♦LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Past
♦
“Please. Please,” I begged. “Don’t do this to me.”
“Ye have given me no choice, lass. Ye can no be trusted.”
“ME!” I screeched, nearing hysteria at this point. “It’s her. She is lying, you…you… fool!”
Yet again, I knew I had crossed the line and that now, no matter what I said, he would not listen to me.
Rather roughly, now, he pried my fingers off his arm and shut the door to the cell.
“Once ye have come ta yer senses, I will be back fer ye.”
“How long?” I didn’t think I would be able to be in here more than a minute or two without freaking out.
“That depends on ye.”
Desperate now, I stood on my tiptoes, my fingers gripping the edge of wood between the small bars. “Fine. I’m sorry. It was me. I did it all.” It killed me to lie, but I would have said just about anything not to have to stay in the cell.
Gavin turned and walked back to the door. “Then ye will be staying in here longer, aye.” With that, he turned and strode away.
“Gavin…PLEASE! Don’t leave me!”
♦
“She will no be bothering ye any longer,” Gavin said, once he returned.
“Did you beat her?” Jillian asked with a glimmer of hate in her eyes.
Gavin took a reflexive step back. “Nay lass, I do no hit women.”
The hate in her eyes intensified but was now directed mostly at Gavin. “You are weak.”
“I am no weak. Only a weak man beats a woman.”
This bit of information unsettled Jillian. She couldn’t believe he had said that and at the same time she couldn’t help but wonder if what he said was true and if so, why did Broderick beat her?
“I am going to the loch ta wash with the men,” he said with an eerie calmness in voice. “When we return I will expect supper.”
“What?” she snapped but then softened her tone. “Gavin,” she said, stepping closer. “I would love to but as you can see, my hand is cut rather badly and it pains me something fierce if I move it too much.”
“Then try not ta move it much.”
As Gavin turned towards the door, Jillian squeezed the cup she was holding to the point the edges cut into her other hand. She had half a mind to clobber him upside his head with it, but knew if she tried, the men would be more than happy to put her in a cell right next to the other girl. So instead, she used her sweetest voice and said, “I will try my best.”
Gavin face softened. “That is good ta hear, lass.” Then he turned and strode out of the hall with the men following behind.
Callum was the only one that stopped. “Ye can clean up this mess too while ye are at it.”
Jillian gritted her teeth. “And who are you to tell me what to do?”
“I am the one that will tell the laird that ye are no doing what he asked.”
Jillian narrowed her eyes. “I will do my best,” she gritted.
Callum nodded his head and followed the rest of the men out the door.
Once he was gone, Jillian threw the cup in her hand with such force against the wall that it chipped a piece of the stone.
She had half a mind to leave, search out Broderick or go back to Morag but she didn’t much want to find out what Morag would do to her person if she failed and at present, she didn’t even know where Broderick was. And more importantly, she wasn’t sure he would want her if she did go back.
♦
Clarion stayed hidden outside until the men passed. He knew he could have told his brother the truth of the matter saving the lass from the pit, but then he would be the one in there in her stead and if he was going to end this damnable curse, he needed to be free. However, looking up at the sky, he knew he still had time. So, against his better judgement, he followed the old passages, the secret ones, he had seen in his visions, and made his way to where she was being held.
♦
All the men were pretty quiet on their way to the loch, with the exception of the unsettling looks they were tossing back and forth between themselves, which were all directed at their laird.
They had yet to tell him about the man they found at the loch, the last time they were here because not only did he have an uncanny resemblance to their laird, which wasn’t that bad, but they also seemed to have lost him.
“Muir,” Callum whispered. “Are ye going ta tell our laird about the man we captured?”
“Och, why would I have ta be the one ta do that? Ye are the one that lost him.”
“Me!” Callum said a bit loud, garnering angry looks from Alec and Graham. He lowered his voice, “I did no lose him, ye did.”
“There ye go again, Callum, making stories up as ye see fit even though they are no the truth. Ye should feel shame. Shame, I tell ye.”
“Why should I be the one ta feel shame? We all brought him back. I was the one that said we needed ta have a guard but….”
“Och, but ye no wanted ta stand guard now did ye?”
“Well, no. I was tired and hungry. Wanting nothing more than a place to dry out for a bit and get warm.”
“Well, if ye recall, we all did. So, do no blame me because I agreed. Besides, Alec was the one that said he wasn’t going anywhere. So, if ye ask me, it’s his fault.”
Callum nodded to that. “Aye, it is Alec’s fault.”
Gavin stopped at the edge of the loch and looked across the surface. The water was smooth as glass and there was an eerie silence to the place.
Alec and Graham were the first to disrobe and jump in. As they did, they both let out girlish yelps as the frigid waters lapped up their bodies.
Muir followed suit, leaving Callum who was still not fully recovered to make his way unaided into the water. Wading in to his waist, he gasped from the cold temperatures. Just as his body was getting acclimated, Muir swam behind him and pushed him down.
Callum came up gasping for air. “Muir,” he yelled. “Ye wait! I will get ye fer that.”
Muir laughed and splashed him. “I’d like ta see ye try, Callum.”
“Stop splashing me,” Callum yelled, shivering now. “Or ye will be sorry.”
“Och, Callum, ye sound like a wee scared lassie.”
“I am warning ye, Muir, ye better no do that again.”
Muir taking that as a challenge, dove under the water, grabbed Callum’s legs and pulled him under.
Callum got a mouthful of water that time and came up spluttering. “Why ye!” He dove after Muir.
Meanwhile, Gavin was in the midst of undressing himself when something strange happened. A vision of sorts played in his mind of doing the like long ago, but not with his men, and not even bathing…he was battling a monster. A true monster. Stunned by the vision, he froze as more memories poured forth.
He saw the lass, Paige, standing in the water as the monster’s head listed back and forth about to strike her. It all came rushing back, along with what he was feeling at that moment as well.
He did not welcome these memories, because they did not make any sense to him.