Bound to the Highlander(88)
Her head was about to burst. It was too much for her to take in without any memories to confirm if any of it was true. She put her head in her hands and sobbed.
“I don’t know what to think, or what it is I must do.”
She must place considerable weight on what she overheard Gawain plotting, though. It was enough for her to run away from him, but who was this other man? The MacIntosh? What did she know of him? Could he be telling the sheriff a made up tale meant to draw her out?
“Come lass, let’s get you cleaned up. You’ll have a visitor here in an hour and we need you looking decent,” Shauna said.
One part of Iain’s account struck her. “Iain? I’ve one question.”
“Aye, what was it?”
“Where is he? This Laird MacIntosh, where is he right now?”
Iain glanced at his wife for a moment before answering.
“He’s at an inn across the way. Don’t worry though, he doesn’t know you’re here. The sheriff assured me no one would hear about you until he had the opportunity to see you for himself.”
The room spun around her. Shauna led her into the back room so she could lie down again for a bit. While she lay there, she thought about the story. She tried to remember something, anything, but instead her head pound harder.
Shauna left the room and returned a short time later with a simple but beautiful cream coloured gown. She helped Aileana up and out of her tattered woollen dress and fit her into it.
“My daughter, you see is a wonderful seamstress. This was a gown she’d made a long time ago and must have forgotten it when she packed up to move into her own home with her new husband. Now there’s a fine gentleman if I ever saw one, you know one time—”
Shauna prattled on about her daughter and as she did so the image formed of a young woman working on the most exquisite blue gown. She strained to picture the full image of it and realized it was a wedding dress, the most beautiful one Aileana had ever seen.
“Dear, are you all right?”
“Oh, yes, I’m fine thank you. I sometimes drift off like that. I don’t know if I’m imagining something or remembering something.”
She was excited by the new image, but frustrated that she was unconnected to it.
Shauna paused as she tried to fit the dress around Aileana’s frame.
“Oh dear, I can only imagine what that must feel like. There, you’re all ready except this stubborn clasp at the back. It doesn’t seem to want to close up. And here I thought you were the exact same size as my daughter.”
The floor rushed up to meet Aileana. She was in a large room surrounded by servants busying themselves, In the centre of the room, stood a woman in a stunning dress. The seamstress made small adjustments before turning the woman in the dress toward the mirror. Aileana saw her reflection and gasped.
She came to with a start and a concerned Iain and Shauna hovering over her.
“I don’t think she’s fit to see anyone. I’ll go and send him away.”
“No, wait, don’t leave. I promise I’m fine. I want to meet him.”
Iain sputtered a bit, but didn’t disagree. He left the small bedroom to sit with the sheriff.
“How often do you faint dear?”
“Not a lot, only when I get a real flash or an image of someone.”
“Hmmm. And you get sick?”
Aileana nodded.
“And how long have you known you’re pregnant?”
“Awhile.”
She had realized a while ago. She somehow knew through instinct now that the babe didn’t belong to Gawain. A fleeting sense to her then, it was a relief to her now. She couldn’t process it any further than that. Who the father of this child was at this point was still a mystery.
“I see. That certainly complicates things doesn’t it?”
The two women proceed to the sitting room. Aileana was surprised by the sight of the man to whom she was introduced as the sheriff of Peebles. Malcolm MacDougal did not have the imposing countenance of a sheriff. He was quite stout and when he stood for introductions Aileana found he was no taller than she.
“Good morning to you lass. My name is MacDougal. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. Please sit and tell me everything you remember. Don’t tell me about any dreams you may have had. I just want to hear about anything you’re certain of.”
She did as she was asked and told of waking in a cottage with blood soaked cloths on her head, of Gawain’s care, and her early vertigo when moving about. Aileana told him every detail she could remember right down to how often they’d picked berries and cooked.
When she was done, MacDougal didn’t speak right away, but when he did it was with caution.