For a moment she thought herself back in her room at the convent, as she’d been dreaming when she was awoken so abruptly, but she had only to look around her to shatter that fantasy.
No modest single bed like the one she had left behind, covered so neatly with blankets and quilts sewn by the nuns—but a monstrosity big enough for six people!
Aye, the mattress was wondrously comfortable, the rich coverings soft to the touch and the pillows plump, but it wasn’t where she wanted to be—no, not at all.
It would take eight of her rooms to fill just this one, the bedchamber so large that she felt very small in it, sitting there looking around her. Another crash of thunder made her jump and gasp, but it was nothing to her sharp intake of breath when the door suddenly burst open and a tiny figure in white came running toward her.
“Mama!”
Magdalene watched in amazement as Rhona, sobbing, reached out her chubby arms to her, which made her clamber from the bed in alarm. “Och, child, what’s this now?”
She got no answer other than Rhona flinging her arms around Magdalene’s knees as another clap of thunder made the floor seem to shake, the little girl squealing in terror.
At once Magdalene swept her up to hold her close, Rhona’s slight body shaking from head to foot. “Where’s your nurse? Where’s your sister, Keira?”
“I-I dinna know, Mama. I ran here tae find you…”
“Shh…shh, find me you did,” Magdalene murmured, rubbing Rhona’s back to soothe her. “Come on, it’s warmer in the bed.”
With the child clinging to her as if she would never let her go, Magdalene climbed back onto the bed and covered both of them with what felt like a mountain of blankets. Only then did she wince at the pain in her ribs; funny, that she wouldn’t have felt a thing until now. She had been so concerned about Rhona, poor wee thing…
With an innate sense of what must be done to calm her, Magdalene began to rock her gently and coo into her ear.
“There, there, all is well. It’s only some nasty thunder and some rain…I dinna like it, either, but it will pass soon, I promise.”
Grateful that Rhona’s trembling had quieted as well as her tears no matter the storm still blustered outside, Magdalene wiped damp curls from the child’s cheek and lowered her head to kiss her forehead. Yet she didn’t stop rocking or cooing, not words so much as soothing sounds, until the tiny body relaxed and went limp against her, Rhona falling asleep.
Magdalene felt so sleepy again, too, mayhap the warmth of the child in her arms easing her worries that people might be looking for her.
What was she to do? If she moved, Rhona might wake and start crying again, and she didn’t want that to happen.
Instead, Magdalene decided to keep her eyes trained across the room, for surely someone would see the door pushed open and come inside to look—
“Sweet Jesu…” Magdalene had barely whispered the words, so stunned to see a towering shape in the doorway that she knew at once was Gabriel.
How long had he been standing there? Surely not long! She hadn’t noticed him a moment before. Oh, no, had he heard her speaking to Rhona as any mother might to a frightened child? Was her ruse of lunacy discovered?
Wide-eyed and scarcely breathing, Magdalene watched as he took a step into the room, and then another, quietly as if he feared waking her…waking the child. Oh, please, may he have just come upon them and thought she and Rhona were both sleeping!
“Laird Gabriel! Och, forgive me—”
“Quiet, Grania!”
Through slitted eyes, Magdalene could see that a stout older woman had appeared in the doorway only to be shushed at once by Gabriel’s fierce whispers.
“Look there! You can see that Rhona is safe and asleep—”
“But she’s a madwoman, Laird!” hissed the woman, wringing her hands, though Gabriel stepped backward with her to the door. “I turned my back for only a moment tae stoke the fire and the child slipped like a wraith from the room.”
“What about Keira?”
“Still sleeping, storm or no. Nothing wakes that one.”
“Good, then return tae her. I’ll be right across the hall—”
“In the storage closet, Laird?”
“There’s room enough for a cot, Grania, no more questions,” came Gabriel’s impatient aside, and not as low as before. “Go now. You’ve been nurse tae enough bairns all these years, my father, Malcolm and myself, tae know when there’s danger afoot or not—and I’m telling you, they’re sleeping like two babes together.”
