Later that night, Willa woke with a start from a familiar dream, one that she had had many times in the past few months. It was a portent; it had to be, and it had helped give her courage to stand up to Colm. In the dream was a man, always the same man, though she could never quite see his face. Still, she knew he had dark hair and the large, muscular body of a warrior. Not Colm, thank God! This time she dreamt that the dark man was sitting in a chair before a dying fire, his head bent so that his hair fell forward to cover his face. She walked toward him, drawn to him as if by an invisible string, her heart beating a staccato rhythm in her chest, and desire burning hot in her core. She put her hand on his shoulder, and he tensed under her touch.
He spoke. “Stay away, Lass. My trouble is no’ yers to bear. Leave me be.”
In the dream, Willa reached for him anyway, determined to be the light to his darkness, knowing that she could, if only he would look up, see her, and all she could offer him. She wanted to kiss him and then lead him to the bed across the room and make love to him, showing him with her body what she couldn’t seem to tell him with words. But before she could do anything at all, the dream changed and she was floating, falling through a cloud of gray mist, frustration swirling in her mind because after all she had been just about to kiss her warrior, and she knew it would be like nothing she had ever felt before. When the mist cleared, she was outside in a meadow, on a warm sunny day, with a breeze blowing her hair and carrying the scent of green grass and wildflowers. She began walking, and suddenly strong arms grabbed her from behind. Though startled, she was not frightened, because she knew it washim. She laughed with joy and fell back against him, and he nuzzled the hollow of her neck with his lips.
“I’ve been looking for ye, love. Where have yebeen?”
Just as he began to kiss his way up her throat to her jaw and she was turning in his arms to meet his lips with her own, she woke up, her breathing shallow and her heart beating way too fast.Damn it all to hell! Just when it was getting to the good part. This time she had been determined to kiss him for all she was worth, and more. What on earth had woken her, besides plain, annoying bad luck?
Then she heard it, a muffled clattering, voices shouting. She jumped out of bed and ran to the narrow window. She could see the torchlight dancing around the corner of the west tower, where the noise seemed to be coming from. She could also see shadowy shapes moving in the darkness farther away. Men? Were they under attack? Suddenly there was a triumphant roar and the dark shadows were coming closer and she could see that theyweremen, hundreds of them. And even in the flickering light she could soon see that they were wearing the bright yellow and red of the McTierney colors.
Her father had been double crossed. Colm was trying to take the castle, and with that many men, she had no doubt he would succeed. She was trapped.
Willa barely had time to panic before there was a pounding on the door. She jumped, turning from the window with her hands pressed to her chest.Oh god, had Colm come for her already?
“Willa? Are ye in there? It’s James, open the door!”
James! She ran to the door and with trembling hands threw the bolt and pulled it open. She had never been happier to see her brother.
“Hurry, Maura is waiting at the back passage with horses. We don’t have much time.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her through the winding corridors and then, under cover of darkness, along the wall of the garden until they came to a little-used back entrance. Maura was there astride a midnight black mare, holding the reins of two equally black horses. James hoisted her onto the back of one, swung up onto the other, and they were off into the night. Luckily, with people running from the castle in all directions, no one noticed them riding away, and even luckier, none of them were hit by stray arrows. Willa swore she must have held her breath until the lights of the keep slipped out of sight and still there was no sign that they had been followed.
A mile from the keep, Willa slowed for only a few moments to leap down and grab her hidden trunk and quickly strap it to the saddle, amazed at the providence that had led her to hide it there. She didn’t know where she was going, but at least she had extra clothes and her hairbrush.
And she was free.
They did not slow for some time, riding north and west, hardly speaking, stopping to rest only after the first streaks of dawn lit the sky.
As soon as she was off the horse, James held out his arms and Willa fell into them. He hugged her tight.
“I thought I was going to lose ye again, after I’d only just found ye”, he murmured into her hair.
They had grown so close in the short time they had known one another, almost as if they had been raised together. Willa hadn’t know James’ mother, but she thought he must be much like her, because he was certainly nothing like their father.
“How did you know? How did you know to come for me?” She turned to the woman who had come to stand beside her. “Oh Maura!” She hugged her as well. She’d known Maura for a time in England, where her family had been in hiding as well, and had been delighted when her brother had married her not long after he’d come looking for his long-lost sister. It seemed the two of them had been fated for one another, falling in love almost at once.
James put his large, strong arms around both women and squeezed.
“My clever wife had one of her visions, and I went to investigate. It wasna difficult to uncover McTierney’s plot to take the castle. Father’s dead, Willa.” He took her hand in his, but she didn’t need the gesture of support. Not surprisingly, she felt no grief.
“He was killed on the road as he returned home. An ambush. Colm holds the castle by now. We’ve lost it.” His voice held regret, but something else as well: the cold fury and the promise of vengeance.
Willa nodded somberly. James should be Laird, not Colm. Never Colm.
“Colm killed Father?”
“Aye, lass. I’m sorry.” He looked at her uncertainly, but of course he didn’t know what had happened between her and her betrothed in the last twenty-four hours.
She almost laughed. “Oh, no James, don’t be sorry, never sorry. I told him I wouldn’t marry him. I was planning on running.” Willa bit her lip as she realized her denial might be the very reason Colm decided to attack. “Oh God, he did it because of me! If I hadn’t refused him…”
James shook his head. “No, Sweet. It would have turned out badly, no matter what ye did. Colm had all those men gathered and ready to attack long before yesterday. It would have taken weeks, at least, without any of us kenning what he planned. I’m only glad we’ve escaped to fight another day. And rest assured, I fully intend to fight another day.”
Maura took a deep breath and attempted a brave smile. “Well! No use worrying about it right this minute. We have to get to safety first. James and I have been planning for some time for just such events, ever since I had a particularly strong vision of the castle falling to a traitor.”
“Aye”, James looked down with admiration at his wife, “and her visions are so often accurate, I didna take a chance that this one wouldna come to pass. There should be a wagon loaded with supplies hidden just over there, and then we’ll go to a place that has been well protected so that no one will be able to find us until we’re ready to be found. Colm will be looking for ye, Willa… ye ken that, dinna ye? When he finds out ye’ve escaped him…”
“Yes, I know he will. As long as I’m still alive and unmarried, he’s not really Laird, is he? Though he could hold power with violence and fear, he would prefer to have it by law. Well, in addition to the violence and fear, anyway.” Willa was suddenly flooded with a fierce determination. She would not let the events of this night stand in the way of living her life the way she wanted to live it. And she would help her brother however she could.
