“When the people in this area first accepted the Christian faith, they remained tolerant of those who resisted it. Then we got our own priest, and he convinced them that those who didna accept God must be accepting the devil. So, the people gathered up all those who clung to the old ways and hurled them off Pagan’s Point.”
“A good plummet to your death making it easier to find God, I suppose.” Ailis shook her head. “Well, let us go to this Pagan’s Point, then. If ‘tis the right place, Sibeal will ken it as we get nearer.”
“Ye will ride with me,” Alexander said as he grasped Ailis’s hand.
They headed toward the stable, and Ailis used the time to calm herself. Sibeal revealing her strange talent so abruptly was unsettling, but Alexander was more so. He held her close all night, made wild sweet love to her, and spoke the prettiest words she had ever heard. Come the dawn and he became the man he was now—cold and distant, with occasional flashes of anger when he deigned to speak to her at all.
She felt the tension in Alexander as, once their horses were ready, he yanked her up to ride behind him. Sibeal rode with her father, the twins shared a pony, and two men-at-arms rode with them. Alexander grunted what few commands he gave out, and Ailis decided he was an extraordinarily ill-tempered man. She barely had time to tell the stableboy to let Jaime know they had gone so that he would not worry before Alexander urged them all on their way. Her only consolation was that he planned to reveal her as a conniving wench who would trick a child into lying for her, but he was about to suffer a shocking dose of cold, hard fact. Ailis just prayed that Sibeal would not suffer.
Ailis’s heart ached and she was weary of the pain. She knew she felt far more than passion for the man, but he ground those more tender feelings beneath his bootheel each and every morning. Each night there was beauty, and each morning there was ugliness. She felt used, yet could not resist the heated sweetness of another night in his arms. Even now, with her arms about his trim waist and her cheek against his broad back, she wanted him, yet he was as stiff as an offended spinster. Ailis knew she was going to have to make some decision soon. If she continued to share his bed, she risked being marked a whore and losing all dignity. To ease that shame she needed more from him than hunger in the night and callous indifference all day, and he was not giving it to her. Soon she would have to accept that one did not always get what one hoped for.
When Alexander reined to a halt, Ailis was abruptly yanked from her dark thoughts about leaving Alexander’s bed. She saw Barra dismount and help Sibeal down. They had come to a halt not far from the edge of a dangerous precipice. Across a shallow gorge from them was a piece of land that jutted out farther than the rest. That was undoubtedly Pagan’s Point, she decided. Without waiting for Alexander’s help, she dismounted and hurried over to help Barra with Sibeal. The poor man was beginning to look very unsure of himself. Even the twins’ rushing to his side did not make him look any more confident.
“She says this is the place,” Barra murmured, then looked straight at Ailis. “I wouldst like it if ye would now tell me that ye play a game with me.”
“I canna, Barra. Believe me, I understand how ye feel. I didna want to hear this myself,” Ailis said.
“What ye ken is a lot of nonsense,” Alexander said, his tone hard and angry as he joined them, his two men-at-arms watching them all warily as they secured the horses. “I think this game has gone on long enough. ‘Tis but some trick to try and escape.”
“Without bringing Jaime along?” Ailis gave him a disgusted look and turned her attention to Sibeal. “Is this the place where ye saw the puppies?”
“How could she see them here? She has never been to this place.” Alexander’s eyes widened at the way Ailis whirled and glared at him. “I grow weary of this foolishness.”
“Then leave. We can do well enough without ye. I think the most important thing right now is to soothe Sibeal. Doing as she says is the only way. When she is proved right or wrong, ‘tis done, and we can all go home.” She turned back to Sibeal. “Are they here now, sweet?”
“Aye,” Sibeal answered. “Down there.” She went to the edge and pointed at a spot a few yards downriver from Pagan’s Point. “There is where the puppies will be. We have to go down there and catch them.”
“There is a steep path over here, Aunt,” called Manus a moment after he and Rath began a hasty search for a way down.
“Are ye sure we must go down there, child?” Ailis asked Sibeal even as the little girl grabbed her by the hand and tugged her toward the rocky path the twins were already scrambling down.
“Aye. We canna catch them up here. I am sorry I told Papa, Aunt Ailis, but I had to save the puppies.”
“Of course ye did.” Ailis heard Alexander order his men-at-arms to watch the horses, and she looked back briefly to see the Laird of Rathmor gracefully climb down after them. “I think ye have upset your uncle the most.”
Sibeal nodded. “He is a very sad man.”
“That he is, loving.” And I grow weary of being battered by it, she thought to herself as she paid closer attention to the uneven path.
Alexander muttered a curse as he quickly followed Barra, the children, and Ailis. He could see nothing on the ground on either side of the stream, yet they were all risking their necks to hurry down a treacherous path because a tiny child said puppies were there. It was tempting to order an end to it all, yet Alexander knew Ailis was right. The little girl needed to have her dreams proved or disproved. It was the only way to put an end to the matter.
Ailis brushed off her skirts when they finally reached the beach, which was nearly as rocky as the path. “Where are the puppies, Sibeal?” she asked her niece.
“They will come soon, Aunt.” Sibeal stood and stared up at Pagan’s Point as Barra brushed off the child’s clothes.
It suddenly occurred to Ailis that she had not adequately gotten the time of the incident from Sibeal. The arrival of the puppies could be now or several months from now. Poor Sibeal was still new even to speaking of her dreams. Just as Ailis was about to ask Sibeal, Alexander gave her a rough nudge from behind. She frowned, saw him pointing toward Pagan’s Point, and looked to see a man ride up.
At first Ailis did not know which to watch—the point where Sibeal’s dream was being acted out, or Alexander’s reaction. After a second hard look at Alexander, she decided he was the one who bore watching. His face had gone parchment white. She knew he was not going to accept Sibeal’s gift very well at all.
“There are the puppies!” Sibeal yelled, and when the man tossed them into the gorge, she started to cry.
While Alexander and Barra scrambled to get the sack out of the shallow, swift stream, Ailis struggled to hold on to her niece and nephews. The moment the MacDubhs set the sack on shore and Alexander neatly sliced it open, Ailis released the children. She hurried after them, reluctantly curious.
“Hurry, Aunt,” called Sibeal. “They are so afraid and hurt.”
“What does she mean?” Alexander demanded as Ailis reached his side.
“She feels things,” Ailis answered as she saw Barra and the twins release six shaken, wet, but living puppies.
