Page 16

“And did it work?”

“It helped a wee bit, which is better than nae at all. Come on, Niall, will ye let me help ye?” she asked, her voice filled with hope. She opened her palms to him. Niall looked at them, as though deciding whether he was going to take them or remain in this gloom. Moira was delighted when he placed his hands in hers and rose from the table. She didn’t yet know how she was going to distract him, although an idea was already beginning to form in her mind.

“What dae ye hae in mind, then? I hae tae admit that I am nae good at the things ye distracted yerself with. I dinnae suppose ye hae a good hunt in mind? That usually does the trick, although it’s a wee bit late tae gae on a hunt now.” Niall peered out the window at the evening twilight. There were still a couple of hours of daylight left, but it would fade quickly and it would be easy to lose track of prey in the evening gloom.

“Something like a hunt,” Moira said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “I thought we could play a game.”

Niall tilted his head and looked intrigued at this. His dark eyes shimmered with delight as he followed Moira outside, and she was glad that she could do something like this for her husband. She knew what it was like to suffer alone, to be plagued with guilt and the feeling of impotence, and she wanted to do anything she could to prevent Niall from succumbing to the same curse.

It was clear to her that Jamie meant the world to him, and Niall was liable to drive himself insane if he was left to his own devices. But Niall had Moira, and it was time to prove herself worthy of being his wife. There was more to their marriage than simply being a symbol of peace between the two clans.

There was a layer of intimacy between them as well, one that meant they would protect and help each other. Their marriage was still in the process of flourishing, but Moira was beginning to understand what being a wife truly meant.

10

Moira smiled to herself as she led Niall outside. She ignored his questions about what type of game they were going to play, telling him that he had to wait and find out. He was impatient, and she could tell that he was frustrated, but he did as she asked.

She scoured the ground for what she needed and gathered a few twigs and moss in her hand, adding flowers to give the trinket some life and beauty. In the end, she created a heart shape with flowers wrapped around the outside. She presented it to Niall, who nodded, impressed.

“It’s a lovely thing ye hae made, Moira, but I fail tae see how this is a game. Dae ye expect me tae make something similar? Because I can tell ye now that it’s nae gaeing tae be pretty.” The trinket rested in his palm, nestled against his flesh. Moira chuckled and plucked it out of his hand, holding it between her finger and thumb.

“That’s nae the game at all, silly, though I would like tae see what ye could come up with. But the game is that I’m gaeing tae hide it and ye hae tae find it…and then ye hae tae come find me. Now, turn around and close yer eyes.”

Moira turned Niall around so that he was facing the castle wall. She lifted his hands so that they covered his eyes, and she made him promise that he wasn’t going to peek.

“I dinnae need tae peek tae find ye,” he said.

“We’ll see about that,” Moira said, glad that he was throwing himself into the challenge. She told him to count to a hundred and then come and find her. As soon as he began counting she turned and looked for a good place to hide, not only to hide herself, but also the trinket.

At first, she thought about rushing to the stables, before quickly dismissing the notion. The horses might give her away. The wide fields offered few places to hide and he would find her easily, and she didn’t want to go back into the castle as Niall knew the building far more than she did. In the end, she raced to the forest, moving as quietly as she could through bushes.

She passed through a lot of trees and found one that was particularly old and gnarled. Pressing her hand against the rough bark, she felt connected with nature for a moment before she told herself that she had no time to lose herself in reverie. She found a small nook into which the trinket fit perfectly. Pleased with herself, she moved to a thick area of bracken and hid behind it, waiting to see how long Niall took to find her.

Moira waited with bated breath. In the distance, she could hear Niall call out that he was coming to find her. Moira’s heart beat quickly and she found it silly that a child’s game could still be so thrilling after all these years. She had played it often with her niece and nephew, but she always had to make it a little easy for them.

With Niall, there were no such qualms. However, Niall was a skilled hunter, and it didn’t take him long to come across her trail. She had hoped he might think she had gone to the stables, but he made a line straight towards the forest and she cursed herself for not thinking about covering her tracks.

However, once Niall entered the forest, he found it far more difficult. He called out to her, pretending to be in trouble, but little did he know that she could see him from her vantage point and knew he was not in any danger. He tried to coax her out, but she remained silent, stifling a laugh.

Niall looked closely at the plants and flowers around him, and picked something off one of them. It looked like a thread. Moira glanced at her arm and saw that indeed a part of her shawl had caught on a thorn without her realizing it. She must have been in such a rush that it pulled away without any effort at all.

He then noticed some broken sticks and a place where she had pushed aside a thick part of a bush. Moira frowned. It wasn’t taking him as long as she had hoped to find her trail, and she was dismayed when he passed along the trees and found the trinket without much trouble at all. He plucked it out of the hidey-hole and held it aloft, calling out to Moira that he had found what she had hidden.

But that was only part of the game. The other part was to find her.

She watched Niall crouch and inspect the ground, looking at the tracks she had left. Then, he seemed to stare right at her. Moira froze. No, she told herself, it was impossible that he could actually see her, and she wasn’t ready for this game to be over.

She pushed herself up and carefully ran away, skipping lightly to try and make as little sound as possible. She had gotten quite good at moving stealthily with Gregor and Lileas, and she moved around the forest, hiding behind a tree.

She watched as Niall broke through the bracken with a triumphant cry, expecting to find her there. She sniggered as he frowned and looked around, wondering where she had gone. Moira wasn’t going to rest, as she knew it would take him only moments to figure out the path she had taken, so she moved again, using the trees as shields.

Niall noticed the sounds of movement.

“I know ye are out here, Moira. Ye cannae hide from me forever!”

He followed the trail to the trees, but Moira was always one step ahead. She ran lightly and pressed herself flat against a wide trunk. The light was dim as the thick leaves and branches offered a canopy that blocked out the fading light. The air smelled earthy and lush.

Occasionally the leaves shook as birds hopped and flew about, while she also sensed the sound of small animals scurrying about, getting ready to go about their business under the cover of night, with the hope that they would escape the attention of predators. Moira peered around the tree trunk, expecting to see Niall peering at the ground or looking around in a perplexed state.