Page 56 of The Last Debutante
She beamed at him. “I am in your debt, kind sir. But why on earth must we go in the middle of the night?”
“There is something we must do before we visit your grandmamma.”
“What is that?”
“You’ll see soon enough, aye?” He took her by the elbow, steering her outside.
Young John was in the bailey, looking a bit bleary-eyed. He handed Jamie a cloth bundle, and the two of them spoke briefly before Jamie continued on, taking Daria with him. In the bailey it was still quite dark, and only one rush torch had been lit. She could see two horses, one gold, one black. Daria glanced around them. “Where is Duff?”
“Sleeping, I would guess,” Jamie said. “Did they teach you how to sit a horse in England? Or were you pulled about in wee carriages by wee ponies?”
She snorted. “Every proper debutante has riding lessons, I’ll have you know. I am no novice.” That was a bit misleading. She was not a novice, but she was not a very good rider, either. Daria had found her dashing riding instructor to be far more interesting than the horse, but she wasn’t foolish enough to tell Jamie that. She walked up to the light-colored horse and stroked his neck.
She felt Jamie’s hands land on her shoulders. He turned her toward the black horse, giving her a gentle push. “That one,” he said, and went about lashing the cloth bundle to the back of his saddle.
Daria eyed the black horse. He eyed her right back, his nostrils flaring as he caught her scent. He was shorter than English horses, which gave her a tiny bit of confidence. She lifted her leg, trying to reach the stirrup, but it was too high. She debated asking for help—she very much desired to do it herself—but before she could speak, Jamie’s hands grabbed her waist. He lifted her up and set her on the saddle. The horse danced to one side when he felt her weight, and Daria shrieked as she grasped the pommel of the saddle.
“Uist, leannan,you’ll wake the dead.” He took the reins, gave them a slight tug, then handed them to Daria and eyed her curiously. “Youcanride, aye?”
Daria clucked her tongue at him as she took the reins.“Yes.”
He gave her a charmingly lopsided, blatantly skeptical smile, but returned to his mount. He swung up with ease and took the reins from the stable boy, then gave her a wink. “Are you ready, then?”
No, she was not, particularly as they’d be riding into the dark. “Quite.”
He smiled, then gave a low whistle. On cue, Anlan and Aedus came racing around a corner, as eager as if they’d been waiting for this moment all night.“Coisich,”he said, and the dogs put their noses to the ground and began to trot toward the entrance.
As they rode through the gates and onto the winding village road, Daria gripped the reins with all her might, afraid of falling in the dark. Her feet barely reached the stirrups; she couldn’t see more than a few feet by the light of the moon.
Jamie pulled up as they came to the edge of the village. As they moved into the fields beyond, he was somewhere beside Daria, but she dared not look away from the horse or the path. Yet she could feel him near, could hear his horse snorting into the darkness.
“Ease up on the reins,” he said, his voice coming from just behind her. “He canna see where he is going with his nose up in the air, aye?”
Daria gave the reins some slack and could feel the horse relax beneath her. They headed toward the forest, Daria’s heartbeat rising along with the elevation. The dogs raced ahead, disappearing into the trees. Jamie pushed his horse to a trot, pulling ahead of Daria, and followed the dogs into the forest as if the bloody sun were shining overhead. Daria’s horse undoubtedly feared he would be left behind with her, for he quickened his pace and followed without hesitation.
The forest was as dark as a grave, and she couldn’t make Jamie out. “I can’t see,” she called to him.
“Your horse will follow along,” he said.
It was so still, so quiet. Daria was reminded of some of the things Bethia had said that she’d deemed nonsensical. Now, she couldn’t quite dismiss the tales of faeries and witches roaming about the woods, and a shiver snaked down her spine. She would be more comfortable if she heard Jamie speak. “How is it that your horse can make his way?”
“He has walked along this path many times. He knows where he goes.”
“I suppose the dogs know, too?” she asked into the dark, and got no response. A movement to her left—a rustle of leaves—made her heart skip. She pulled her coat closer about her. “They must be clairvoyant, to see anything in these woods.” Her horse jerked his head, giving it a shake, and Daria gasped. “Do you believe in ghosts?” she asked breathlessly as her thoughts began to slip, unguarded, off her tongue. “I knew a girl once who was quite keen to tell ghost tales.”
“I suppose she told one or two that took place in dark woods, aye?”
Daria shivered and looked up at the scrap of sky she could see over the treetops. “Bethia says there are faeries and witches in these woods. I don’t believe in witches and faeries.” At least, she hadn’t before she had come to Scotland. “Do you?”
“I’d no’ be surprised by anything in these woods.”
That gave her no comfort at all. “Dear God,” she muttered. She swore she heard Jamie’s low chuckle.
They moved steadily upward until at last they cleared the trees and the dark shadows. Daria was pleased to see the sky was beginning to pinken; there was a soft glow behind the hills to the east. She saw a crumbling cairn, the sort that popped up around the rural English countryside. Jamie turned west at the cairn and they began to go down. In the distance, Daria could see the glint of a river. As the sun rose, they rode beneath limbs of junipers and firs, past stands of yew so thick she couldn’t see through them. Daria felt foolish for being so fearful. She felt even more foolish for not having appreciated the beauty of the land when she’d first come to Scotland. For finding everything unrefined and coarse by English standards. This was not unrefined or coarse. This was undiluted beauty.
They reached the path that ran parallel to the river. Fresh prints indicated deer had recently wandered through. The dogs had disappeared; she heard Anlan’s bark and guessed that he had chased after a hare. The path bent around an outcropping of rock and when they rounded it, the river was there before them, the sound of it soothing in the morning mist.
At the water’s edge, Jamie leapt off his horse quite agilely for a man shot only a short time ago. He helped Daria down, then slapped the rump of her horse, sending him down to the river’s edge to drink.
