The wife grew tight-lipped, as if she knew she’d already said too much, but her daughter was all too eager to reply.
“Wee Barney found a wolf pup in the weeds and was playing with it like a ninny when its mama came out of the wood after it,” she said around a breathless smile. “Missus was walking with her bairn and flew to Barney’s rescue, but then she dashed off into the wood after the wolf.Into the wood!Ran after it, a wailin’ and weepin’, babe and all!” she finished, wide-eyed.
Conall swallowed. “Missus followed a wolf into the wood?”
The little girl nodded. “The biggest, meanest-looking black wolf I’ve ever seen! I fear the missus’ll be ate!”
Conall’s feet could not move fast enough.
Evelyn could not run any longer. Already she could feel the freshened bleeding and pulling pain between her legs, the weak trembling of her limbs. In her arms, Gregory wailed at being so rudely jostled. Evelyn stopped, gasping, tears streaming down her face in the middle of the wood. She was already lost, but she did not care in the least.
“Alinor!” she wailed into the dense, dark shadows of the trees.“Alinor!”
It had to be her. Ithadto be. Evelyn would know her girl’s big-boned shape anywhere, and her heart was rejoicing, breaking.
Why had she run?
“Alinor, please!” Evelyn cried, turning in a circle. “To me, Alinor!”
Evelyn hadn’t realized that Bonnie had followed her into the wood until she heard the sheep’s anxious bleat.
She saw Bonnie running in frantic circles before two large boulders, leaned together in a hillside like lovers. And atop those boulders sat Alinor, peering down at the manic sheep with mild interest.
“Alinor,” Evelyn whispered the sob and Gregory fell silent. She took a step forward. “To me, my beautiful girl! To me!”
The black wolf stood and leisurely, carefully, picked her way down from her perch, buffeting a joyous Bonnie aside as she walked across the forest floor. Evelyn fell to her knees, one arm held away from her body in readiness of an embrace.
But Alinor was reserved, keeping two paces between them before sitting on her haunches once more. Bonnie collapsed happily, stubby tail twitching, at the wolf’s rear. Alinor’s long, slender muzzle reached forward, sniffing curiously at the plaid-wrapped bundle in Evelyn’s other arm.
Evelyn could barely speak with the confusion, hurt and joy she felt. “’Tis all right, lovely, ’tis only I. And Gregory.” She lifted the baby slightly. “Won’t you greet me, Alinor? I’ve missed you so—I thought you were ill. Dead!”
But Alinor withdrew even her curiosity of the babe, sitting upright regally and looking aloofly away. Then her ears perked, her shoulders tensed.
Alinor’s thick tail thumped the ground wildly and Evelyn heard the crunching leaves behind her. She felt Conall’s presence before he spoke.
“Ah, my three favorite lasses,” he said hoarsely. “And my little lad.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Never have I seen aught of such beauty,” he managed to choke out.
Eve’s back was stiff, frozen, and Conall could see the flutter of Buchanan plaid at her hip. Alinor’s tail wagged, but she did not rise and come to him, as if remembering the last moments they’d shared at the hut in the vale. Only Bonnie bleated and scrambled awkwardly to her feet to run at Conall and butt repeatedly at his thigh. He scratched her head mindlessly, willing Eve to speak, to move, anything.
The moments dragged on into what seemed a silent hour.
“Eve, can I—” He had to stop, clear his throat. “Can I approach you?”
“I wish you wouldn’t, MacKerrick,” she said at last, and Conall’s heart expanded at just hearing the melody of her voice.
“Why?” he pressed, begged. He took a single, slow, short step toward her. “My God, Eve, I’ve missed you so!”
“I don’t want to see you, MacKerrick!” she snapped, turning her head a bit so that Conall could nearly make out her profile. “Go back to your town.”
“Nae,” Conall said. “Nae, I’ll nae go back.” Although he knew she couldn’t see them, Conall held out his palms to her. “Won’t you please just talk with me, Eve? Or at least listen to what I have to say to you?”
“Ha!” she barked. “More lies?”
“No more lies,” he promised quietly. “Never again.”
