by Darci Balogh
As they disappeared into the crowd Bridget turned on Tawnyetta. "Oh my God! You've been hanging out with Laird Michael and you didn't even know it?"
"We weren't really hanging out," Tawnyetta said.
"He is gorgeous." Bridget peered through the crowd to watch as Michael and Bea began to dance. "Seeing him in that kilt!" Bridget pretended she was about to faint and fanned herself with her hand. "And," she whispered as she leaned closer to Tawnyetta, "We know what's under it!"
Bridget laughed and Tawnyetta did too, but Bridget's tone rang humorless in her ears. Tawnyetta felt so stupid. All this time she had been basically sneaking around behind her best friend's back while pretending to look for Laird Michael with her. Of course she hadn't been pretending. And she hadn't known she was sneaking around with Laird Michael himself. But still. She felt strange.
"Bridge," Tawnyetta began. She wanted to ask her how she felt about the situation. She wanted to clear the air regarding this unexpected man in their midst. If receiving the attentions of Laird Michael was going to put a rift between them, she didn't want to encourage him.
"There you are!" A familiar voice rang clear and strong through the crowd behind them. Tawnyetta and Bridget turned to see who it was.
Sofia! She stood with her arms out and up in the air, as if awaiting a group hug. Decked out in a splendid yellow ball gown that hugged her ample curves and made her dark skin and long, black locks look even more exotic than normal, Sofia's presence was astonishing. For a moment Tawnyetta thought she was seeing things, but then Bridget reacted.
"Fifi!" Bridget ran to Sofia, taking tiny little high heels steps. There was another squeal from just behind Sofia and Angie appeared. Her red hair cascading down a deep lavender dress with a fairy like tulle skirt. She waved excitedly at them both.
"What?" Tawnyetta stepped forward just in time to see Thomas in a tuxedo escorting Luna who wore a cream colored floor length dress reminiscent of the 1940's.
Angie came to Tawnyetta and gave her a big hug before holding her out at arm's length. "We're here!" she exclaimed. Then she looked Tawnyetta up and down appreciatively. "You look exquisite, Tawnyetta. Have you fallen in love or something?"
The friends all gathered in a circle in the middle of the ballroom.
"We look like an Easter basket with one chocolate and one white chocolate Easter bunny in it," Bridget said with a laugh, nodding towards Thomas in his black and Luna in her cream tones. They all agreed, except Thomas.
"I don't know if I like being compared to a bunny," he said.
Bridget laughed again. "Okay then, how about you're a black jelly bean!"
Thomas scoffed in mock disgust. "That's not much better."
"What are you guys doing here?" Tawnyetta asked.
"We wanted to join the fun," Thomas responded.
"It sounded like you two were having such a good time, we thought 'why not?'" Sofia answered. The others erupted into chatter about their surprise. All except Sofia. She leaned in to talk into Tawnyetta's ear. "We also thought you might like reinforcements to support Bridge in her time of need."
Tawnyetta smiled. "That's very kind."
Sofia looked around the ballroom and shrugged. "It's our pleasure, truly. I mean, we're at a ball!" This made Tawnyetta laugh. Sofia's expression shifted to concern. "Really, though, how has it been? Have you found time to have any fun yourself? Or have you been only taking care of Bridget?"
A stab of guilt penetrated Tawnyetta's chest. She felt bad for having forgotten so completely why she was on this trip to begin with and allowed Shau– Laird Michael–to be such a distraction.
She dipped her head in a quirky nod. "Oh, you know, a little bit of both."
"Well, you're not on your own any longer," Sofia took Tawnyetta's hand in hers and squeezed it warmly.
With a fleeting glance toward the dance floor where Michael and Bea could be seen swirling through the crowd, Tawnyetta determined to stick close to her friends, especially Bridget, for the rest of the evening. It was the reason she was here after all, and the least she could do for her best friend.
Chapter Fifteen
"It's enchanting!" Angie declared as she slowly twirled through their bedroom. Her arms flowed loosely at her sides as she pirouetted delicately across the open floor. Her wispy blue sundress fluttered. "Like Rapunzel!"
"You're far enough up here to be Rapunzel, that's for sure," Sofia agreed. She was perched on the side of the king size bed admiring the arched beams in the ceiling and the other architectural features of the room.
"We're in the keep," Tawnyetta informed them.
"The what?" Bridget asked, lifting her head from where she was rummaging through her suitcase.
"Oh yeah, the keep." Thomas nodded as if remembering. He was leaning against the stone fireplace. "That's where they would all hide during wartime. It's impenetrable."
"Yes, it's where all the most important things were kept so they couldn't be stolen," Tawnyetta explained from the chair near the windows overlooking the formal garden.
Luna sat in the other chair opposite Tawnyetta. She let her gaze wander around the room, taking in the space. "I suppose it's symbolic that Rapunzel was being held in the keep," Luna mused.
"So she was their most precious possession?" Sofia asked, a ring of annoyance in her voice at the fact that anyone ever treated women like possessions.
"Kind of like that, but slightly more romantic." Luna smiled at her cousin.
Tawnyetta watched the chaos that was Bridget getting ready for the day. They had planned a group outing to go into Eldin for lunch. Everyone was ready except for Bridget. She had insisted on repacking her purse and trying on different pairs of shoes to determine which looked best with her shorts and which would be the most comfortable. The day was overcast which meant it could rain. This made her decision making process even more complex.
"Of course the woman is the most precious possession," Bridget said.
Sofia arched an eyebrow at her. "Possession? The women were owned. That's not very romantic."
"Maybe you should focus on the word precious instead of possession," Thomas suggested.
Tawnyetta stood up and stretched her shoulders. She had kinks in her muscles and hadn't had time to do any exercising of any real kind in the last couple days. After all of the dancing last night she felt stiff. Waltzes, being mostly classical music, were extremely long. After dancing the first four with Michael, then one with Thomas, and once with each of the three Prescott men, there had been several more gentlemen who asked her to waltz. So many, in fact, that she successfully avoided Michael for the remainder of the night. Though this was a triumph in a way, it made her a little melancholy. She wanted to steer clear of him. She didn't want to get in the way of Bridget's fascination with the Laird of Claymore Castle. She closed her eyes and considered the fact that she'd been slowly getting to know the very man she'd been trying to help Bridget meet.
"Are you all right?" Luna asked.
Tawnyetta opened her eyes and looked down at Luna who was watching her the way that Luna watched everything, quietly and thoughtfully.
"I'm fine," Tawnyetta answered. "I guess I'm just a little sore."
"How long does it take to get to Eldin? Luna asked, eyeing Bridget who had taken several new shoe choices out of her suitcase and was trying them on.
"Maybe an hour?" Tawnyetta answered.
"And we'll all be squished in a car?" Luna clarified.
Tawnyetta nodded with reservation. There was only the one car for them to use and six of them total. Not including Allen who needed to drive them.
Sofia, Thomas, and Bridget were happily bickering about the difference between love and obsession, being precious to someone as opposed to being their possession, and how that translated into modern day romantic relationships. Tawnyetta sighed internally. She knew this was going to extend the amount of time it took Bridget to get ready. Wishing she could get outside and stretch her legs, she turned to look out the window.
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That's when she saw him.
Michael, wearing his humble gardener clothes, was pushing his tools in a wheelbarrow up to the fountain. The moment she saw him, Tawnyetta's stomach trembled. She chastised herself quietly for reacting, but did not look away.
He lifted tools out of the wheelbarrow and placed them on the side of the fountain. She watched as he reached up with a wrench and twisted something so that he could remove the heavy top piece off of the fountain. As he set the piece carefully down on the ground, his muscles strained a little bit at the effort, and she thought about those same strong arms wrapped around her on the dance floor.
The sensations rushed back to her in an instant. The sound of the music, the way it seemed they were floating across the dance floor in perfect unison. His scent, spicy and fresh. His hand on her waist, holding her as close as possible without breaking form. His voice, deep and gentle. The way he chuckled as he teased her while they danced. The twinkle in his eyes.
She wanted him to hold her again, to look down at her with amusement in his eyes and try to get her to tell him what was on her mind.
Suddenly, Michael straightened up from his work on the fountain and turned toward the window. He looked straight up at her as she watched him.
She sucked in her breath, her heart skipping a beat. Could he see her? She was sure he could. She was sure he was looking directly at her.
She should step away from the window and not be so obvious. She should turn and join the conversation with her friends and put him out of her mind. But Tawnyetta found that she couldn't move. Her feet were stuck to the floor, her eyes were locked on Michael in the garden below.
"Tawny?" Luna's voice, soft and concerned came to her. "Are you all right?"
She forced herself to take a step back even though Michael still gazed up at her from the ground. "I'm fine," she said.
"Maybe you need some fresh air? Or," Luna looked at her meaningfully. "Maybe you should take some time for yourself. You've been here for Bridget all week. I'm sure there's time for you to take a walk or something before we're ready to go."
"Yes," Tawnyetta nodded. She couldn't form words. Her heart had started pounding, forcing blood quickly through her veins, making her light headed. "I would like to take a walk."
She needed to be alone, she knew that much. To avoid Michael in the formal garden, she slipped out one of the side entrances of the castle. This placed her right where the path opened up onto the wooded area, which offered a welcome retreat from the more landscaped sections of the estate.
The path leading into the woods was crude. Her feet crunched on it as she walked. The pebbles and debris were undisturbed, showing that it wasn't followed very often. That was fine with her.
Tawnyetta strode quickly along the path through the woods, taking deep breaths of cool morning air. The sun had not yet made an appearance today and she could see patches of the overcast sky through the tops of the trees. Filling the sky above her with their deep green branches, the trees smelled lush and wet. It was like another world inside these woods, like she was miles away from everybody and everything.
As Tawnyetta walked she tried to work out why she couldn't get a grip on her feelings for Michael. He was handsome and everything, but he was just some person flitting through her world. He had only been in her life for one week. Not long enough to mean anything. Besides, she would be going home in one more week, to the other side of the world almost.
That thought increased her melancholy.
"Stupid," she mumbled under her breath. Meeting some man, even a very good looking, charming man who owned a castle, was no reason for her to go off the deep end and feel so incapable and silly. None of this was necessary. She could enjoy her vacation without getting all worked up over some guy. She was in Scotland on vacation, living in a castle for heaven's sake, she needed to get a grip.
Suddenly the forest opened up into a clearing. The trees thinned to nothing and the path led into thick, green grasses, where plants with pointing purple flowers grew in patches. Was this the famous heather of the Highlands? As she looked down the path she could see that it rose up into a grass covered hill. And after that hill there was another, and hill upon hill beyond.
The beauty enticed her. A cool breeze brushed against her cheeks, carrying the scent of the hills, calling her to explore.
What she needed was to work off some of this frustration, get some endorphins going in her brain, build up a good exercise induced sweat. She glanced behind her at the path that led back to the castle. She turned back toward the hills and took another deep breath of the clean, cool breeze. She decided she would just run up to the top of the first one and look around. It shouldn't take too long.
Ten minutes later she was halfway up the first hill. It was higher than she'd originally thought–and wilder, too. The landscape wasn't smooth or manicured, but full of dips and craggy rocks that jutted up unexpectedly. Though this made it more of a challenge to climb, there was a rough path for her to follow and it felt good to push herself a little and release some tension.
A bubbling, cheerful sound caught her attention and Tawnyetta stepped off the path to look for the source. She was rewarded a few feet away when she came across a stream tumbling happily through the thick green grass and purple heather.
Pausing for a moment, Tawnyetta looked up the hill where the stream came from and followed it with her eyes as it bubbled past her feet and down the hill back toward the castle. She could see the very top of the keep from this position, but not much else due to the woodlands below. She wondered briefly if Bridget was still trying on shoes, then she looked toward the peak of the hill. If she could make it all the way to the top, she should have a good view of the castle and all of its surroundings.
Following the stream instead of the path was a little more cumbersome, but just as satisfying. The air was still cool, in fact it seemed a little cooler now that she was high above the woodlands. The overcast sky blocked the warming rays of the sun ensuring she wouldn't get too worn out. The fresh air and quiet sounds of nature were all she needed right now. Birds chirped nearby and the water in the stream splashed and gurgled pleasantly.
Almost at the top she came over a low rise where the landscape dipped down in the shape of a large oval before turning into the final slope that led to the peak. The large oval space was almost concave, like it may have originally been a lake that etched out this shape in the land before drying up and allowing grass to take over. The stream led directly through the middle of the oval and, to her delight, Tawnyetta saw an ancient stone bridge that crossed the stream at the lowest point in the dip.
The bridge looked wide enough for a compact car to cross, though there were no roads in sight leading to it from either side. It stretched much wider and higher than necessary to cross the small stream. This led Tawnyetta to believe it had been built when the stream was the size of a river, perhaps hundreds of years ago. The stone was loose and crumbling in places, yet solid in others. She carefully walked over the top of it to see how sturdy it was and came to the conclusion that it was probably considered a ruin more than an actual bridge. Still, it was lovely and an enchanting feature in the landscape.
The clouds hung lower and looked thicker from her new vantage point nearly at the top of the hill. The soft, cool breeze she'd felt earlier came in shorter, stronger gusts. She realized that it might be getting ready to rain and she should probably finish her walk and get back to the castle.
Determined to make it all the way to the top, she trudged up the last steep slope of the hill using clumps of grass to hold and steady herself on the most precarious sections. The climb along the stream was so difficult she had to abandon it and just head toward the top of the hill. Upon reaching the pinnacle she turned to see the view and was instantly triumphant. From where she stood she could look down the slope across the woodlands and see Claymore Castle with all of its surrounding estate.
Tawnyetta took in a deep breath and was struck at how tru
ly beautiful the great stone castle was in the vista. She could even see some of the farms and pastures in the countryside beyond the castle. Like a picture postcard of beautiful places to visit in Scotland, Claymore Castle and all that surrounded it was a sight to behold.
Cold, wet gusts of wind buffeted her with more vigor. The tails of her blue, cotton shirt flapped madly as her hair was tossed into a frenzy. She was happy for the wind. It refreshed her after her long climb. She took in another deep breath. How many people had stood in this place, in these hills, and looked down at the castle during the years since it had been built? The thought gave her goose bumps.
A low rumble sounded in the heavy cloud cover. Tawnyetta turned to look at the wild hills that lifted higher behind her. These beautiful, ancient peaks were still left to be explored and a piece of her didn't want to go back. However, her years of hiking in the Rocky Mountains gave her enough experience to know she shouldn't lose sight of the castle. Besides, if a thunderstorm was on its way staying on top of a hill wasn't the smartest idea.
When she turned around to head back from whence she'd came and gasped out loud at what she saw. Which was to say, nothing. Absolutely nothing–except fog.
The thick grey clouds that had been hanging in the sky had sunk down over her and covered the top of the hill rapidly. She was disoriented for a few moments as she realized what had happened. Turning around again, she found fog blocking the view of the higher hills she had just been admiring. It had surrounded her on all sides in a matter of seconds. She needed to climb down. But which way had she come from? All she could see now was thick, white fog. No castle or broken down bridge were in sight. There was nothing to guide her way.
Tawnyetta felt panic rise in her stomach. She fought the urge to turn in a circle searching for a sign of the castle in the distance. That would make it impossible for her to determine which way was the correct way down.
"Calm down," she said out loud. The sound of her voice in the fog was eerie and she pressed her lips together to keep from speaking out loud again.