them all the time. The day Machara is defeated, it willna be at the hands of the men here. It shall be women that defeat her. Even now, with the two lassies that arrived this night, her fear has grown. With each new lass that steps inside the walls of this castle, Machara’s chances of survival dwindle.”
I liked the idea of that—Freya’s certainty that it would be women that would save the day.
“How do you know that?”
