Page 37 of Beyond Dreams

Chapter Eleven

Willingly, for now, was the full answer she’d wanted to give. Holly bit her tongue, facing another truth: her problem was not necessarily his. She needed to stop behaving as if he were at fault for what happened to her. The guy was just trying to afford himself a little peace in the valley, so to speak.

They rode in silence then for several minutes, Holly lost in her thoughts, wondering if ever she would trust Duncan enough to tell him of how she’d come to be here, or what his response might be to something so fantastic as the truth as she knew it.

The road rose and fell with the rolling terrain and became less and less discernable as they put more distance between themselves and Thallane. Finally, the road disappeared completely beneath the horse’s hooves. Duncan directed the horse through a thicket of trees and beyond that, up the reasonable incline of a hill, peppered only at the base with trees. They rode to the top and Duncan walked the horse along the ridge before pulling gently on the reins, bringing the horse to a stop.

They faced east, away from Thallane and the sea, the distant vista dominated by a modest but impressive knot of mountain peaks and ridges, none of which touched the low-hanging clouds, most of which were primarily painted green for being covered in thousands of pine trees. Directly below was a wide open valley of gray and gold and green. Apparently, the beauty of a rugged landscape had a timeless value. The vast panorama before her of bare rock, wind-whipped meadows, and forest mountains was as beautiful in this age as her own time.

“I think this view must never grow old,” she said, with some reverence, more to herself than to her husband.

Nevertheless, he responded, “’Tis only the half of it.” His wrist slid against her side as he pulled the reins to the right, turning the horse around.

And as glorious as was the eastern view, this one now, facing west, was even more stunning. The viewpoint from the carriage yesterday paled in comparison to her present circumstance, elevated to see so much of the coastline. There sat Thallane upon the edge of the world it seemed, on a branch of land stretching out into the sea. Though the sky directly above her was gray and unfriendly, beyond the castle the sky was blue, shimmering upon the water until it obscured the horizon, sea and sky fused as one.

“Just breathtaking,” Holly remarked, in awe of the beauty all around her. She squinted and pointed to the left of Thallane, on the main body of land, where dozens of ancient cottages were nearly unseen behind a narrow swath of pines. “Is that Thallane’s village?”

“Aye,” said Duncan. He pointed as well, to a thin ribbon of river that ran south to north, heading straight for the village. “Abhainn Ghealach, the Silver River you would say, runs out to sea. The village is built along its banks.”

“It looks fairly large,” she commented, recalling at least one recreated historic settlement she’d visited on her first trip to Scotland three years ago. If she recalled correctly, there hadn’t been more than six or eight replica cottages.

“Houses almost a hundred souls, most of which are of families that have lived for many generations in the glen there.”

The sea once more drew her mesmerized regard, which lessened slightly, drawing a frown as her eyes adjusted to the brightness of sun and sea. “Wait, are those mountains way out there? I thought we were on the North Sea.”

“And so we are,” he answered. “You’re nae facing north, but west. ’Tis the Isle of Skye.”

“What?” She gasped. “But it’s so far away,” she lamented, squinting even harder, trying to guess at the distance between where she stood and Skye, which looked entirely too small to be very close. In the twenty-first century, and when she’d been on that bus along that winding Ratagan Pass, her phone had said she was much closer than how it appeared now. “Wherearewe?” When she felt Duncan stiffen behind her in reaction to what surely must seem a weird question, she covered it up with, “So, is all this your land? All part of Thallane?”

Duncan turned the horse around again so that they faced the interior. “Aye, this for seven leagues in three directions.”

“And where is Hewgill House from here?” She wondered.

Seeming to make nothing of something she possibly should know if she’d been who she said she was, Duncan pointed to the left. “Beyond those mountains there.”

True south, she guessed now, having gotten her bearings again. A flash of red and purple in a shadowed valley straight ahead, toward the further interior, due east, caught her attention. “What is that? All that bright color?”

“A glen of wildflowers,” he supplied.

“Oh, I’m going to want to see that,” Holly decided, a bit enlivened. “Can we go there?”

“’Tis more than a mile out. You want to ride that far?”

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