“Tess?”
She jerked around and looked in confusion atColin for a moment. The castle workers were gone.
“What’s wrong, Tess?”
“We were here. My father…my mother. She wasangry because I had come down to see him.” She looked back at thehearth. “I remember. He gave me a gift before I was sent back to myroom. He gave me the jeweled cross for my sixth birthday that wasthe next day. He told me he would see me in the morning.”
Tess didn’t realize she was crying untilColin’s arms wrapped around her. “They were all here.” She lookedup at him urgently. “I’m starting to remember.”
She glanced nervously at the doorway thatled to the west tower. “Will you come with me there?”
Colin’s hand enveloped hers tightly.
Her steps were sure when the two walked to theground floor of the tower. As they passed through the doorway andmoved into the tower itself, she found herself in a great openspace. Looking up, Tess saw that the upper floors were completelygone. But she could still see the weathered stubs of floor timbersprotruding from the walls and the large fireplaces against theblackened stone walls.
“Our bedchambers were up there,” Tess heard herselfexplaining. Even as she spoke, the past began to unfold, and shebegan to shiver. Pushing back the fears, though, she held tight toColin’s hand and continued. “It all started in the middle of thenight. I woke up scared, thinking I’d heard a noise. But I wasn’tsure. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air.”
Colin’s strong arm wrapped around her shoulders. Hedrew her against his side. “What did you do?”
“I picked up a candle and went into the corridor upthere.” She pointed. “There was the sound of a struggle coming fromthe laird’s chambers next to my room. I saw the door open slowly onits heavy hinges. A moment later, I saw my father step out. Helooked pale, his eyes black. He looked at me for an instant, hisgaze distant. He stretched his hand toward me, and when I reachedout…he pressed his brooch into my palm.”
Tess swallowed hard. All the fragments of thenightmares came together now, and she drew a shaky breath.
“Then his sword dropped from his other hand, and hetumbled forward at my feet. The hilt of a dirk was sticking out ofhis back.” Involuntarily, she tried to step back. Colin’s armsembraced her. “I screamed and crouched down at my father’s head.Before I could touch him, the other man appeared in thedoorway.”
“You saw him?”
She nodded slowly. “I saw the man who killed myfather.”
“Did you know him?”
“He wasn’t anyone I knew.”
Colin looked into her eyes. “Would you recognize himnow?”
Tess hesitated for a moment, but then nodded again.“His face was streaked with blood. She let go of Colin’s hand andopened her fingers wide before them. “These two…these two fingerswere cut off. I think my father had done it, cut him…as there wasblood dripping from his hand.”
“Did he seeyou? Did he realize that you hadseen his face?” Colin’s tone had suddenly become urgent.
She nodded again. “Aye. He came after me—to killme—so I know he did. My nightmares have all been about running awayfrom this man.”
“Your life could very well be in danger because ofthat.” Tess heard the quiet warning, and then she saw Colin’s handgo unconsciously to his dagger. “He could very well have been aLindsay.”
“I don’t think he was, or I would have recognizedhim.”
“There was no way you, as a child, would have seenor recognized every Lindsay clan member. The man—the peopleresponsible for that night—could very well still be aroundhere.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I rememberthat as I was being taken away that night, I was told that mymother was in the same chamber as my father. That means that shemust have seen the killer, as well. But she survived and nothingmore happened to her.”
“That is, assuming shewaswith the laird. ‘Tis well known that your parents didn’t have thebest of marriages. She very well could have been in her ownchamber…or somewhere else.”
Tess couldn’t argue her mother’s whereabouts anybetter than she could argue about the kind of marriage her parentshad.
“We have to get you out of here, Tess.”Colin took her by the hand and pulled her toward the door. “Myworry right now lies not with what your mother saw, but withkeeping you safe. And standing alone within the crumbling walls ofthis wing is anything but safe.”
CHAPTER 14
“Lady Evelyn is her mother,” the laird said, “andshe is not unreasonable in ordering Tess to the Borders.”
