With her head held high and her back straight, Tesswalked farther down the road. With every step, she met people’sgazes, and they made way for her. Almost to the tower house, shecame upon a market cross. She stopped and turned around as thecrowd closed in behind her. She turned completely around and lookedinto the circle of faces.
“I am Tess,” she said gently and yet loudly enoughfor everyone to hear. “Most of you do not know me. Or if you do,you may only remember me as a child.” She took a deep breath andtried to will away the doubts that were chilling her bones.
“I left here…” She shook her head. “I leftthere.” She pointed to the castle on the ridge. “I leftthere eleven years ago…the same night that my father waskilled.”
Tess cleared her throat and struggled to organizeher thoughts and her words. But everything had become a jumble ofemotion within her.
“I don’t know if ’twas the tragedy that I witnessedhere or what happened during a terrible sea storm after, but when Iwashed ashore on the Isle of May, I had no memory of who I was orwhere I had come from.” She looked into somber faces. “I was foundby an old couple that were the keepers of St. Adrian’s shrine. Theywere the folk I stayed with for all these years.”
An old man leaning on a crutch nodded instantly atthe mention of the shrine.
“While there, I thought ’twas my fate to remainforever on that island, taking care of a handful of sheep and aweary pilgrim or two every summer. I thought that was the life Iwas destined to live. And I would have done exactly that if it hadnot been that the youngest son of the Macpherson laird had one daywashed ashore, as well.” Tess glanced in the direction of Colin. Hewas sitting on his horse, eyeing the crowd warily. James and theother Macpherson men sat behind him
“’Twas he who identified the Lindsay brooch I had.’Twas he who made me realize my nightmares of fire and horror werereally a part of my past.” Tess looked at Colin again, and hervoice softened. “And ’twas he who told me that all of you werestill here.”
She looked at the faces again, held their gazes,sought their response. “I was made to realize that I was not alone,as I thought. That perhaps if I were to seek the people of theLindsay clan, that if I were to explain to you that I was nodifferent than you, that I too had been displaced and abandoned forthe past eleven years…then perhaps you would take me back. PerhapsI would be given the opportunity of finally knowing my ownpeople.”
Silence once again threw its heavy wing over thecrowd. Tess managed to hold back the tears despite the desperationthat twisted her insides. The group continued to stare.
Then, a shuffling sound came from her left. Sheturned and saw an older man pushing through.
“My name’s Robbie. I was the cook up at the castlewhen ye were a wee lass. I remember ye clutching at the skirts o’yer nursemaid, Elsie, and following her everywhere about theplace.” The man leaned his weight heavily on a stick that he wasusing for walking.
The memory was vague, like a scene she had perhapsimagined, but Tess voiced it. “I remember falling over a bucket ofwater and oats and nearly putting out the kitchen fire.”
“Ye didn’t fall, lassie. Ye jumped.”
A rumble of laughter rolled across the crowd.
“Ye were always sure to be into a bit of mischiefwhen ye were a wee thing.” A middle-aged woman announced with asmile from the opposite side of the gathering. “I was one of theserving lasses that would come up daily from the village. Iremember the day ye were trying to climb down the wall of thecastle from yer room. Ye were caught on a ledge halfway down anddidn’t know to go up or down…and at the same time ye were refusingto cry for help.”
Tess had never been afraid of climbing the cliffs onthe May, and now she knew that her adventurous spirit had itsorigins here. “I wish I could remember your name.”
“Lil.” The woman smiled affably. “I fetched one ofthe grooms. ‘Twas Rory. The two of us helped you down.”
“I was the one she fetched.” A man standing next toher said. “Ye were worried about some birds that were nesting onthe ledge outside your window, lassie. D’ye remember?”
Tess took a step closer to the couple. She lookedclosely into the man’s face. There was a flicker of recollection.“Horses. Somehow I see you where there are horses.”
“Aye, mistress. ’Twas I that taught you toride.”
Someone else called out another story from thecrowd. Another spoke out. Tess started to remember a sound, a name,a face. More than ever before, something sweetly familiar wrapped ablanket of warmth around her. The coldness that she had sensedbefore among these people dissipated like a morning mist.
She felt a tug at her skirt and looked down into thedirty face of a little girl beaming up at her. Tess opened herhand, and the child took it, nestling against her legs.
The first tear escaped. Then another.
Everyone seemed to be speaking at once, and Tesslooked about her, realizing that no longer was she confronting acrowd. She had become a part of them.
An ancient woman hobbled toward her and clutchedTess’s hand and brought it to her lips.
“I’m Bella. I was Elsie’s mother. Your nursemaid wasone of the castle folk who took you away the night of the attack. Iknow now that she was lost at sea with the rest of them.”
With that, Tess broke down and cried as Bellawrapped her in a warm embrace.
At one point Tess looked across the throng of peopleand could no longer see Colin. Anxious, she searched the crowdsagain and found him this time speaking with some of the Lindsays.James was beside him too and some of the other Macphersons. All haddismounted and joined in the crowd. It was like some happygathering of clans, and she relished the thought.
Tess felt the tug on her hand by the young childstill standing with her. The girl pointed toward the castle.
