“Slow down, lad. I’ll ask ye again. Why have ye come here? I only just received word about yer wife three days past. I’m truly sorry, lad.”
Kip’s words brought back the sharp pain of Edana’s death. No matter how he felt about her, he could not help but regret the loss of someone so young. If only she’d had the time, he thought perhaps she could’ve become a better person than she was when she died. “Ach, thank ye, Kip, but ye know as well as I that I should no have married her in the first place. ’Twas an awful mistake and one that I doona wish to repeat by allowing meself to spend one more moment apart from the lass I’m meant to marry. Where is she, Kip? Where’s Blaire?”
Arran’s nerves built as he watched Kip turn his face downward and awkwardly pick out the ground with his foot. Kip hesitated to tell him something, and it frightened him greatly. “What is it, Kip? Doona tell me that something has happened to her. Is she well? Ye must tell me at once.”
“Nay, lad, naught has happened to the lass, but she isna here. She’s at MacChristy Castle with the rest of yer family. She’s set to marry yer cousin Baodan in two days.”
“What? How could this happen?” Arran set to mount his horse, not wanting to stay a moment where Blaire was not.
“Well what do ye mean, lad? He asked her I suppose.”
“So she doesna know of what’s happened to Edana?” He turned the horse in the stables so that he could ride in the direction of MacChristy Castle.
“I doona know, lad. She may by now, but I was the only one here when the messenger arrived with the news. I sent him straight for MacChristy Castle to find Eoin. He is probably just arriving.”
Arran spurred the horse forward, calling back to Kip over his shoulder. “Thank ye, Kip. I shall see ye soon. I doona intend on staying away from Conall Castle so long ever again.”
*
MacChristy Castle
The messenger arrived in late evening on the day before I was to marry Baodan. I was away in me old bedchamber with Bri as she played with me hair, teasing it into different arrangements for the wedding when Adelle burst through the door, red-faced and breathless.
“Mom, what is it?”
Bri dropped the strands of me hair she was holding and rushed to her mother’s side. I could tell that something was verra wrong, and I nervously twisted in me seat so that I could face her.
“Edana is dead. The man said her child tried to come early and both she and the baby have died.”
The room suddenly felt much too small. As tears threatened, I stood to make me way outside, but Bri reached out and grabbed me hand to stop me. I dinna know what to think of Edana’s death. I’d lived in jealousy of her for having Arran when I could not and for carrying his child, but I wouldna have wished such a fate upon anyone.
“Blaire, are you alright?”
I nodded and pulled out of her grasp. “Aye, only sad. Arran doesna deserve such pain. Does Eoin know?”
Adelle nodded and turned to address Bri. “Yes, he plans to ride out in the morning. He shall miss the wedding, but he wishes to be at his brother’s side.”
“As he should. I’m going to go outside to sit in the garden awhile. I think it best I spend some time alone.”
I dinna wait for either of them to respond. Holding back the tears as long as I could, they burst forth the moment I stepped out the back side of the castle and into the garden. I sat down on a splintered wooden bench, poorly crafted by me father when he was a young lad, and placed me head in me hands as I wept.
I dinna know for whom I cried, but the tears fell freely until I felt a strong hand touch me back. I’d been certain I was alone, and I’d heard no one approach. Brushing me closed eyes against me sleeve, I opened them and looked up right into the face of Arran.
Chapter 38
At first I thought I’d imagined him, too many nights of memories of him haunting me in me dreams finally come to torture me while I was awake. I leapt out of his gasp, staring open-mouthed as he spoke to me.
“Blaire, why are ye crying, lass?”
He moved forward to touch me, and I jerked away from him once more. “Doona touch me. Ye should no be here, Arran. ’Tis no true what I just heard about Edana and yer child?”
“Nay, only part of what ye heard was true. I’m here to tell ye the rest and to make sure that ye doona marry Baodan. Now tell me, why are ye crying?”
“Ye ask that as if I have naught to cry over.” I could no say just one thing I cried for, there were many. I was heartbroken for Arran’s loss, I was heartbroken for meself, and I was angry that he would choose now to reappear in me life.