“What have ye done for him beside keeping his body comfortable, clean, and fed? Oh, and threatening to go out and find a mon.” She almost grinned at the look of dismay and guilt that crossed Cecily’s face.
“I was rather hoping that, if he is still in there, he might hear that and wake up just to stop me,” Cecily replied.
“Ah, possessive, is he?”
“I think he may be. But how did ye get here?”
“Brought two carts of goods. Ones ye kept to the side and ones I kept to the side. Of course, it now looks as if it will soon all be coming to ye.”
“Nay, maybe not. We have no document proclaiming me heir to it all.”
“The priest has it.”
Cecily nearly gaped at Meg. “What priest?”
“The priest but a few miles from where we were attacked. Your father gave it to me ere we left Angus’s and told me to put it someplace safe if we were attacked. We were and I did. I couldnae read then, ye ken, and I have only just realized what I must have been giving the priest.”
“If we can find that we can get rid of Anabel and Edmund.”
Meg put her hands over her face and shook her head. “I cannae believe I ne’er thought on the importance of that paper.”
Cecily reached over and patted Meg on the arm. “Ye couldnae read and we were all running for our lives at the time. Handing a piece of paper to a priest probably was the last thing ye recall from that day.”
“Nay, true enough. If the memory e’er crept up on me it was poor wee Colin I thought of and I shoved it right out of my mind.”
“Aye, I did the same. It hurt too much.”
“It hurt me, too, lass, but it also twisted me up with guilt each and every time. I grabbed ye and ran, love. I ne’er thought of anything else. I didnae e’en look to see if I could have reached the boy; so, nay, I didnae think of that time much and pushed the memories from my mind.
“Colin died first,” Cecily said quietly and nodded when Meg looked at her, shock clear to read on her face. “Ye held me so that I was looking back. Colin was dead ere ye e’en started running, Meg.” She took a deep breath to steady herself for saying out loud what she had seen in her nightmares for so many years. “He took an arrow in the eye. I can still see it, still see Papa looking at his bairn dead at his feet, and then hurling himself right at all those armed men, one sword against ten. He did do one thing ere he did that.” She frowned as she forced the memory to linger for a moment. “He kissed Colin, then looked to see us running away. I can still see the tears on his face, but he smiled then, tapped his forehead as he liked to do in greeting or faretheweel, and then he ran straight at all those men.”
“Have ye always recalled it so clearly, Cecily?”
“Nay, and I didnae want to, did I.”
“Then why now?”
“Weel, I have been talking for near a sennight, havenae I? I have talked and talked and one time that just all poured out of me. He saw us live, Meg. That is what I decided. At the last moment he saw that one of his bairns was going to live.”
Meg dragged a piece of linen from her pocket and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Oh my, this is nay what I came in here for.”
Cecily smiled faintly. “Ye were sent in by my uncle, were ye?”
“Och, nay, I came and asked for ye ere he told me of all that has happened to ye.” She looked at the bed. “So ye married your Highlander, eh?”
“Weel, handfasted, but ’twill be a priest when he is better.”
Hearing the unsteadiness in Cecily’s voice, Meg reached out and clasped the girl’s hand in hers. “He will be better soon.”
“It has been a verra long time, Meg, and there still isnae e’en the smallest sign that he kens anyone is here. I have pinched him, stuck him with a needle, and all sorts of things in an attempt to get a twitch, just a wee twitch. Naught. I really do begin to fear that he isnae in there anymore.”
“He is alive, so he is in there. He is just verra deep inside.”
“I looked for some wound on his head to explain this, but there really wasnae anything big, no great swelling. He looks better than he did, the bruises and swellings all fading, so why doesnae he wake up?”
“Who can say, lass? Ye must leave it in God’s hands.”
Cecily closed her eyes for a moment. “I ken it, but this frightens me so and I grow angry. That does nay good.”
