Grier had returned.
Chapter 31
All I could think when I spotted Grier standing in the woods as if she’d never left all those years ago was that I couldn’t let Jerry see her. Not yet—not until I’d spoken with her. I felt deeply protective of him. While I’d grieved her absence from my life once, I knew instinctively that she was not the same person I once knew.
After the burial, Grier was no longer visible. I knew she awaited me in the woods. I could feel it.
Jerry stood at the opposite side of the crowd of villagers. I made my way over to him as quickly as I could. I needed to know where he’d be so I could make certain he wouldn’t run into Grier. Fortunately, I didn’t have to search for an excuse to keep him busy—he already had plans.
“A lad in the village has asked Kip and me for help with a horse. I am so weary I can scarcely stand, though I think ’tis best if I stay away until Henry is gone. Do ye mean to tell him today?”
It wouldn’t be as soon as I’d hoped. I would have to speak to Grier first, but I had every intention of ending things with Henry before nightfall.
“Aye.”
Jerry nodded, and the line between his brows relaxed.
“Good. I’ll return to my cottage later, but for now, I shall spend the day in the village and allow ye and yer brother to see Henry gone from here. He may ask ye what has caused ye to end yer engagement. If he sees me, ’twould only cause unnecessary trouble.”
I nodded and turned to leave him, but his hand reached out to stop me.
“Wait, lass. I wish to give ye something. As I told ye earlier, I’ve not slept much these past nights. I wished to be there for ye and I couldna be, so I wrote some thoughts down for ye. I know it willna be easy for ye to hurt Henry. Ye’ve a kind heart, and harsh words doona come easily to ye. I hope that reading what I feel for ye will give ye strength.”
I smiled at the folded parchment he extended toward me. Squeezing his hand, I slipped it into the bosom of my dress.
“I’ll read it as soon as I get back to the castle. I’ll see ye when everything is done.”
His letter—no matter how eager I was to read it—would have to wait.
An overdue visit with a ghost from my past stood waiting just footsteps away.
* * *
She spotted me before I saw her, and her voice was as distinctive and recognizable as ever.
“Ye grew into just the woman I knew ye would—just as beautiful, just as strong, just as naïve, though the last is no fault of yer own.”
She stepped from the woods with the grace of the creatures who lived within them. She could blend in anywhere. Her confidence made any place look like her home.
In the eight years since I’d seen her, she’d not aged a day.
When she opened her arms to me, I cautiously approached and allowed her to embrace me.
Her arms wrapped around me, and one hand stroked the back of my hair as she spoke. “I’m sorry about yer father, lass.”
“Ye are not. Ye hated him.”
She laughed and released me as she stepped away, her long hair blowing around her face wildly.
“Ye are right. I needn’t lie to ye. His death is the best thing that shall ever happen to ye. ’Twas inexcusable for him to keep ye from yer magic as he did. I’m glad ye found the journals I left for ye.”
As expected, she’d been watching all from afar.
“’Twas ye that led wee Eoin to the books then, aye?”
She nodded.
“O’course. Though I made sure to hide myself from him. I gently guided him with magic.”
