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Alainn sat upon the bed in tears. She had packed her belongings and Danhoul and Conner waited outside the door for her. She had been spewing all morning and as much as she despised this damnable country, she wasn’t certain she could force herself to leave it knowing she would be leaving Killian behind.
Danhoul knocked upon the door and called out. “Alainn, the ship is soon to set sail. We must leave now or surely be made to wait until the morrow.”
“Then we shall wait!” She called out weakly.
Danhoul slowly opened the door and he and Conner looked in at her with sympathetic eyes.
She called out to Danhoul, not caring that Conner would hear. “I want to speak with the gods. If I speak with Aine or if I can somehow manage to bring Lugh back, maybe then they can assist in this.”
“They do not oft assist in such human predicaments!” Danhoul stated as he walked into the attic chamber.
“Aye, well, they seem to think I will be of some great need to them in the future, but they can think twice if they truly believe I will ever be driven to give them any assistance no matter how diligently they might plead!”
Conner looked at the two of them as though they were speaking about conjuring a dragon.
“Did you not promise him you would leave and seek safety?” Danhoul questioned pushing his hair from his eyes.
She did not answer.
“Lass, if you promised your husband and you love him well as I ken you do then you canna dishonor him and go against your word!” Conner offered his opinion as well.
“Must you both always side with him?” she called out weakly as the tears flowed freely from her eyes now so filled with sorrow.
“The ship will leave in mere hours!” Danhoul informed her in a seemingly cold manner, but he avoided looking at her.
She pulled herself from the bed and straightened her gown, but as she stood she was overcome with dizziness and nausea and she was forced to hurry to the basin once more where she retched and spewed.
“She’s in no condition to journey upon the sea, lad!” Conner surmised.
“Aye, well tomorrow will surely not see a grand improvement in her condition, nor the day after.”
“Ahh, so that’s the way of it then, is it?” Conner stated as he obviously realized she carried a child.
Alainn opened her smallest trunk and pulled a vial from the contents. She placed it to her lips and drank a hearty amount.
“An herbal concoction to settle the stomach!” she offered as Conner watched her.
“You are leavin’ the remainder of your dresses and remedies behind. ’Tis just this one small trunk you will be takin’ on the ship?” Danhoul asked, impatient to be on their way.
“Aye, I am leavin’ the potions and the dresses for Maisie and Lily. Sure they can use them more than I.”
“The wee lass has been lookin’ mighty maudlin this day,” Conner announced.
“Aye, she is sad to see us go.”
“She has become most attached to you, Alainn,” Danhoul noted.
“And she to you as well,” Alainn offered.
“What?” Danhoul did not seem to catch her meaning.
“I think she has become smitten with you, Danhoul,” Alainn said as she attempted a half smile and retrieved her cloak from the peg on the wall.
Danhoul shook his head in disbelief uncertain whether Alainn was simply jesting with him. Conner confirmed his suspicions on the subject as well.
“You must have noticed how she’s taken to following you around, lad?”
“The two of you are entirely daft!” the young Irishman stated.
As the two men left the room, Alainn glanced around the chamber and a huge lump formed in her throat. She would not miss this inn or this city or the country of England, but her husband whom she was leaving behind, she would ache for every second they were parted.
Alainn bid a teary farewell to the Andrews family, and started down the pathway with Danhoul, Conner and at least twenty soldiers of Clan O’Donnel, when they were soon startled to hear someone running behind them. Alainn turned to see Lily hurrying after them with tears on her cheeks as well. Alainn had never seen Lily move further than the back door of the inn, so Alainn was undeniably startled to think she would follow. The young girl clasped Alainn’s arm and began attempting to drag her back toward their inn.
“I must go, Lily. I have explained that I must return to Ireland. My husband has asked it of me and I must heed his word.”
Lily shook her head furiously and the tears flowed freely from her amber-colored eyes.
Maisie hurried down the path after them as well. “Lily, child, you must come back with me, now.”
Her mother placed her hand on Lily’s arm and began to tug her. They were all rendered speechless themselves when the young mute girl glanced up at her mother and firmly spoke one word, but in a forceful tone.
“No!”
Maisie burst into tears and slowly lowered herself to the ground, for she’d surely been certain she would never hear another word cross her beloved daughter’s lips. The young girl placed her arms around her mother and smiled.
“Lily, my dear sweet baby, you spoke, love. I thought I would never hear your lovely voice again.”
“I want to go with Alainn,” the girl spoke again in a clear and concise manner.
“Oh, Lily, my dear child, you cannot go to Ireland with Lady Alainn. I couldn’t bear to have you parted from me, my sweet daughter.”
Lily’s lip trembled and she simply nodded to her mother.
Alainn embraced Lily once more and the tears were flowing down her cheeks, too. “Perhaps one day you might come to visit us. We would dearly like for you to come to Ireland, and to see our wee daughter when she is born,” she whispered quietly so no other would hear. “If my husband agrees I thought I should like to include Lily in her given names.”
This brought even more tears and by now the entire lot of men seemed to be ill at ease. Alainn didn’t miss how often Danhoul looked to glance at the position of the sun.
After several more embraces and not a few tears, they finally had managed to get back on the road to London and to the ship docks. Danhoul was noticeably displeased to learn the ship had already set sail.
“Shite!” he declared loudly in a most uncharacteristically furious tone. “The next ship will not set sail till just after dawn tomorrow. Sure we’ll be made to spend another night here in London.”
“Well we cannot go back to the inn, Danhoul! I’ll not say good-bye another time and sure it would cause Lily a grievous pain to see you again and then have to say farewell, yet again.”
“Aye, well, if we are to sail on the first mornin’ ship we’ll not be capable of makin’ it here to the docks by dawn’s light at any rate.”
“Perhaps, ’tis a telling sign, Danhoul. I am not to leave Killian. Of course I feel it within my heart, but within my soul as well. I cannot go, Danhoul. He would never go and leave me here without him. How can I do it to him? How can I leave him behind?”
“It is as he has asked, to protect your child. You will do it, or sure he’ll never forgive you.”
Alainn lowered her eyes and maudlin tears slowly trickled down her cheeks once more.
“Where are we goin’ to be put up for the night, Danhoul?” Conner exclaimed, also wondering where so many Irishmen might spend the night without some type of melee falling upon them.
Only a handful of men stayed behind with the chieftains of Clan O’Neill and Clan Gallagher. They had remained in hopes of finding a way to free Killian or be granted audience to see the king so they might make a plea in regard to Killian’s dismal situation.
Now, as they stood upon the docks, Alainn glanced over toward the large crowd that had gathered. They seemed to be watching a grand carriage that was being pulled down the street. It was surely someone of importance that was held within for the carriage itself was regal and adorned, and by the manner everyone was staring at it, it must be so. When the carriage pulled to a stop by the markets near the pier, Alainn saw a woman with a small child holding tight to her hand. The child was quite lovely with golden red hair in an abundance of curls. She had a ready smile and large blue eyes. Alainn smiled for the first time since she’d left Killian, reveling in knowing she carried their precious daughter.
The men around her were deep in conversation hoping to decide what would be best done about their present predicament. Alainn ignored their voices and her eyes simply followed the child and she listened to the sounds around her. She watched as the sweet child looked at every person and article with childish innocence and wonderment. At the moment, Alainn didn’t care that they had missed the ship to Ireland, or that it was unclear where they would spend this night. If she had to stay here on the wharf it mattered not, for since she wasn’t with Killian, she would be cold and lonely no matter what the location or how safe and secure those around her kept her.
Alainn continued to watch the child. The woman with her was perhaps the mother, though Alainn did not perceive that to be the way of it for the child wore rich garments and the woman’s though not shabby were clearly not of the same expense. The woman accompanying the child seemed intent on talking to a man who stood close by and by the look on her face, Alainn knew immediately something was amiss.
When the young woman steered the child toward the busy street where many carts and horses moved quickly on the cobblestones, Alainn was horrified to see the woman let go of the child’s hand. At precisely that moment Alainn felt a blinding pain in her head and she felt weak and ill. She had a clear vision of the sweet child being trampled to death by a large black horse. As she peered up and down the street, without conscious thought, she began moving toward the child.
She wasn’t entirely aware when she’d broken into a run, but when she saw the black horse from her vision and looked toward the man on the horse, she realized this was all part of an intentional plan. The man had steered the horse toward the child and was obviously intent on running her down. Alainn tried to call out, but the noise on the street and the din in the marketplace was great. Alainn held up her hand and attempted to still time, she was instantly relieved for everything around her was frozen, but her relief was short-lived. For sure, by some evil treachery she didn’t yet understand, the horse did not stop and the man on it turned to look directly at her. Sure it was the demon or someone with dark magical abilities preventing her interference.
Alainn reacted without thought for herself. Danhoul called out to her as she reached the small girl and pulled her out of the way of the charging horse and unconscionable rider. Alainn felt such an overwhelming sense of relief in seeing the child saved, she unwittingly released her spell and saw everything around her begin to move. And as she narrowly missed being hit by the black horse, she saw out of the corner of her eye, the large unusual dark coach that was now immediately in their path. She forcefully pushed the child to safety, but then the huge wheel struck Alainn down.
Alainn wasn’t certain whether the sharp excruciating pain in her head or the gripping agony in her midsection was the most intense. She felt exceedingly dizzy and try as she might she couldn’t seem to will her eyes to open. She sensed a great amount of noise and clamor about her. She was encompassed with confusion. She heard a child crying and then Danhoul’s voice came to her echoing unnaturally in the distance. He was calling her, attempting to wake her, but she felt too weak, and the pain was much too agonizing. The desperate thought entered her mind, if she couldn’t be with Killian, if he never would be free to come back to her, did any of it truly matter any longer anyway?
