As I’d expected, no one else enjoyed the shore. Although the waves were larger than I’d hoped, I was no going to let it keep me from a swim. I stripped bare, leaving me dress and underclothes upon a mossy rock as I descended into the shallowest part of the water.
Two grassy hillsides on either side separated an inlet of ocean from the vast openness of the rest of the sea. A secluded strip of water, perfect for me wintry dip.
The first touch of water on me toes was so shocking I was afraid I’d pull me foot away to find that me toes had fallen off, frozen by the water’s tight grip on winter. The air outside might have begun to warm, but the ocean had yet to catch up to the changing of the seasons.
Intent on no changing me mind, I decided ’twas best to plunge right in, and I dove headfirst into the sea.
I’d expected the ocean depth to deepen quickly, but instead, me head cracked hard upon a rock on the sea floor. As I pushed meself up to break the surface of the water, I reached up to touch me head and gasped as me hand came away covered in blood.
I could taste it dripping into me mouth. As I struggled to catch me breath from the coldness of the water, I could tell I was bleeding heavily. Before I could drag meself out of the water, the sky above me began to swirl, and darkness closed in around me.
*
The jostling of the horse caused me to open me eyes, but the effort that it took to do so sent such a pain travelling down me head and through me back, that I shut them quickly once more.
I was naked, I could tell by the feeling of the horse’s hair upon me calves, but I was discreetly covered by a tartan that I recognized as that of the Conalls’ guests. “Where are me clothes?”
The man cradling me in between his arms as he directed the horse answered softly, taking care that no loud noise would hurt me head further.
“I expect they are wherever ye left them, lass. I dinna take the time to look for them. Ye were bleeding something awful. I thought it best to get to ye before ye drowned or bled to death.”
“Thank ye.” The words sounded distant, as if it was no me that said them. Although I could see Conall Castle just up ahead, I closed my eyes as I drifted away once more.
*
The Castle Formerly Known as Kinnaird
He’d not actually been in the castle since he was a small child, but he remembered the hallways well, and he had no trouble finding Edana’s bedchamber.
Everyone in the castle was asleep and, if the rumors in the village were true, Arran Conall had been away for days visiting his brother at Conall Castle. For this reason, he made his unexpected visit to Edana.
He knew Edana would be furious that Arran had gone and would assume that their plan to claim she was carrying Arran’s child had not done as hoped and kept Arran close at her side. It seemed she was right, but Tormod could not allow her to believe so. She had to continue to feign the pregnancy so that she could ignorantly take the poison at just the right time.
He knocked softly on her door, not wanting to draw attention from elsewhere within the castle. There were many men on duty, and he’d been lucky to make it so far undetected. It took a moment for her to answer, and he couldn’t repress the way he was sure his eyes widened at the sight of her.
Her eyes were red, glassy, and shone with being deep in her cups. The longer he spent time with her, the more he knew that the lass had more in common with her father than she realized.
She stepped out of the way, nearly tripping, and Tormod quickly stepped inside to help steady her. “What are ye doing, lass? ’Tis no appropriate for the lady of the castle to drink so much.”
Edana set down on the edge of her bed and patted the cover to motion that he join her. “No one will know how I’m behaving. I am all alone here. Me husband doesna care that I carry his child. He still finds time to visit his whore.”
Tormod sat next to her taking the goblet of ale from her hands. “Edana, ye are no really with his child.”
“It doesna matter. The plan did no work as ye hoped it would.”
He forced himself to reach up and stroke her hair. At least tonight she would be too drunk to expect him to do anything else to her. “Just give it time, lass. As time moves on, he will grow accustomed to the idea of a child, and he will love what he believes is growing inside of ye.”
“And what will we do when he realizes that there is no child? Ye said that we would think of something, but I canna continue to do this if I doona know that there is a safe way out of it. He canna know that we lied to him.”
Tormod nodded and pulled his hand away. “Aye, lass, I know. ’Tis why I’ve come to ye.
I have acquired an herbal drink that will make ye bleed when the time comes that Arran grows suspicious. It will appear as if ye lost the child, and then he will never know that ye dinna tell him the truth. He will only be lost in the grief of his unborn child. He will then be at his weakest.”