Page 72 of Her Highland Prophecy
That was an oddly specific description of the area. And it wasn’t as if elderberry trees lived for centuries. The woman would have to have scouted the area where the cave was before giving instructions to Diana.
“And if we cannae find that? It will likely look verra different now than it did in yer time, and there might nae be trees to recognize it. Those hills are riddled with small caves.”
She took a deep breath and sighed, her eyes avoiding his.
“I don’t know,” she finally said, an air of defeat in her voice.
Silence fell between them once more. Gordain cast around for any topic that he could use to restart the conversation, but his mind was completely blank. Before long, the trees ahead of them converged again, forcing him to pull ahead of her and abandon the effort.
He couldn’t help but think that they should have been making the most of the time they had left together. The day she would be leaving loomed ever closer in the horizon and he felt an almost desperate need to be close to her. Yet the closer they got to the fair, the more distant she seemed and what had started as a few feet as they rode on their separate horses now felt like an impassable chasm.
He stole another glance at her, but she didn’t even twitch as he turned on his horse to look at her. Her face was pensive, her thoughts turned inward where he had no chance of reading them on her face.
He turned around in his saddle again to face ahead. He would have to bide his time until they made camp that evening and hope that she would be more willing to listen to what he had to say then.
She wasn’t.
As the sun rolled over to the west, casting long shadows over them, Gordain found a shielded place for them to sleep. It was not much, just a small area behind a thick bush where they wouldn’t immediately be seen by any passerby and the nighttime animals would leave them in peace.
Diana dismounted and took care of her horse, petting her gently on the nose. Gordain smiled at how gentle she was being. After that she immediately rolled out the plaid that she had been wearing over her dress on the ground and laid on it.
“Are ye nae hungry, Princess?” he asked even as he unpacked their provisions.
“No, thank you,” she said, her back facing him.
He ate quietly. His eyes fixed on her. She was not moving and her breath was still uneven, both indicating that she was still awake and yet she did not turn to him. If anything, she had prepared her bed in such a way that he couldn’t lay down with her.
It was the first time he would sleep without her in his arms in over a week and he found himself dreading the prospect. Even in such a short time, he had become accustomed to the warmth of her body along his as she lay in slumber, along with her restless movements during the night.
He finished eating and laid out his own plaid, gathering a pile of soft leaves for his pillow. Despite his best efforts, sleep refused to come to him. His eyes traced the stars above them, and he was conscious of her every uneven breath, the knowledge that she was also awake taunting him.
An hour later, he gave up. Standing up and gathering his plaid he crossed the scant few feet that separated them and laid it on the ground beside her. When she didn’t protest, he aligned her body with hers, and pulled her back to him, covering both of them with the edge of his plaid as he did so.
She was frozen for a second, her body tense but then he could feel her back relax and curve further into him even as her hands reached up, clutching at the arm that was across her belly with almost desperate strength. They did not speak, but Gordain felt immeasurable better just from being so close to her.
Dawn came too quickly after that. At first light he stood and made for the tiny creek where they had watered the horses the previous evening. Diana didn’t stir when he got up, even though she was entirely too still to truly be asleep. He let her be.
He splashed some of the cool water on his face at the creek, hoping that it would keep him awake. The lack of sleep would not serve him well through the long hours of riding that awaited him, but it could not be helped.
He returned slowly, pondering the day ahead. He hoped that Diana would be in a more talkative mood that morning that she had been the previous day, especially after she had allowed him so close as they slept. He hated the distance that had developed between them, but he was at a loss at how to surpass the wall she was slowly but steadily building around herself.
She was no longer asleep when he returned to their small camp, but he could hear her gently talking to the horses nearby. She looked up as he approached her lips turning into a quick smile as she carefully rubbed her mare’s nose.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice bright and happy. It was almost as if she was a completely different person from the girl who had nearly refused to talk for the entirety of the previous day but he understood. The situation they found themselves in was less than ideal.
“Good morning, Princess,” he replied, trying to infuse as much warmth in his voice as he could. “Are ye ready to go?”
“Yes, I, um, took care of things while you were gone,” she said blushingly. He chuckled with amusement, even as he moved to help her get on her horse. It was endearing how shy she seemed to be about some things that he would not even consider to be unusual.
He quickly got on Taranis and they continued on the road to Ballachulish. They had only been riding for a few minutes when she spoke.
“What kind of trees are those?” she asked, pointing to a small group of hazel trees growing nearby. “There are a few of them near the Castle but I never asked.”
“Hazel trees,” he replied. “We have quite a few of them there, ye are right. They make a small nut that ye can eat when it is ripe.”
“Hazelnuts?” she asked in an excited voice. “We have those back home. They are very tasty.”
“Aye, though ye willnae find too many people eating them unless they are foraging on the road.”
