Page 40 of Highlander of Steel
“How do ye feel?” Killian asked, his hand pressed protectively to the small of her back.
Either that, or he meant to push her. But he had sworn that wasn’t something he wanted to do.
She shrugged. “I daenae ken. Better, for now, but I doubt I’m miraculously cured after a few hours.”
“That’s why we’ll come back tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after,” he said. “The more ye get used to it, the less yer fear will trouble ye. And once yer fear of it has ebbed, maybe the nightmare will stop too.”
She admired his optimism. “I doubt that. I’ve had the same nightmare since I was a bairn, and I’m twenty now. I think I’m probably stuck with it, even if I become the finest swimmer there is.”
“Was there somethin’ that started it?” he asked, steering her away from the edge of the cliff and back toward the path to the castle.
It was a question she had asked herself a thousand times, fighting to remember some memory or other that might explain the nightmare. But she couldn’t.
She sensed there wasa memory buried deep in the recesses of her mind, but it was like someone had built a labyrinth to protect it, and she kept making wrong turns, unable to get to the center.
“I honestly daenae ken,” she replied. “But… thank ye for today. I daresay I needed to do that, but I wouldnae have done it if ye hadnae encouraged me.”
He offered her his arm. “I told ye, I cannae have me bride terrified of the sea.” They walked a few paces in silence before he continued, “Ye said ye thought ye might ken how to swim. Do ye think ye almost drowned while ye were learnin’? Can ye recall who taught ye?”
Shereallydidn’t want to talk about it. Then again, she really hadn’t wanted to go into the water, but it had helped.
“Me faither wouldnae have bothered,” she said, sifting through old memories. “Me braither, on the other hand, mighthave tried to teach me. He’s always ridin’ off to the coast to swim. Skye is desperate to learn, but he refuses to take her with him. Doesnae bother with her at all, which breaks her wee heart, but… she’ll soon have me again, and… maybeyecan teach her how to swim.”
A soft smile graced his lips, such a beautiful thing to behold that Ailis stopped walking altogether and was almost dragged by the pull of his arm.
“I’ll teach ye both,” he promised. “Is yer braither ever in yer nightmares?”
That snapped her out of her awe. “Nay, but he wasthere when I was found.”
“Found?” He frowned.
“I daenae remember it, but the old housekeeper said I was found on the beach. Me braither found me,” she replied. “I daenae ken if I was washed up or nae. I was justthere. So, if there’s somethin’ that triggered me nightmare, it’s probably whatever happened before that. Maybe I waded into the sea on me own and couldnae swim, and that fear has been with me ever since. I daenae ken.”
Killian nodded while listening to her, until his head snapped to the right. Something was coming through the trees—many things, in fact. A group of riders, and one with an all-too-familiar face.
A different nightmare had just turned up.
15
Killian cursed himself for leaving the castle armed with nothing but his dagger. He could picture the exact spot where he had left his broadsword leaning against his desk in the study, too far away to be of any use to him.
Still, he could do more with a dagger than many could do with two broadswords in hand.
“I’m goin’ to assume ye didnae realize ye were on the wrong side of the river,” he said, pulling Ailis behind him.
She had turned ghost pale, the violent tremors returning to rack her divine body, that spooked look coming back into her pretty, autumnal eyes. After what she had just told him, he wasn’t at all convinced that Murdock Lyall wasn’t the source of her nightmare in the first place.
Ye just ‘found’ her? Aye, I bet ye did. Tried to drown her and were caught, nay doubt.
Murdock dismounted, sauntering toward Killian as if he were on the Ainsley side of the river. “It was nay mistake,” he said. “I’m here as me faither’s messenger, and for me own purpose.”
“We kill messengers here,” Killian warned, drawing his dagger from his belt.
“And we kill MacNairn lairds, nay matter which side of the river they’re on,” Murdock said, a cutting reminder of Killian’s loss. “But there doesnae need to be bloodshed right this minute. I’ve come to tell ye that we received yer invitation… and we reject it.”
Killian laughed darkly. “It wasnae a request for yer opinions, Murdock. It’s nae somethin’ ye canreject.” He adjusted his grip on the bone handle of his dagger and took a breath, letting a familiar calm wash over him. “I’ll send ye news of the happy day afterward, if ye willnae attend. A pity, but I cannae force ye.”
He counted five riders, though his eyes discreetly searched the woodland for more, his ears listening for the slightest sound that shouldn’t be there.
