Page 52 of The Bells of Triumph
17
ECHOS OF TRIUMPH
Flora walked through the castle with only one thing in mind: finding Seamus. Despite all of her curiosity about the place where he had grown up, despite all the soldiers wanting to stop to celebrate with her, all she could think about was finding her husband. He had left in such a state that she wanted to do all that she could to make sure he was all right.
Having already gone through the first two levels of the castle with no luck, she started searching the towers. Coming to the very top of her third tower, Flora pushed open the door, expecting it to be dark and empty, as all the others had been. There was no light, save for the tiny stream of sunlight that came from a crack in the curtains, but it wasn't empty.
Stepping inside it while still leaving the door open, Flora let her fingers run along the top of a dust-covered desk before she moved to the wall of shelves that held dozens of books. Her eyes slowly started to adjust, allowing her to take in the pale blue paisley pattern on the walls and the long-since-dried flowers in vases around the room.
“A lady's sitting room,” she murmured to herself in realization.
“My mother's favorite, actually.”
Flora jumped, her heart nearly pounding out of her chest. A shadowy figure rose from the sofa in front of her, turning to reveal her husband's eyes.
“Seamus,” she chided breathlessly, “ye frightened me. I did nae think anyone else was in here.”
He gave her a half-smile that didn't quite meet his eyes.
“How did ye find me?”
“I opened enough doors, I guess.”
She moved around to the front of the sofa and sat beside him. A cloud of dust rose around her from the cushion, making her cough. Batting away the haze, she studied Seamus.
“I dinnae think anyone has so much as touched this room since my mother left the castle all those years ago. It is exactly as I remember it before Campbell came. It seems as though my entire life could be separated into two parts, before Campbell, and after Campbell. However, I am starting to think there will never truly be anafterCampbell.”
“Dinnae say such things.”
She reached out to grab his hand, but Seamus pulled away. His rejection stung, but she knew it wasn't about her, at that moment.
“Nay matter what I do, Flora, nay matter how ahead I think I am, he is always one step further. He is always just out of reach.”
“He must have kent that we were coming. He must have gotten word about our plans somehow.”
Seamus shook his head and ran an angry hand through his hair, pulling it out of its tie.
“I doubt it. Campbell did nae need someone to tell him that we were coming. He is smart enough to ken that we would. Nay, he is simply better at this than we are. Even if he had been here, I am nae sure that we would have won against him.”
“What are ye talking about?”
“Ye saw the way his soldiers fought today. Even as outnumbered as they were, they did nae stop. If the full extent of Campbell's army had been here, it would have been a slaughter, and we would nae have been the victors.”
Flora stood and went to the curtains once more. This time, without any sense of delicacy, she yanked them open, letting the light from outside in.
“Look at this,” she ordered.
When Seamus didn't move from his place on the sofa, she marched back over to him and pulled him off it.
“What are ye doing?” he grumbled, putting up a bit of resistance to her efforts.
“I am trying to show ye just how ridiculous ye are being.”
“Ridiculous? Flora, we have lost. We were bested today. Campbell escaped, and I killed the one man who could have told us where he went. We have nay idea where he is or what his plan is. We are wee more than sitting ducks, waiting to be attacked.”
“We did nae lose, Seamus,” she told him softly but no less fiercely.
Dragging him over to the window by the hand, she pushed him in front of her. Gripping his shoulders, she forced him to look outside.
