“Hey now. I’m one of those vultures, you know!” I pretended to be upset.
“Mmm, I noticed that, but you seem to have fallen out of the nest somehow, little vulture fledgling.”
I laughed, a little more natural with him now. I had at least reached base camp on the Mount Everest of total calm. “I thought you were going to tell me something about the tower? If you’re just going to rant about us obnoxious tourists, I’ll have to go back to the visitor center and listen to all the historical information there. And I’ll listen to it in four different languages simultaneously!”
“I would be very surprised if you could understand four languages,” he countered, “since you weren’t even able to answer my questions in one language.”
I blushed and threw him a mock angry look. “Very funny!”
“To be honest, I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”
“Then you must really lead a boring life!”
His expression darkened, and he looked past me, staring into the sky. He riffled his fingers through his hair and took a breath. Then in a neutral voice, he started to tell me about the place.
“The Glenfinnan Monument was built in 1815 to mark the place where Prince Charles Stuart’s standard was raised—that’s kind of like a large flag.”
“The Jacobite Rising, right?”
“Yes, exactly.”
My sincere interest in the topic seemed to chase away some of his bad mood, and he kept going with much more enthusiasm. “That was in 1745. Charles came from France and landed on the Western Isles. From there, he rowed to the coast, slightly to the west of here.”
Payton’s way of speaking seemed a little old-fashioned—almost from another time—but I figured it must be a Scottish dialect I wasn’t familiar with yet.
He got up and gestured in the direction of the slowly setting sun. I got off the floor, too, and stood beside him. He immediately stepped back and motioned past me.
“Look there!”
A fawn down on the banks of the lake seemed to be looking directly at us. Its pointed ears swiveled, listening in all directions, before it lowered its head and drank the clear water. The soft movement of its muzzle spread wide ripples across the surface, breaking the golden lake into a million tiny lights. I was enchanted. The last warmth of the day started to creep through my thin chambray shirt, wild spots of light danced in front of my eyes, and a gentle breeze danced softly over my skin.
Payton gasped.
Startled, I turned toward him. His face was white, and he was clutching the balustrade.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Come on, we should go back down now.”
Payton seemed to be doing better, so I tried to put it out of my mind. I saw why he thought it was time to leave. A crowd of people was streaming along the narrow path toward the tower. Payton pointed at the tight opening to the staircase, motioning for me to go ahead. But the idea of squeezing myself down onto steep steps that I couldn’t see made me nervous.
I reached out for Payton to steady myself. Our fingertips had hardly touched when he yanked his hand back, took a deep breath, and let out some strange sounds.
“Ifrinn! Daingead!”
A moment of déjà vu passed over me, but I couldn’t grab the memory.
Then Payton took my hand again. Before I could give it a second thought, I stepped into the narrow opening and carefully felt around with my feet to get a safe grip on the old, rough steps. Payton held me until I felt secure enough to loosen my grip and climb down on my own. A thick rope seemed to be the only safety measure against falling, and I made my way down hand after hand, warily.
No sooner had I stepped through the arched door than Payton was standing behind me. I had no idea how he had managed to get down so fast. The thought of him squeezing through with his broad back and strong arms was absurd, and I would have thought it was impossible if I hadn’t seen him come up.
Payton kept his distance, and as a few of the other tourists shoved their way through to the dark mouth of the monument, he moved even farther away. I was just glad to be back on solid ground. I wandered a few steps toward the polished wooden benches set up in a semicircle around the tower. Then I sat down and looked over my shoulder. Payton had followed, but he didn’t sit next to me. Instead, he sat on the grass.
His eyes had such an immense intensity, and I wondered what it was about him that made me want to take in every little detail. I was getting used to his company, but inside I was still vibrating, as if I were standing next to a Tesla coil, with its energy conducting through me.
“So have you had enough of the history lesson,” Payton asked, “or do you want me to tell you more?”