The man again.
He was so handsome. He shouted as he drove the carriage through narrow streets, past buildings of white stone. He was agitated. He slapped the reins on the horses’ backs.
Catherine ran out the front door of the house in the woods. She threw her ring at him.
Oh…Her head throbbed in agony as she watched the visions in the stone. Unable to bear it, she pressed her fingers to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut.
The images disappeared.
She opened her eyes.
They reappeared.
The man… he was very handsome, with golden hair. They were on a sailing ship together, standing at the rail.…
Suddenly everything vanished. Catherine felt as if her soul had been sucked out of her body.
The face of the standing stone was now vacant and still.
“No!”She rose up on her knees and slapped her open palm against it. She pounded with her fists. “Come back! I didn’t see everything! I don’t remember!”
She stood up and hurried around to the back of it, rubbing her hands over the rough surface. She ran to the next stone, and the next, searching for something more, but they were all silent and ancient, looming over her, staring down at her like grim, solemn judges from beyond.
Still, she could remember nothing. None of the images made any sense to her, and she wanted to cry.
Catherine moved into the center of the circle and knelt down. She sat back on her heels.
Where was her sister? She was alone here now, and the wind had grown cold. It was gusting all around her.
Then at last she saw her twin entering the circle, holding her skirts in her hands, running. There was fear in her eyes.
Raonaid reached her and hooked a wrist under her arm. She pulled Catherine to her feet. “We have to leave,” Raonaid said with alarm.
“Why?”
“Murdoch is here.Lachlan!” Raonaid shrieked.
But Catherine’s mind was still in a fog from the visions. She barely managed to stagger to her feet before Raonaid began dragging her to the edge of the circle. Dizziness overwhelmed her. She feared she might be sick. “What does he want?”
“To kill you.”
“I beg your pardon?”The dizziness subsided, replaced by a shot of adrenaline through her veins.
“He’s the leader of the new rebellion,” Raonaid explained as they ran, “and if you are dead, your father’s fortune is bequeathed to the cause.”
“He was your father, too,” Catherine argued, just as a pistol shot cracked through the air.
A spasm of pain exploded in her back, and the breath sailed out of her lungs. She tripped over her feet and fell forward onto the ground, rolling uncontrollably down the hill outside the circle.
Her body tumbled and plummeted at great speed. Her wrist snapped like a twig. All she knew was sharp, piercing pain as the world spun around and around.
Then everything stopped, and the sky turned white. She slowly blinked up at it, as her heart opened to a blinding and beautiful radiance.
Chapter Thirty-six
Lachlan heard the gunshot and urged Goliath into a fast gallop up the hill.“Yah! Yah!”
He saw Catherine fall forward, then tumble down the grassy slope in a jumble of flying skirts and petticoats. If not for the raised knoll halfway down, she would have kept rolling straight to the bottom.
