She did not think she could make the settlement by nightfall. This side of the crag was not nearly as steep as the way they’d just come, but once she descended, she would have to skirt the near shore of the lake and make her way around the perimeter. A fair long distance, she estimated. Hours of walking at her lumbering pace and with coaxing Alinor. Her back and legs ached at the prospect and she sighed.
But there it was, at last. The one place she had sworn never to go, now her only haven. Evelyn felt so alone, so full of despair and heartbreak, she wanted only to sit down upon the ledge and cry. Then a wide ray of rare sunlight suddenly pierced the thick blanket of gray clouds and washed the rocky prominence where she stood in dazzling warmth. Evelyn closed her eyes and lifted her face, greedily relishing the luxurious glow through her eyelids.
When she opened her eyes, the sun had once again hidden itself away, leaving only the cool gray mist and tears on her face, but she could now imagine what it was like to be warm again and it gave her hope. She sniffed and brushed at her cheeks with her fingertips.
From behind her, Evelyn heard Alinor’s low growl and so she turned. “What is it, lovely?”
The wolf lay on her side, but her wide, black head was raised, muzzle rippling ominously. Upon the unyielding base of rock, Alinor’s underbelly bulged.
But there was no time to run worried palms over the animal in search of wounds or fever, for Alinor struggled awkwardly to her feet with a clatter of rocky debris, her growl intensifying.
Stranger…
And then Evelyn heard what Alinor had: below the jagged shelf of rock where they rested, someone was whistling a cheery tune through their teeth.
Bonnie bleated and began to run in circles around Evelyn’s legs, throwing Robert against the bent twigs of his hutch. Alinor’s tone deepened.
The whistling stopped.
“Hallow?” called a surprised male voice in Gaelic. “Who’s there?”
It was a man from the Buchanan town, it had to be. The moment of Evelyn’s future was at hand, and her heart pounded.
Alinor looked up and whined, and Evelyn could clearly see the true condition of the animal: stiff, lackluster coat; dry, cracked nose; sad eyes. Evelyn thought morbidly of Alinor’s distended abdomen, hanging between her legs.
Tired.
The wolf walked slowly to where Evelyn stood and pushed her wide head between Evelyn’s hip and wrist and leaned there heavily, telling Evelyn without the benefit of words that Alinor could not go on with her to the Buchanan town.
Evelyn fell awkwardly to her knees and threw her arms about the wolf’s neck. “Oh, Alinor,” she gasped into the prickly fur. “I know you are weary. Can you not press on just a bit farther? Please?”
But the wolf backed out of the embrace and shook awkwardly, looking down the rocky slope as the disembodied voice called again.
“I’m warnin’ you! I am armed! Show yourself!”
Alinor looked back to Evelyn and gave her face a swipe with her long, dry, pink tongue, then turned to scrabble back up to the pinnacle. She turned her wide, black head to gaze down at Evelyn and Bonnie, crouched there together in the rubble.
Go.
Evelyn rose unsteadily to her feet and held out a hand to the wolf. “Alinor,” she keened.
The great black beast disappeared over the far side of the peak.
“Holy mother of—” came the voice from directly behind her, and Evelyn spun on a sob.
Standing on a ledge just below was a stocky, handsome man, with long, wavy red locks tamed by a wide leather headband. His broad chest was draped in soft-looking suede and a red and gold plaid. An impossibly long sword gleamed at the ready in his hand.
His crisp blue eyes widened as he took in Evelyn and then a smile split his face, its brightness confusing her. “Well, I’ll be.” The Scot laughed. “Hallow, missus. We thought you’d never come.” His eyes fell to Evelyn’s rounded belly. “Brought along a companion, as well, I see.”
Evelyn frowned and swiped at her face. “St-stay away, sir…I d-don’t kn-know you!”
The man laughed again. “O’ course nae! But we’ve been expecting you, all the same.” He sheathed his sword and with one giant stride joined Evelyn and Bonnie on the ledge, prompting Evelyn to stumble back at his approach.
Once there, the Scot paused, glancing at the summit path over which Alinor had gone. “Do you wish for me to fetch back yer dog, missus?”
Evelyn was still for a moment, as pain sliced through her heart and she recalled the words MacKerrick had spoken to her:Alinor is a wild creature, Eve…we must let her go with love.
“Nay,” she was finally able to croak. “Not my dog. Just…just a wild creature of the wood.”
