Page 116 of Once Upon A Haunted Castle
Chapter Ten
Senara was inher small room on the top floor when she first heard the sound.
Her heart began to slam in her chest before she even understood what met her ears.
The clop of horse hooves.
Gavin was home.
She turned abruptly and threw open the shutters to the window. The chill of early spring air rushed against her cheeks, a coolness she welcomed against the sudden heat spreading over her face. Still, she tucked her cloak around her body, if nothing else to keep her child within protected.
Perhaps it was a silly notion, but she enjoyed the maternal endearment.
Her gaze searched through the surrounding trees, but she caught neither sight of Gavin nor Lindir, his strong black destrier.
Please be alone.
Of course, him being alone did not mean a betrothal with Colina MacKintosh had not been established.
The sound grew louder and her heart raced so quickly, her lips tingled.
Please be alone.
There. In flashes between the tangles of tree branches.
Lindir with Gavin atop him.
And he was alone.
Senara’s knees went weak beneath the force of her relief. Hopefully, this would mean he chose her.
“He is alone.” The voice echoing Senara’s observation sent a fresh wave of tension tightening along the back of her neck.
She spun around to see Edana standing in the doorway, her shoulders slumped and her gray and black hair hanging limp around her face. The wrinkles she’d once fought so hard to smooth now crinkled into an expression of puckered rage.
“Ye should have left.” Her breathing came ragged.
A warning scraped down Senara’s spine.
Her hands curled protectively around her lower stomach, the life there so new it had barely swollen her abdomen with evidence of its fragile existence. “I could never leave.” She swallowed down the metallic bite of fear on her tongue. “I love him.”
“Then ye’ll die a fool.” Edana was still stalking toward her, a confident glare in her eye. Her hand fisted in the green velvet of her skirt, where the fabric was hopelessly crushed beyond ruin at her obvious anxiety.
Senara moved her hand for her dagger but remembered she’d taken it off only moments ago to change into the evening dress she wore. The sword her father had given her lay tucked carefully into the straw of the mattress. Out of reach.
“Lady Edana, what are ye doing?” Asking the question would simply buy Senara time, but time might be enough to save her. Already, Lindir’s hooves were clattering noisily on the courtyard below.
A wide smile lit Edana’s eyes and drew jagged shadows over her face so she resembled little more than a grinning skull. “I’m stopping a wedding.”
She flew forward, her hands clawed to rend more than air.
Senara couldn’t move away from where she stood between the two small beds. There would be nothing for it but to defend herself.
She waited until Edana was within striking distance, then bent over and threw her weight against Edana’s waist. Senara shot up quickly, intending to throw the other woman to one of the beds, but Edana twisted at the last moment and flew behind her.
Senara’s body jerked backward, hard. Toward the window.
She spun around to find Edana dangling from the window, her hands clenched around Senara’s cloak. A soft cracking sounded far below where the vase of dried heather fell to the courtyard stones and scattered into a million pieces.
