Page 85 of Wild Highland Rose
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"Ithought… Ah, hell, never mind what I thought. What are you doing here?" He sheathed his sword, watching as Marjory picked her way across the stream, using the rocks that dammed the pool for stepping stones.
"Well, 'tis glad I am to be seeing you, too." She hopped lightly onto the bank, letting her skirts fall back into place. "I thought you'd be gone by now."
He scowled at her, feeling his temper rise. "I would have been, but it seems Aimil's up to her old tricks. I have absolutely no idea what possessed me to trust her. She promised me she was giving me a short cut. A wilderness survival hike would have been a more accurate description."
"She meant you no ill will. In fact, quite the opposite. She has it in her head that you should stay at Crannag Mhór. She thinks you're our resident angel."
"I'm well aware of Aimil's notions." He sat down on the rock.
"Well, you can't blame a body for trying." Marjory sat next to him, her eyebrows lifting.
"You mean, she wanted me to get lost?"
"Aye, that she did, but you're here now, so, all's well that ends well."
"Hardly. I can't find the damned landslide. I've been all over this area and there's no sign of it."
"You must have overlooked it. 'Tis no' far, just beyond that tree." She lifted an arm, pointing in the direction he'd swear he'd just come from.
"And why, may I ask, should I trust you?"
"Because if I had wanted to prevent you from leaving, I'd have thought up a better plan than simply misdirecting you."
"So if you don't care if I go, why are you here?"
She winced, and he wished his words back. "I dinna say I wanted you to go. Only that I'd do nothing to prevent it. I only came to say good-bye."
Their gazes met and held, his breath catching in his throat. "I shouldn't have run away."
"It doesna matter." She shrugged as if she didn't care, but he knew that she did. They stood in awkward silence, neither knowing what to say.
Finally Marjory sighed, forcing a smile. "'Tis just as well I came, had I no' you'd no doubt have spent the rest o' your days wandering about in search o' the landslide."
"I would have found it." He tried to sound wounded by her lack of faith, but only managed to sound defensive.
"I'm more than sure you would, given enough time, but since I happened to come along, would you like me to show you the way?"
"You don't have to come with me. Just pointing me in the right direction should be enough."
"I think you'd be better off if I took you." She stood up, brushing off her skirts and looking out over the valley.
With a shrug, he rose to stand beside her. He could see the tower, its walls white against the blue-black waters of the lake. Itlooked like a John Constable painting, peaceful and serene. This was the way he would remember Crannag Mhór. "It's beautiful from here."
There was no response from Marjory. He turned and was surprised to find her frowning, her eyes riveted not on the valley below, but on something off to their right.
Cameron scanned the terrain. "What is it? What do you see?
"Look, o'er there." She pointed to a small expanse of green off to southwest. The trees played out into a small meadow almost at the base of a craggy arm of the mountain protecting Crannag Mhór. The little clearing was a good distance away, lower down the mountain, but still well above the floor of the valley. He couldn't see anything except the crooked expanse of green against the brownish gray of the rocky peak.
He narrowed his eyes, searching for something in the pastoral scene that might have alarmed her. "What am I looking for?" As he finished the sentence, a flicker of movement at the edge of the clearing caught his eye.
"Did you see that?"
"Yeah, I did."
She lifted a hand, shading her eyes from the sun. "I think there's someone at the edge of the woods."
