“What could be worse in your eyes?” he asked, cupping her cheek and rubbing the pad of his thumb lightly across her soft skin.
She leaned into his touch and sighed. “Soon, Alex.”
“But our descendants are completely capable of protecting our castle, of attacking any force that tries to overtake our castle. You know that.”
“I believe you are correct. You’ve done a fine job training our clan.”
“We, Maddie. We trained our clan, our bairns, our grandbairns. We did it together.”
“Aye, but this new threat is too awful for me to take a chance.”
“What could possibly be worse than the last battle for the Scottish Crown or someone trying to overtake our castle?”
He watched as tears flooded her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, something he hadn’t seen in a long, long time. “What is it, Maddie?” He kissed one of her tears away. “I’ll do it, whatever ’tis. Just stop crying.”
“The Ramsays and Grants will attack each other.”
He froze, simply because he hadn’t expected that answer at all. She was right that it was the worst outcome he could imagine. Their descendants dead at the hands of Clan Ramsay? His descendants killing the sons and daughters of his friends? His head hurt from the implications. Stopping his soft ministrations to his wife’s smooth skin, he cursed. “I didn’t think there was anything that could make me wish to stay, but you’ve done it.”
“You must stop it from happening, Alex.”
She stepped away, moving backward, parts of her image flickering into nothingness as she moved.
He couldn’t argue this time.
He had to stay.
“Soon, Alex,” were her last words.
Chapter Five
Alex tells Dyna about a special aura…
Dyna came rushing toward Alex from across the hall. He wasn’t surprised. He’d been expecting her, and he had an odd feeling that he knew exactly what she was about to say.
“Grandsire, I’ve been having dreams again.”
He pointed to the laird’s solar, not far away. “We’ll talk inside. I know why you’re here.” He used the thick, wooden arms of his chair to push himself to a standing position, then grabbed his wooden stick, a new one crafted for him by his grandsons Alick and Broc. The lads had worked on it for hours to ensure it was the perfect height for their grandfather.
She stopped abruptly. “What? How could you know I’ve been having seer dreams?”
“Inside first, then I’ll explain it to you. Just stand next to me and I’ll be fine.”
He made his way to the large chair behind the desk and indicated for Dyna to close the door behind her.
“How could you know about my dreams?” Dyna asked, clearly stupefied by his declaration.
“I’ll explain to you, if you can tolerate one more story about the olden days.”
Dyna broke into a wide grin. Many of his grandbairns teased him about his habit of telling old stories, though it was all done out of affection. “You know I will always love your stories. But I’m guessing this is not one I’ve heard retold ten times.”
“You are correct.” He sat down and leaned back in the chair. “This story is from my childhood, although I’m amazed I can remember back that far.”
“’Tis something Great-Grandmama or Great-Grandpapa told you?” she asked, her tone one of excitement. Dyna was an old soul, and she’d always cherished his stories.
“I was about ten summers, if I recall, and Aunt Brenna would have been eight then. Mama told us about the fae…”
Dyna’s face brightened. “I love fae stories.”
