“Ye leave Laird MacColl to me,” Helena interrupted, waving her hand. “She can take care of herself.”
“Aye, I can,” Nora laughed, meeting Helena’s eye and smiling gratefully. “Daenae worry about me, lads.”
The men ignored them and exchanged a few hastily muttered words. Apparently, it was decided that one of the MacCrimmon guards would accompany Nora, and the rest would stay with Helena.
The MacCrimmon man followed her bad-temperedly through the market. Stalls crowded the wide MacCrimmon courtyard, some of them spilling out through the gates and curving around the keep walls. However, it seemed that the best stalls and the plum locations wereinsidethe keep.
Taking her time, Nora wandered through the endless rows, inspecting each stall. Some stalls sold food—homemade cheese, meats, butter, dried fruits, vegetables, pickled vegetables, jams, and more. Naturally, there were many jewelry stalls, and one stall sold only hagstones—smooth riverstones with a hole worn through the middle.
“Good for spyin’ out danger,” the old woman behind the stall said, when Nora lingered for a moment or two. “Look through the hole, and ye will see what would otherwise be hidden.”
Nora gave a wry smile. “I’ve heard that hagstones are either very lucky or tremendously unlucky. Which is it?”
The old woman gave a toothless smile. “Ah, that all depends on whether ye look through the hole.”
Nora chuckled at that, shaking her head and moving on. She wasn’t here for a hagstone, although she could certainly do with a little look.
Ah! She spotted a fabric stall a little further down the row. Brightly-colored bolts of fabric were piled up, some almost spilling over and ready to roll onto the ground. As Nora stepped closer, the woman behind the stall turned to her, a wide smile already on her face. Their eyes met, and the smile faded.
Nora froze, rocking on her feet. The market shifted around her. Swallowing thickly, she managed one single word.
“Margaret.”
CHAPTER 21
Nora blinked hard,once, twice, three times, waiting for her sister’s face to settle into something more recognizable. Someone who looked like her, or maybe a completely different person that Nora justwantedto see as Margaret.
But no. There she was, Margaret. Staring straight back at Nora. The same intent stare, the same heavy, thick red hair that linked them both as sisters, only with sky-blue eyes in Margaret’s heart-shaped, pale face instead of green.
Nora swallowed hard, working moisture into her mouth. She parted her lips, planning to speak, although she hadn’t decided what to say.
Funny,she thought hazily.After all this time I’ve spent thinkin’ about how to find me sister, I never thought for one moment what I’d say to her when I saw her at last.
Margaret, apparently, was just as surprised. She looked at her sister, her throat moving as she breathed. Her hand, stretched out, clenched a handful of coins. A bewildered woman dressed in a modest brown fabric waited nervously, her own palm open for her change.
After a moment of silence, the poor woman cleared her throat. Margaret blinked, waking out of her reverie, and opened her fingers, releasing the coins. The woman caught them and scurried off, clutching her money in one hand and the fabric in the other. A man stepped forward to take her place, but before he could speak, Margaret held up a hand, palm out, silencing him before he started.
“We’re closin’ for a wee bit,” she managed, not looking his way. “Come back later.”
The man spluttered, a complaint already forcing its way out of his mouth.
Margaret was not listening. She shuffled around the stall, inching warily toward Nora as if uncertain.
“It’s ye,” Margaret said at last, breaking the silence once more. Nora still hadn’t ventured a single word. “Ye are really here.”
Behind her, the man scoffed incredulously, threw up his hands, and stamped away. Nora felt the hysterical urge to laugh at him. The laughter died in her throat as the reality of the situation came crashing down on her once more.
“Margie,” she whispered, the word coming out almost strangled. “Ye are here. Ye are alive.”
Margaret blinked. “Why would I nae be alive?”
Tears pricked at Nora’s eyes. “Ye really daenae ken that I’ve been searchin’ for ye, do ye?”
The MacCrimmon guard cleared his throat. Nora blinked, giving herself a tiny shake, and glanced over her shoulder at the man. She hadn’t asked his name when they all set out to walk to the loch, and it seemed almost rude to ask now.
Still, there was something like sympathy in his eyes.
“Is there somewhere we could go to talk privately?” She heard herself say. “Every square inch of this courtyard seems to be full of people.”
