She set the table for the morning meal, then, one hand tangled in the wolf’s fur, she left the kitchen and went into the great hall.
There was a large curved settee before the huge stone fireplace. Channa stared at it, wondering where it had come from. It hadn’t been there before.
Crossing the room, she sat down, her fingers caressing the velvet cloth. A furry robe was folded over the back of the settee, and she drew it over her, then settled back, her gaze drawn to the flames dancing in the hearth, one hand lightly stroking the wolf.
“I love this room,” she remarked. “Tis so big. So majestic. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She looked at the wolf, lying on thesofa beside her, and grinned. “But then, I’ve never seen much of anything.”
The wolf seemed to be smiling at her, she thought, but of course, it was just her imagination.
Warmed by the fire, she closed her eyes, a soft sigh of pleasure escaping her lips as the wolf licked her hand.
A moment later, she was asleep.
Chapter Seven
“Not here?” Ronin frowned. “Where has she gone?”
Dugald and Maura exchanged worried looks.
“She’s not ill?”
“Nay, nay,” Dugald said quickly. “She’s not ill.”
“Then where is she? I promised to take her walking this forenoon.”
“Ye might as well tell him the way of it,” Maura said, her tone laced with anger. “Sure and he’ll find out sooner or later.”
“Tell me what?” Ronin asked sharply. He looked from Dugald to Maura, his concern growing. “Has aught befallen her?”
Maura blew out a sigh of exasperation. “I was ill, as ye know,” she said, her words falling hard and quick. “Dugald summoned the wizard to heal me.”
Ronin nodded. It was obvious that Maura was now enjoying good health. “What has this to do with my Channa Leigh?”
“The wizard demanded her company for one year in exchange for my healing.”
Ronin’s eyes grew wide. “She’s there, withhim?”he exclaimed. “In the castle? Alone?”
Dugald nodded.
“Ye let her go?” Ronin asked in disbelief. “Did ye not think to consider my feelings?”
“Of course I did,” Dugald replied. “T’was Channa Leigh’s decision to go.”
Ronin blinked, and blinked again. “I dinna believe ye.”
“Tis true, nonetheless. I forbade it, but she vowed she would go. The wizard would accept nothing else.”
“But....what will he do to her?”
Maura shook her head. Tears glistened in her eyes. “Sure and it would have been better that I died than she go with the Lord of Darkfest Castle.”
“Nay,” Dugald said, quickly crossing himself. “Dinna speak of death.”
“I canna help it,” Maura said, and if a dam had burst deep inside her, tears flooded her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She looked at the two men, no longer trying to hide her sorrow, or her fear for her daughter’s life.
“I’m sure she’s well,” Dugald said, discomfited, as always, by his wife’s tears.
Ronin nodded. “Of course she is,” he said hastily.
