Page 88 of Her Highland Prophecy
So she was determined that, it would be kinder on everyone involved if she left as soon as possible despite her desire to stay.
When the fire in the grate was reduced to embers she got up and started to get dressed in the chilly room. The hallways and the tavern were both deserted as she passed through to her great relief. She did not want to have to explain where she was going. She skirted the outside of the fair, arriving at the open meadow just behind it.
It all looked the same to her. Low hills covered with small green plants as far as the eye could see, only a small dip between them indicating where the valley was located. Nearly three hundred years later, it would not be as difficult, but as she was still in the past, it was hidden behind a small thicket of trees.
She walked determinedly in that direction. She had left her mare at the inn, but it did not matter. She and Gordain had discussed it and he knew to come back or send someone for her in a few days.
The sun was rising, but it was not as hard as it had been when she first arrived to orient herself in the half-light. She realized with a start that she was using the things that Gordain had taught her to guide her in the absence of the light. Her heart clenched but she ignored it, casting around to find the trees that she was looking for.
That was harder, but she didn’t think that she would ever forget the exact shape of the elderberry trees that had landed her in this time. She was getting more and more desperate as the sun peaked over the tip of the mountain. She only had a few minutes left. If she didn’t find the cave before the sun was out from behind the mountain she would have to wait until the next day.
And then they were there in front of her. The shape of the leaves, the tiny white flowers, and the small, dark berries. A small group of elderberry trees.
This was it. She could just see the dark entrance of the cave behind the leaves of the elderberry trees that protected it. She hurried over and started pushing the tangled branches away so she could get closer.
Whispers in the air beckoned her toward the cave entrance and she followed them just as the high and clear sound of a ringing bell joined in. She paused with her hand on the lip of the cave, giving the long valley one last glance.
She then looked north to where she imagined the Castle to be, sending one last mental goodbye to the man who had changed her life entirely and to the family that she had come to love, and then entered the cave.
32
For the first time in weeks, it was raining.
Gordain took it as an omen. The entire day had been dreary, from the moment he woke up to find his best plaid freshly washed for him to wear, to the funeral itself. Rain had somehow seemed a fitting way to mourn his father’s passing.
He wished again that they had not wasted so much time arguing over things that in hindsight seemed petty. He should have maintained his temper better and sat down to have a discussion with him sooner. Maybe if he had—
But it was useless to think that now. His father was dead, and nothing could take that back no matter how much he wished that things could be different.
“Come, Mither,” Eleanor said, her arm wrapped around their mother gently. “We need to return to the Castle now.”
Her face was almost completely blank, lost in the grief she felt at the loss of her husband. And though Gordain mourned him as well, he knew that it was nothing in comparison to what his mother must be feeling. If she felt for him an ounce of what he felt for Diana, then it must have been extremely painful for her. He could empathize with the feeling of loss.
He pushed away the thoughts of Diana. She was a constant presence in his thoughts since the moment he left Ballachulish, but each time he allowed himself the freedom to think about her a stab of pain went through his body. She must have already been gone back to her time by then. Back to a place where Gordain could not reach her.
He turned to the twins that were still standing nearby. Most people were already gone, back to their lives and houses, leaving behind only the people who had been close to the Laird. Gordain resented the ease they could just pick up where they had left off that morning, when his own life lay in shambles.
He wrapped an arm over each of the two little girls that he had sworn to protect with his life the very day they were born. Their eyes were swollen from crying and little Joan was shaking like a leaf. He pulled them closer to him and together they started the long trek back to their home.
Eleanor looked back from where she was gentle pulling his mother ahead to look at them. She looked relieved when she noticed that Gordain had Mabel and Joan with him.
“Thank ye,” she mouthed and then turned to attend to their mother again who was still staring ahead in shock.
Gordain cast one last look behind him.
Farewell, Faither.
The wind swirled around him in response, bringing with it the smell of candlewax and old books, a scent he associated with his father’s rooms, and he knew that his father had heard him.
The trek back to their home was long, but Gordain did not release his sisters until they arrived at the Castle, all of them soaked to the bone from the persistent rain. He walked the girls directly to their rooms and sat them down on the table near the fire.
“Stay here until ye are warm and then change into something dry,” he instructed.
Mabel nodded and gave him a weak smile.
“Thank ye, Gordain. We will.”
He hovered for another moment, but then decided that they were definitely old enough to be trusted to dress themselves, so he left the room and went to change into fresh clothes as well.
