When no answer came, she returned to the table where her husband rested. She covered John’s big hands with hers, wishing she could breathe life back into his body.
“I am sorry, milord,” she sobbed. “Sorry I never gave ye the chance to love me. Sorry I dinna explain myself before I ran away. Sorry I ever met yer brother that day near the loch. I wonder where we’d be now if fate hadn’t brought us together.”
She leaned over the table and placed a tender kiss on John’s lips.
“Judas kissed the Lord before the Sanhedrin guards arrested him in Gethsemane.”
She closed her eyes and tried to place the man’s voice.
“Lady Keely,” the priest said as he came to stand on the other side of the table. “Some of the women told me I would find ye here.”
“Father Michael,” she said, feeling uncomfortable in his presence. The priest had presided over her wedding. “If ye doona want me here…”
“Tis not my choice to make,” he said. “God calls his children home at the most inconvenient times. But his wisdom is greater than my own. So, I accept ye, child.”
“Ye’ve shown me more mercy than any of the MacKays.”
“Did ye expect to be welcomed as a long-lost friend?”
Keely stepped back from the table and licked her dry lips. “I dinna know, Father.”
The priest rested his hand on John’s forehead. “I’ve outlived the sire, and now his first-born son. What future awaits this clan?” He whispered a blessing and then invited Keely to follow him to a wooden bench. “Sit,” he said.
She scooted to the far end and folded her hands in her lap.
“I will ask the same question I am sure everyone is thinking when they see ye. Why did ye return?”
She should get up and walk away. Arguing with Alex was one thing, but revealing her deepest secrets to a priest was like playing with fire. There would be no half-truths shared in the presence of God or her dead husband. Today must mark the beginning of her new life. “To seek absolution,” she confessed.
“From who?” He rubbed his chin.
“From John.” She gazed in the direction of the table. “But it seems I am too late.”
“Anyone else?”
“God.”
“A prayer offered from any kirk would have gained the Almighty’s forgiveness.”
“Perhaps,” she said, not completely in agreeance. Her eyes grew hazy again as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “Cowards hide from the past. Twas only right to come back here.”
“Ah,” he uttered. “But cowards also run away from their responsibilities.”
She knew what he was implying, and though she didn’t like it, she couldn’t deny his words. “There is no excuse for what I did. But please remember, Father, I was very young. Sixteen.”
“I’ve presided over the marriages of lasses not a day over thirteen.”
Keely knotted the material of her skirt between her hands. “I doona doubt it, Father Michael. But for me, it wasna the right time or with the right man.”
He swallowed, never taking his gaze off her. “I admire yer courage, lass. But the laird is gone. Rest easy, yer past will be buried with him.”
“But not my heart.”
“Nay,” he said. “Ye will have to live with that for a long time.”
Finished with the confession, she stood. “Thank ye for speaking with me.”
“Where will ye go, Keely?”
