Caitlyn nudged him and they dissolved into laughter. She was surprised that she had dared to touch him in such a playful way, but he said nothing about it. She was seeing another side to him, and she liked it.
“Now, let us find another shameful secret!” he said eagerly. “It takes no time at all in the Duncan family. They were all misfits.” He turned over a page or two and found a name, and they went over to the corresponding picture on the wall.
“This is Great-Great Aunt Maria. It was said that she was a witch. They said that she could make people go mad just by looking at them, and she was so ugly that she could turn people to stone, like Medusa. I think there was some truth in the ugly bit—but the rest?” He left his own question unanswered, and Caitlyn laughed.
“It was said that she could also tell the future, and if women wanted to make a pregnancy go away she could make that happen with a magic spell. That was why she was finally burned at the stake.” They had reached the painting, and although Caitlyn could see that the woman had a wart above her wrinkled mouth, sagging jaws and baggy gray eyes, she did not find her too ugly to behold. Caitlyn looked down at herself, laughing.
“Well, I have not yet begun to petrify!” she remarked, then shivered. “Burned at the stake!” Caitlyn was appalled, but at the same time fascinated. “What a horrible way to die!”
“Do you want to hear more?” Alastair asked, looking at Caitlyn keenly. He had thought that she might be feeling a little disgusted, but she was nothing of the sort.
“Yes, please!” Caitlyn’s tone was eager, and Alastair laughed his deep masculine laugh that sent a thrill through her whole body. She had never been as close to him before when they were not shouting at each other.
“One more!” She clapped her hands eagerly, then Alastair flicked through a few more pages before walking along a little further to an absolutely exquisite painting of a very beautiful young man. “That is my second cousin Findlay, a man who is as they say, ‘not the marrying kind,’ if you understand my meaning. He was hanged for selling himself to men.”
Meanwhile, Caitlyn’s mouth was agape in disbelief. “I think that I had better not see any more,” she said quickly. She had enjoyed the experience immensely, and she had enjoyed Alastair too.
He seemed like a different man, one who smiled, and was entertaining, funny, and engaging, and made jokes and laughed, mostly at himself. She admired people who could do that.
All of a sudden Alastair realized, as he gazed at her, that he was happy in the company of a woman for the first time in a very long time. It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time; in fact, he hardly recognized himself.
“I have not enjoyed myself so much in ages!” Caitlyn said, laughing in delight.
He looked down at her green sparkling eyes. They mesmerized him, and he could hardly look away from her. He was glad that he had been the instrument of her enjoyment.
10
Finding Pinky
When the little tour was over they went up to the upper battlements to look at the view, because for once it was not raining. In the distance they could even see a glimpse of blue sky.
“My goodness,” Caitlyn said sardonically, “someone has been praying very hard.”
They looked at the sky for a long time, watching the blue rolling back the gray storm clouds. Caitlyn could not look away from them, and Alastair could not look away from her. She turned to say something to him and found his eyes waiting for her. She was unaware of just how beautiful she looked with her tousled flame-colored hair and cheeks flushed pink from the breeze.
Then the past came to slap Alastair in the face and remind him that no woman was worth the pain he had already gone through. However, from somewhere he found a smile, albeit a very small one.
Caitlyn found the silence between them awkward and oppressive, so she turned away from him to go downstairs.
“Would you like to go for a ride?” he asked, politely.
“Is it safe?” she asked doubtfully.
“We can take two guards if it worries you,” he replied.
She thought for a moment, then smiled. “Yes, why not? I think the sun might even come out to bless us today!”
Ten minutes later they were mounting their horses, with two heavily armed men accompanying them, one in front and one behind. When they went outside the walls the wind came howling up from the bottom of the valley, teasing Caitlyn’s hair into a tangle and making her whoop in the exultation of freedom.
“You look so happy,” he remarked, smiling at her.
“I am,” she replied. “I have nothing to beunhappy about! My mother is almost well, I have made two new friends—you and Ava—and I am in this lovely place. How can I not feel wonderful?”
I wish I could be like her,he thought enviously.Carefree and beautiful.
Caitlyn rode her borrowed mount Bettie down to the shore of a little loch by the side of a stand of fir trees. She was still smiling; it was one of those days when she could not seem to stop. She looked across the navy blue water and watched the reflection of the rarely-seen sun as a shifting, shimmering pattern across its surface.
She took the horse down to the water’s edge and in a moment she was lapping the freshwater while she gazed around her at the heather, now fading from its summer glory to its somber winter brown.
