“I brought carrots from this morning and I set some traps while we were getting the fire going. Keep an eye on the fire.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” She lay back in the straw, her eyes closing. Her head ached from crying and she found herself wondering what her mom was up to at that moment. She was just downstairs, only a few feet away. And yet she might as well have been on another planet.
She had no idea how long Tavish was gone, but she must have fallen asleep as she stirred to the sight of him nudging the fire back into life.
“Sorry,” she said before her eyes were even open. “I must have nodded off.”
“It’s nay bother,” he replied, sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands pointed toward the fire. “Two rabbits soon cooked.”
Lindsey was surprised by how loudly her stomach started growling as the smell of cooking filled the room.
“You miss your mother,” Tavish said out of nowhere. “Don’t you?”
“I do,” she replied. “I hope she’s all right.”
He grabbed the rabbits from the spit and passed one to her. “Let it cool,” he said, tearing a chunk from his own, steam billowing from his mouth.
“Have you got a cast iron stomach?” she asked. “How is that not burning you?”
He shrugged. “Ye can get used to anything given enough time.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how dark it is here.”
“It’s no dark. We've got the light from the fire.”
“I mean outside. I can’t see a thing out there. In my time, there’s always the glow of a town somewhere nearby but here, nothing. It’s quiet too. I’m not used to that either.”
His dark eyes fixed on her. “Do the books say anything about my mother?”
She shook her head. “Very little. What was she like?”
“She died giving birth to me. Ah never knew her. All ma father told me was she loved bluebells because they flowered all the way into summer up here. That’s the carving above your bed there. A circle o’ bluebells.”
Lindsey glanced up at the ceiling. It looked as if just talking about it pained him and she was glad for an excuse to look away and let him compose himself.
She found herself dying to hug him like he’d done to her outside, comfort him, tell him it would be all right.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“I never have told anyone. I dinnae ken. Mebbe it’s because you’re not from here but ah dinnae mind talking to ye. My father took good care of me and ah’ve let him down. This is ma chance to make it right.
“It was because of him that ah became a sword master, a teacher of war to the wee bairns at Castle Sinclair. He sacrificed everything to get me up the ladder toward laird and how did ah repay him?” He almost spat the words out. “I took to banishment like a fish to water. Ah should have fought them all.”
“You couldn’t fight an entire clan, not when everyone was against you.”
“Billy, Jock, and Matthew weren’t against me. For all I knew, there might have been more. He’s in the dungeon and ah might no see him again if this doesnae work.”
“It will work, you’ll see.”
He picked up a carrot and tore the end off, chewing it slowly.
Lindsey ate the rest of her rabbit in silence, laying down the bones next to the bed, a huge yawn spreading across her face, the natural result of being so close to such a warm fire. She sagged down onto her back on the bed.
“It’ll be all right,” she said. “I came back here for a reason. I know it’s to help you.”
“And your mother,” Tavish replied. “Ah put Margaret’s locket under the fireplace downstairs. It shouldnae be hard to find.”
“You didn’t have to,” Lindsey said, craning her neck to look at him. He’d crossed to the doorway and was looking back at her.
