He shrugged. “That depends on wha’ your sister decides to do.”
“Chief MacLeod—” Just last night she’d called him Rory. She’d breathed the name into his ear and over his skin. “My sister will ne’er surrender our lands.”
“We shall see.”
He strode out before she could form a reply. He left the door half-open, and no guard stationed outside.
Saerla stood there struggling to decide what that meant, and what would happen if she walked out and across the glen.
He would stop her then. He would not let her go.
Andcouldshe leave him?
That question, appearing in her mind, stopped her cold. Aye, they had shared a lot during the night just past. More intimacy than she had ever imagined might exist, not only of the body but the mind, the soul. But she would return home. To be sure she would—go back to her family. Back to the light that dwelt on the rise.
Before she could ponder it farther, Rhian arrived, puffing up the corridor with an anxious look on her face. She glanced at Saerla before giving her a sharp look and asking, “Where is the guard?”
“I am no’ certain.” Saerla could not explain to Rhian what she herself barely understood.
Rhian’s eyes narrowed. “Ye can scarcely escape now. Half the warriors in the stronghold are out on the sward awaiting Leith. He maun return this morning.”
The night past could not have been an easy one for Rhian. Despite the bloom her pregnancy had lent her, she appeared strained, and clearly had not slept.
“Wha’ if he does no’ return, Saerla?”
“He will.”
“Ha’ ye Seen—”
Saerla shook her head. “I’ve Seen naught more.”
“Wha’ if Moira or the council decide this is a good thing, having the heir to MacLeod once more in their hands? There were those who disagreed with ever letting Leith go.”
“Rhian, Moira will no’ keep him fro’ ye.”
“I could no’ live without him, Saerla. I for certain could no’ live here without him.”
A slow ache started in Saerla’s heart. She would have to do just that—manage to live without Rory. That day would come.
And, she assured herself swiftly, what she felt toward Rory MacLeod did not approach what Rhian felt for Leith. That was love. What she felt for Rory was, at best, lust. Need.
Rhian remained with her until word came, brought by none other than Leith’s sister, Aisleen, that Leith had been spied by watchmen on the ramparts, returning across the glen.
Rhian caught Saerla by the hand, and they followed Aisleen from the chamber, down through the corridors and out into the light.
A glorious morning it was, the sun already well up and sending shafts of radiance over the hills. Saerla had not been outdoors since being stricken by the Vision. Now, even though she viewed it from the wrong side of the glen, from a place she’d never expected to stand, she was nearly overcome with love for this place she adored.
Surely any price asked would be worth paying for its preservation?
As Rhian had said, they found a large number of people out beneath that sun. Guards ranged across the turf and on the walls. Warriors bound for the practice field. Ordinary people awaiting their fate.
They found Rory standing at the forefront with his war chief, Murgor. Rory’s eyes were narrowed against the glare from the loch as he stared off toward MacBeith. Home.
He glanced at Saerla and Rhian when they took places beside him, their hands linked.
To Rhian he said, “He has just rowed across the loch and pulled his wee boat up on this side. See?”
Saerla could feel Rhian trembling through their linked hands and knew she longed to run and meet Leith. Knew she would not allow her composure to break, here before so many eyes.
