Page 69 of Desire of a Highlander

The excitement that followed Ronan’s announcement buzzed through the evening air over the Steading. Despite the coming dusk, the place was as busy as a kicked anthill. People hurried between cottages carrying bundles of cloth and sacks of grain. Several of the older children were already collecting lengths of rope and sorting tools into neat piles. Everyone had found something to do.

Everyone except Elodie.

She knew she ought to be helping organize things, but she didn’t join in. Everything that had happened today—first to David, then between her and Ronan and then with the villagers agreeing to leave—had sent her into a spin. Now she felt dazed and listless, unable to settle.

Ronan had gone off with Eamon. Faye was instructing a group of helpers how best to pack her supplies. Everyone else was busy with something or other. So Elodie wandered through the village, alone. The busyness of the inhabitants washed over her like a tide but left her untouched.

She wasn’t sure what was making her feel this way. But then, as she watched everyone preparing to leave, it suddenly dawned on her. The Steading, this safe, closed community was all she’d known since she came here. Now it was being pulled away from her and she suddenly felt unsteady, even a little frightened. And, she realized, if she went with them, she would be traveling even further from a way home.

She found herself outside the barn that Faye had turned into her infirmary. She hesitated at the doorway before quietly stepping inside. The room smelled of herbs and smoke, with the sharper scent of vinegar beneath it.

David lay asleep on the bed nearest the fire. His face had lost some of its frightening pallor, though the dark circles beneath his eyes showed how much strength the wound had stolen from him. One arm lay outside the blanket, his fingers twitching occasionally as though he were dreaming.

Sarah sat beside him, gently wringing out a cloth in a bowl of cool water before laying it across his forehead. She looked up as Elodie entered and gave a tired smile in greeting.

“How is he?” Elodie asked quietly.

Sarah glanced at her husband. “Faye says he’s improving.”

Elodie crossed the room and rested a hand lightly on Sarah’s shoulder. “He looks better than he did earlier.”

“I think so too.”

For a while they simply watched him sleep. The only sounds were the crackle of the fire and David’s slow breathing. Eventually Sarah spoke.

“I heard what Ronan said. That we’re leaving.” She stared down at the cloth in her hands. “But how will we move David safely? He’s only just stopped bleeding.”

“We’re not leaving for several days and when we do, we’ll take it slowly,” Elodie said. “Faye will know what he can manage.”

Sarah looked at her. “What if she’s wrong?”

“Sarah—”

“What if his wound opens? What if he gets a fever? What if he dies halfway there?” Her voice cracked on the last word.

Elodie instinctively reached for her hand. “I understand, Sarah.”

“Do ye?” Sarah asked, her voice shrill and on the verge of panic. “Twice now I’ve almost lost him. First when our village was attacked and now here. I canna go through it again. I just canna.”

“I know,” Elodie said softly.

“I thought...” Sarah laughed shakily. “I actually thought we’d made it. When we found the Steading I let myself believe we were safe.” She gave a tiny, humorless smile. “That was foolish.”

“It wasn’t foolish.”

“No?” Sarah looked back at her. “When we got here, I finally slept through the night again. And now we’re running. Every time I think we’ve reached somewhere safe the world reminds me there isnae such a place.”

Elodie felt something tighten painfully inside her. She wished she knew what to say, wished she could give her friend the reassurance she so desperately needed. But she couldn’t. The truth was, she had no idea what waited for them beyond the borders of this valley. She had no idea what the true reality of this time might involve. She knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about what the lives of the Steading’s people had been like. For the first time since coming here she felt like a true outsider.

Sarah wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked at Elodie. “Tell me this new place will be different.”

Elodie wanted to promise peace and quiet lives. Children growing up without fear. She wanted to promise David would recover completely and that nobody else would be hurt. But she couldn’t.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

Sarah looked away, wiping at her eyes.

Elodie squeezed her hand. “But I know Ronan. I know he wouldn’t ask anyone to leave unless he believed it was our best chance. I know Faye will do everything she can for David. I know every single person here will help carry him if they have to.”