Her soul soared as if something broke free inside her, even as her heart bled with an ache she hadn’t expected.
Could the presence of love -truest, shining love– drench one to the bone and deeper, wringing so much emotion from every breath, that the yearning swelled beyond life, spilling out to stain a place for all time to come?
Is that what she felt here?
Residue of the boundless love shared by the long-ago Viking lovers, Torrad the Fearless and Kadlin?
Just as the bards sang?
Believing so, she shivered, blinked against the dazzling light now filling the small, sheltered glen. Unearthly sparkles whirled and danced in the snow, each one as bright as if every star in the heavens had shed silvery tears to fall down upon this sacred place, here where theYuletide Loversslept in eternal devotion.
Feeling more blessed than ever in her life, Alanna drew the plaids even closer and went to stand beside the fallen trees, wishing she could have seen them in their tall, living glory. Back in those distant days when the two Scots pines had sprung from the ground where the fleeing lovers found sanctuary from harm, if only for a short while.
They’d endured much, giving their all for the desperate young pair.
Now the four were forever bonded, the power of such selfless love uniting them across centuries, until the end of days.
Alanna stood as if frozen, half afraid to breathe lest she break the magic. She knew it was fleeting, a fragile gift revealed to her for reasons she couldn’t guess. Perhaps the trees knew her? Could see into her dreams and heart and were aware of how many tears she’d dashed when listening to the storytellers honor them? How often she’d tried and failed to find them?
Was such a thing possible?
She had to believe so as the fallen trees had certainly not gleamed silver when her captor –Callum– had brought her here, leaving her in this place he’d sworn no soul would find.
The trees had been dark then, blackened and worn smooth by age, their limbs barely visible beneath the snow. Only when he’d left to fetch dear Gubbie did the wind quicken, blowing the snow off the proneLovers, revealing them in all their glory.
“Oh, my.” She pressed her fingers to her lips, her skin tingling as realization sluiced her…
The trees wanted her to see them.
“Dear gods.” Heart fluttering, she turned to look back across the snowy moors, peering through the whirling silver sparkles and snow to see if Callum neared.
She saw nothing but blue-white snow drifts, the line of tumbled stones that resembled furled waves on a frozen sea, and twinkling stars in the cold winter sky.
And it was then that she noticed the whirling silver sparkles were gone.
Whipping around, she found the magic wholly gone. TheYuletide Loversno longer shone brighter than the heavens, though the trees were still passionately entwined, their age-darkened wood poignant but no longer enchanted.
Did I no’ tell you we’d be safe here? No power on earth will part us.
The words came on the wind, hushed softly at her ear. A man’s voice, distant yet near. Unlike the voice of anyone she knew, but so familiar, its smooth resonance stroked her soul.
Chills washed over her, shivers that had nothing to do with the cold. She could almost feel the man’s presence. As if he stood beside her, his warm breath stirring her hair, his hand resting protectively at the small of her back. But then she felt a fool as another wind-blown sound came to her…
Horse’s hooves striking the winter-hardened ground, iron-shod might echoing across the frosty night, muffled only slightly by snow. A single rider fast approaching the little glen so deep in Seacliffe’s high moorland where she stood shivering beside the fallen trees.
So, ye chubby lump o’ fur and herring breath...
Did I no’ say I’d take you to her? No power on earth will part the two of you.
I promised.
More words on the wind, recognizable this time, and for reasons she didn’t want to consider for these words turned a murderer and kidnapper into a hero.
He was almost at the glen and he had Gubbie with him – she could see both. The big, dark-cloaked man, his mailed shirt almost as silvery-bright as the trees moments before, her darling Gubbie tucked deep in the warmth of his carrying sack, his rounded bulk clutched securely beneath one of Callum’s hard-muscled arms.
Alanna’s heart burst and she ran, skirts yanked high, her feet racing across the snowy ground. How could she have doubted he’d return? Feared he might harm Gubbie?
In truth, she knew why.
