The MacKinnon’s Bride(94)
“Broc!” she called out. No answer. “Broc?” She turned to find he’d vanished from the room. Bewildered by his sudden disappearance, she turned and found Glenna frozen at the far side of the room, staring, a look akin to horror registered upon her face, a bundle of clean bedding visibly clenched within her arms.
“Where did he go?” Page asked. “I need his help to unbar the window.”
“Oh, hinnie!” Glenna whispered a little frantically. “I dinna think ye should!” She turned to peer out from the open doorway, as though suddenly afeared someone would spy them.
Page blinked. “Why? I do not understand,” she said, confused by the grave expression upon the older woman’s face. “Is there a reason this window should remain barred?”
“Aye... well—aye!” Glenna stammered, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and looking ill at ease.
Page raised a brow at the much too hesitant and then exuberant reply. “Why?”
“Och, but ‘tis a long ways down!” Glenna disclosed.
The explanation sounded lame to Page, and she screwed her face as she contemplated the strange reasoning.
“For Malcom’s sake!” she added, tossing down the bedsheets upon the bed. “It was boarded to keep him safe!”
Page nodded in comprehension. “Oh, I see! When he was younger?”
“Aye!” Glenna exclaimed, looking relieved now.
Page drew her brows together. “But he’s older,” she reasoned, turning her attention back to the window, eyeing it speculatively. “I can see no harm in removing the bars now. Jesu, but it looks like a gaol in here!” She tested the slats once more—every last one of them, though she had to climb upon the sill to reach the uppermost boards. The top slat cracked free, only a bit, but enough that she was able to pry her fingers beneath and seize hold of it. Using her weight for leverage, she tugged it free. Rather than lose her footing, Page released the board. It landed upon the floor with a resounding clatter.
A brilliant stream of sunlight pierced the room.
“Splendid!” she exclaimed. “The floors and walls will dry so much better with the sun!” She turned to appraise Glenna’s reaction and found the older woman had vanished, as well. Her brows knit, for she hadn’t even been the least aware of Glenna’s departure. Page shrugged, thinking Glenna’s reaction to the window curious, but she wasn’t going to let it stop her. She was certain that once they saw the improvement in the room, they would wholeheartedly agree it was the right thing to do. Without delay, she began to work at unbarring the window, removing the gloomy barrier board by board.
Iain had been repairing the stone enclosure that kept their fold penned when Broc found him. Sputtering some babble about clean floors and unshuttering the tower window, he’d urged Iain to make haste. Dread over whatever dire circumstance had reduced Broc to spouting nonsensical drivel kept him from lingering to decipher the cryptic message. But it wasn’t until Glenna accosted him on his way into the tower that he fully understood what it was that Broc had been trying to say, and he took the tower steps two at a time in his haste to reach her.
Too late.
He burst through the doorway of his chamber and froze at the sight that greeted him.
The room was aglow with light. Brilliant white sunlight flooded every corner and washed over the wooden floors like a mantle of gold.
In the space of an instant, he was propelled backward in time.
She stood looking out from the window, sunlight streaming in around her. It touched her hair and brushed it with copper. Iain took a step into the room and felt suddenly as though he’d walked into an inferno... the nightmare real once more.
Sweat beaded upon his brow and prickled his upper lip.
She didn’t turn and he couldn’t find his voice to speak.
Like some beautiful specter from his past, she stood there, peering down at the cliffs below the tower, the wind blowing and lifting her unbound hair. It fluttered at her back and she leaned forward to catch the breeze.
Iain’s breath caught and his heart began to hammer. In his mind’s eye he saw Mairi, not Page, standing there. Though he stood there empty-handed, he felt again the weight of their newborn bairn in his arms and the sting of tears in his eyes.
That morning... it had begun just so.
It couldn’t be happening again.
He wouldn’t let it.
Page had never seen such a glorious sight as the one she now beheld.
In all her life she had never known a view could be so breathtaking. With the advantage of height, one could see clearly out to the loch below the jutting cliffs. From the ground, all that was visible was an upward- sloping hill. She would have guessed that the hill continued to a gentle slope beyond the summit, as well.