CHAPTER 22
An ice-blue morningspread over the Highlands.
Skye watched the frost and dew glimmer on the grass from high up in her bedroom. Leaning forward, she breathed on the glass, watching it fog under her breath. She lifted her finger to draw on it, an old childhood habit, then paused.
What should she draw? What should she write?
In the end, she let her hand fall, and the fog faded from the glass.
Below, mist curled out of the forest, covering the courtyard. There was much more outside the keep walls, where the ground was damp and open, than inside.
We’ll travel through that mist,she thought, swallowing hard.I’m going home.
Those three words ought to make her so happy. She should feel relieved and excited. She was going home, and she would befree. Her marriage would be annulled. It would be like it had never happened.
But it has happened.
A tap on the door made her flinch.
She turned around to see Susan standing there, twisting her hands together miserably.
“It’s time, me Lady,” Susan murmured unhappily. “Lady Helena is already in the litter. They’re all ready to go.”
“I see. I’m packed up, am I nae? Did I forget anything?”
“Nae that I can think of. We… We can always send it to ye afterwards, if we find anything.”
Skye gave a brittle smile. “Aye, of course.”
She picked up her cloak, the same dark blue one that Evander had bought her, and draped it around her shoulders. She wore her blue pearl dress, too. It seemed appropriate, somehow.
She’d left the red dress in her wardrobe. Every time she laid eyes on it, she would think of Evander. Of his large hands, warmon her body. Of the way his eyes sparkled when he laughed or smiled sincerely. The taste of his lips, the scratch of his stubble.
I cannae take those thoughts with me when I go back to Keep MacCrimmon. They’ll only bother me.
Clearing her throat, she crossed the room toward Susan and wordlessly enfolded her in her arms.
“Thank ye for everything ye have done for me,” she whispered. “Ye are a kind lass and an excellent maid.”
Susan sniffled. “I’ll miss ye, me Lady. We all will. We… We were excited to have a Lady Bryden, ye ken.”
“Well, ye still might have one. It just willnae be me.”
The two women broke apart.
Susan sniffled, offering a false bright smile. “I’m sure ye are as happy as anything to be going home, me Lady,” she said, with a firmness that didn’t brook contradiction. “Now, shall we get ye downstairs and safe in the litter? It’ll be a comfortable, relaxing trip, and then ye will be home again. There’s no place like home, eh?”
“No place like home,” Skye echoed.
They walked quietly through the keep and out into the courtyard. The litter awaited, the curtains pinned back and the door hanging open. Dread coiled in Skye’s gut.
I daenae want to go in there. Is it too late to ride?
Soldiers gathered, ready to escort them, shifting from foot to foot to ward off the cold. It was still too dark to put out the torches in the courtyard.
A figure detached itself from the shadow of the wall, moving toward her. Skye’s heart leaped for a moment.
Evander?
