“Take yer time, lass. I’m here for ye.”
She closed her eyes, breathing in.
“When I was young, no more than sixteen or seventeen, I fell in love with a boy from my clan. His name was Noah, and he was working in the stables and training to be a clan warrior. We talked about leaving, about making our own lives out in the wilderness without my father and his to interfere. It was just talk, the leaving part, but I did love him. And then one day my father informed me that I was to be married to the son of a neighboring laird’s son. I told Noah, and we talked about leaving. I was terrified, Freya. I did not want to marry a stranger and leave my home. My father told me that it was my duty, but now that I knew what lovewas, I knew I couldn’t… couldn’t go through with it.”
“I know the feeling,” Freya murmured. “I fled my home to escape an arranged marriage, remember?”
“Aye, I remember. Well, I talked to Noah, and we decided to leave. I was to meet him by the Keep wall after dark, and we would leave together. I… I was so excited that I got there early. I took care to only pack what I would need.” Senga paused, swallowing hard. “I waited for hours. Nightfall came, but Noah never did. At first, I only thought he was delayed. By midnight, however, my absence had been noticed. I had to hide behind astack of barrels. They didn’t search the grounds, and soon they decided that I’d fled the Keep. I’d told my father that I didn’t want the marriage, after all. I stayed where I was meant to meet him all that night and finally slipped out at dawn. There was no sign of Noah. No message, no word from him. He never came.”
Freya reached out silently, taking Senga’s hand. “Could there have been a misunderstanding?”
She shook her head. “We were very clear with each other. He chose the place we would meet, and I chose the night for our departure. I went to his room, as dawn broke, to see what had become of him. It was a great risk, but I couldn’t imagine leaving without him.”
“And?”
Senga closed her eyes, not wanting to remember. “He… He wasn’t there.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, but the whole truth had been too painful to recall, so she had always been in the habit of closing her eyes and forgetting that part of it all. Freya didn’t seem to notice her omission.
“What did ye do?”
Senga shrugged. “I wandered. I was lucky enough to be directed to the convent and met the Abbess. She knew who I was—the Highlands were in an uproar searching for me—and she let me stay. I still believed, against all odds, that he would come for me. But he never did. I remember thinking that if I’d stayed another day, I would have seen his body hanging from the walls.”
Abruptly, Senga rose to her feet, pacing up and down.
“But I was wrong,” she continued, whispering to herself. “He’s here. He’s been here this whole time. He… He must have chosen not to meet me. Hebetrayedme, Freya. Perhaps he wasn’t as in love with me as I was with him. Perhaps he changed his mind. You once asked me what I was doing in the convent…I was waiting,” she huffed. “I have spent all these yearswaitingfor him, grieving for him, not knowing what to believe…” She trailed off, lifting her arms and letting them fall with a slap to her sides. “How could I have been so foolish, Freya?”
“I can ask him for an explanation,” Freya suggested. “He might have told Brendan something.”
Senga shook her head. “Nay. Nay, I don’t want to hear his excuses. He was clearly upset to meet me again and would not speak to me. It’s over, Freya. And we have bigger concerns anyway.”
Freya lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? Do we?”
“Aye, we do. My father’s men waylaid me out in the woods.”
“What?” Freya’s eyes bulged.
Senga winced, wishing she’d warned her friend about the information she was about to share. It was too late now, of course. All she could do was keep talking.
“Aye. They’ve been sent to spirit me away, I reckon. It means that Murray men are in the vicinity. They fought Noah, and he killed two, but the third man escaped.”
Freya tutted. “Noah let one of them escape? That was sloppy. He always says that it’s wise to leave no witnesses.”
A shiver rolled down Senga’s spine.
He is not the Noah I once knew.
“Well, I stopped him from doing it this time,” she answered crisply. “My father’s Captain of the Guard escaped. He’ll tell my father what he saw.”
Freya let out a ragged breath. “Then we need to bear that in mind.”
“Should we call a meeting?”
She lifted her eyebrows again. “A meeting? At this time of night? Nay, Senga, lass. For ye, it is time to go straight to bed.”
“But I?—”
“Don’t even try to argue, or I’ll manhandle ye to yer room myself.”
