Page 104 of Once Upon A Haunted Castle
It had been an unfair trade, one she wished she could draw back.
If she’d stayed, she’d be dead along with them. Where she belonged.
Dead and blissfully unfeeling from the rending hurt inside her.
Her name was screamed from down below, but she ignored the summons.
Something heavy and metal scraped across the floor. She opened her swollen eyes and found her sword beside her. She sat up and lifted its weight into her hands. The metal was so cold, it near burned her fingertips.
She pressed a kiss to the hilt and another sob burst from her throat. The sword symbolized so much,meantso much. It had been her father’s past, her brother’s future, and now was left only to her miserable present.
“Senara.” Lady Edana’s voice screeched in the hallway and something hard slammed against the thin door. “Open this door immediately.”
Balthasar materialized in the room, his hands braced against the door.
Edana’s grunted efforts came from the other side and the knob rattled with her efforts. Balthasar curled his fingers around the handle, and a cry sounded from the hall.
He turned to Senara, his gray eyes soft with sorrow and bowed low in reverence before fading from view once more. Behind where he’d stood, the handle on the door was white with frost. He’d frozen her door closed.
He’d given her the privacy to mourn.
And mourn she did, for truly she had lost everything.
*
It was noonand she had not come.
Gavin stood on the stairs like a fool, waiting. Perhaps the old clock had gone wild in its inaccuracy and he was too early.
His heart squeezed.
Or too late.
If he’d shown too late, she would assume it was he who finally ceased their innocent meetings. The meetings he longed to make so much more than innocent.
Footsteps pounded on the stairs with haste and sent his heart hammering anew. It was not Senara who came into view, but a sweaty Renny, his face flushed with exertion. “I was hoping ye’d be in yer solar.” The stable lad panted around his words. “I’m glad to have found ye before ye left.”
Gavin frowned at the lad. There was obviously something wrong. He seldom saw Renny indoors, away from the horses he adored so much. “What is it, lad? Is it Edana?”
Edana had, on several occasions, attempted to have Norbert sold off, claiming him a flea-ridden beast. Fortunately Renny had always managed to keep the animal safe until Gavin could be notified and secure the animal’s place among the stables once more.
Renny shook his head. Sweat was beginning to seep through the chest of his simple brown tunic. “It’s Senara. She’s in there wi’ Norbert and willna come out. She willna speak wi’ me and just cries and cries and cries.”
Perhaps he said more, but Gavin was already racing down the stairs, making his way toward the stables.
She was as Renny had said, one arm slung over Norbert’s powerful neck, her face pressed into the black of his mane. Her sobs were soft and her body sagged against the animal with exhaustion.
“Senara.” Gavin said her name softly when he entered the stable.
Norbert looked up at him with his dark eyes and gave a slow, long-lashed blink.
Gavin repeated Senara’s name and approached her. She did not flinch when he touched her shoulder, but she did not go to him either.
“What is it, lass?” he asked. “What’s happened? Is it something my aunt—”
She turned to him with hurt burning deep in her red-rimmed eyes. Her nose was pink and her cheeks wet with tears. “They’re dead, Gavin. The lot of them.” She hugged Norbert once more. “My sweet family.”
The horse turned his massive head toward her and nuzzled her as a dog might comfort its master.
