Page 13 of Desire of a Highlander

“Chief?” A memory stirred again, a memory of being carried, of feeling safe and warm in someone’s arms. “I... think I remember that.”

“Indeed?” Faye leaned closer. “What else do ye remember? How ye came to be on that hillside in the first place perhaps? Or why ye were coming to the waymeet?”

“Waymeet?”

“Aye. Do ye recognize the word?”

“I don’t.”

Faye didn’t seem to like this answer. Her expression turned into a frown.

“Um,” Elodie said. “This might seem like a strange question. But can you tell me where I am?”

Faye cocked her head. “Ye dinna know?”

When Elodie shook her head, the healer’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps ye hit yer head harder than I thought. Ye are safe. That’s all I can tell ye. If ye want to know more, ye’ll need to speak to the chief. If ye weren’t on yer way to the waymeet, he’ll need to be sure of ye before he tells ye more.”

Elodie wasn’t sure what to make of this. What was a waymeet? And who was this chief? And, more to the point, why would Faye not tell her where she was?

“Where can I find this chief?”

“Ye shouldnae be getting out of bed yet. Ye took quite a knock on the head.”

“I’m fine.” Elodie waved away the healer’s concern. “I need to talk to him.”

The older woman sighed. “Fine.” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder. “Ye’ll find him in the smithy over yonder.”

“Thanks.” Elodie threw back the covers and swung her feet out of bed. She braced herself for a wave of dizziness and was pleased when it didn’t come.

Faye said nothing, only watched with a critical eye as Elodie straightened.

“Ye might want to dress before ye go see the chief,” she observed.

Elodie blinked, looking down at the night dress she was wearing. “Oh. Yeah. Right. Where are my clothes?”

Faye curled a lip. “Being washed.” She nodded to the corner where a long dress was hanging from a peg. “I’ve managed to borrow a dress that I think will fit ye.”

Elodie tottered over to the peg. The dress was made of linen dyed a sky blue, a big long thing that looked like it came right out of a period drama. Faye expected her to where that? She considered insisting on having her own clothes returned whether they were clean or not, but didn’t have the energy to argue.

“Right,” she said instead. “Thanks.”

She untied the night dress, pulled it over her head, then took down the dress. It took some getting into but Faye helped her, pulling tight the ties that went around her waist and doing up the laces at the back.

“Hmm,” Faye said, looking her over. “I was right. It fits ye well. Although ye’ll need to put yer own boots back on as nobody had any spare shoes.”

Elodie nodded. She felt ridiculous and suspected she looked it too but wasn’t about to turn her nose up at Faye’s generosity. She put on her boots then tottered towards the rickety door and pulled it open. “Down there you say?”

The healer nodded. “On the outskirts of the village to reduce the risk of fire. Ye’ll know it when ye see it.”

“Right. Thanks.”

She walked out of the door into the golden light of sunset. The sky, black and angry earlier, was now a riot of red and gold along the western horizon although in the other direction she could still see clouds piled up like towers in the sky.

She recognized exactly nothing. There was no sign of the community center or anything else familiar. Instead, she found herself surrounded by a collection of single-story stone buildings much like Faye’s, all roofed in thatch, all with shutters rather than glass windows, and all with small enclosures out the back that held goats, chickens, ducks and pigs.

The village itself—if it could be called that—seemed to have been hacked out of a thick woodland that ringed it on all sides and this in turn seemed to be hemmed in by tall cliffs. Elodie pressed a hand to her chest to still the rising panic that began to bloom. No. There was a rational explanation for all this. She just needed to figure out what that was.

A group of children were playing a game of catch with a ball that seemed to have been woven out of twigs, but as they noticed Elodie standing there, they stopped their game and stared at her.