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I thought I was prepared for anything but not this, not from her. She turns and moves away with a heavy air of despair. My stomach does a weird fluttering as I walk the rest of the way down the trail.
As I enter the camp even the kids are quiet and subdued. Some of the people glance sidelong as I pass, and one makes a warding sign against the evil eye. I slip along the wall to the cave, hoping to find Alesoun. She’ll know what happened and hopefully where Duncan is at.
The cavern fires are stoked, making the cave darker than normal. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lower light. As I stand inside the entrance, waiting for them to adjust, there is a musty smell on the air that I don’t recall being there. Something about it turns my stomach sour.
When I can see I walk over towards the corner where Alesoun and I had set up. She’s working with her back to me, stirring an iron kettle over a very low burning fire. I walk around the table to her side, and she jumps, jerking the stick she’s stirring with out of the pot and flinging scalding liquid everywhere. I jump back with a yelp, raising my arms protectively and gaining burns on my exposed skin as a reward.
“Ach, Quinn?” Alesoun asks, blinking. Her cheeks are sunken, and her eyes are dull. “Lass, is that you?”
“It’s me, Alesoun. What’s happened? Why is everything different?”
“Different? Where have you been?”
“I was up on the cliffs; I took a walk. Duncan and I had a fight and I wanted to clear my head.”
“Aye, I know you had a fight,” she says. “But that was months ago. Where have you been since?”
Months? Damn you, Moira. You pulled me into the Fae lands.
I wish I could retreat into the numbness of being shocked, but I can’t. I know what happened and I should have suspected it in the first place. Months. Then it occurs to me.
“Duncan? Is he okay?” I ask, grabbing her arms and shaking when she doesn’t answer immediately. “Alesoun, is he alive?”
“Aye, lass, aye,” she says, pulling herself free of my grip and stepping back. Relief is a cooling wave while she places the stirring stick back in the bubbling pot. “He’s off hunting but you’ll not have an easy go of it with him.”
“No,” I sigh. “Damn it all. I know.”
She looks around conspiratorially, then leans in close and whispers, “What happened? Where have you been? You missed an entire winter.”
“How long was I gone?”
“Six months.”
“Six!” I yell, and people around the cave look over and mutter.
One woman points while another gathers her two children up to her skirts with a huff and leaves the cavern. Alesoun’s glare only serves to accent the embarrassment burning my cheeks from my outburst.
“Keep your voice down, lass. Have you gone daft while you were gone?”
“Oh god.” Black despair rushes through. Duncan must have thought I left him at the altar like some crazy Highland runaway bride trope. “Where’s Duncan? I have to talk to him, try to explain. He has to understand.”
“He’s hunting,” Alesoun says. “He’ll be back soon enough, but Quinn—”
She cuts her thought off. It’s enough to pull my attention out of the storm in my head.
“What?” Alesoun shakes her head while focusing her attention on stirring the pot. “Alesoun, tell me. I have to know.”
“You’ll have guessed it right enough,” she says. “Quinn, you were gone, without a trace. All the menfolk searched for you. We didn’t know if you’d been captured or if you right ran away. I didn’t know what to tell them either.”
“You’re right, I’ve guessed that much, but there’s more you’re not telling me. What? What is it, Alesoun?” Her frown deepens, furrowing her brow, and she makes a tsk sound. I’m trembling with anticipation as possibilities race through my head. “Is he hurt? Did he, oh no. No, no, no, he didn’t marry one of Agnes’s daughters, did he?”
“Ach, no,” Alesoun says. “Not that, lass. He’s hurt, not stupid.”
I’m not proud of the relief I feel but I am, after all, human. Agnes has been so incredibly mean to me since I’ve come here, and while I’ve never gotten to know her daughters, I can’t imagine they’re any better than Agnes herself.
“What then?”
“He’s hurt, Quinn. He proposed. No, more than that, he put himself on the line for you. Took your side against his entire clan, chose you over them. Then you disappear without a trace and show back up here looking none the worse for wear. You don’t even look like you’ve missed a meal, and let me tell you, there’s been plenty of that here.”
