“Satan’s magic,” Father Renard rebuked from his spot near the table where Rachel’s blood still stained damp cloths.
“Shut up.” Hannah cast him a vicious look. “It was your apprentice that murdered innocent girls, calling upon Satan’s work from a book you found and had him translate.” She huffed and continued to smooth Elena’s cheek.
“Take my hand, son,” Rachel urged and he grasped it carefully. “I’m going to use some of what Dory taught me when I learned to use my gift of healing to influence the particles of weather.”
Father Renard snorted and Hannah shushed him.
“Close your eyes and imagine your power as little droplets of color, in your case red I suppose. Elena’s power is in your body. Picture it.”
He felt the churning of his increased magic in his gut where he always kept it tightly controlled. He envisioned it as red droplets that resembled blood, life giving blood.
“Now release it through a small channel into me. Slowly.” Rachel breathed deeply as if bracing herself.
Drop by drop he imagined it flowing from him into Rachel, infusing her with his magic and Elena’s life force. For a moment Rachel seemed to stop breathing but then she let out a long exhale. “That’s it.” Her voice sounded stronger. “Yes,” she whispered but he didn’t dare open his eyes. He had to focus so as not to flood his mother with the power. Long minutes moved by with each of his breaths, each of his focused droplets of magic. His hand burned where he touched Rachel, but she didn’t flinch.
Father Renard began to pray in Latin. Hannah’s sobs grew louder. “Son.” Alec’s one word held amazement, awe.
“Searc?” Elena’s soft voice shot through his mind. He yanked his hand back from Rachel as his eyes snapped open to a sight so lovely it would have felled him to his knees if he hadn’t already been on the ground.
Elena sat up in his father’s lap. The bruise on her face was gone, but what opened Searc’s chest and made his heart pound with hope was her restored youth. Her skin lay smooth, her cheeks vibrant with color, and her lips turned up in a questioning smile.
Searc hauled Elena from his father’s arms, hugging her body to him. “I can feel yer strong heart.”
She laughed against his chest. “’Tis because you are squeezing me.”
He pulled away slightly, holding her face in his hands and kissed her gently. His forehead rested against hers. “I thought I’d killed ye.”
“If you had, it would have been a necessary accident.” She turned her face to kiss his palm. “You needed me to save your mother.”
He ran his fingers through her hair, marveling at how soft it felt. “Ye are the bravest lass I’ve ever met. To let me use my darkness—”
“Not darkness,” she admonished. “You saved me with your magic.” She pulled away so that he could see his mother who was helping Hannah. “You saved your mother with your magic.” Searc noticed that the crisscross cuts on his mother’s arms were healed and a blue glow emanated from her hands where she touched Hannah. “It is because of you, Searc Munro, you and your gift that we are healed and free of that madman. Can darkness do that?” She shook her head. “No.”
He looked back to her. “Ye are intent on seeing the good in me.”
“That would be because you are good and because…” Her eyes turned serious, watchful. “I love you, Searc.”
Her words filled him, much like his churning magic, wild and encompassing but without the dread and shame that had come with his power. She had trusted him with much more than mere secrets. She’d trusted him with her life. He drew her back into his embrace and caught her face, bringing it close to his. “And I love ye, Elena Munro.” She leaned fully into him, her lips finding his quickly. For a moment she squeezed him so hard he wondered if he’d given her extra strength.
Warmth and soaring contentment flooded him as he kissed her and she returned it full of healthy vigor. He kissed across her face to her ear, wrapping her in a hug from which he wondered if he’d ever release her. She laughed and held him back. Never before had Searc felt such joy. He lifted her to turn in a circle and saw his parents standing there smiling. Hannah clapped her hands together in glee, rising on the balls of her feet.
“Let us go home, son.” Rachel smiled at him.
Searc kissed the top of Elena’s head. “Aye, ’tis time to bring my lovely bride home.”
…
“I still don’t see why ye can’t make me a lad of two score and five.” Alec smiled across his horse toward Rachel. The setting sun shot gold in his short, reddish beard. “Like ye did for Elena?”
At her name, Elena shifted before Searc on Dearg’s back. Her warm Highland warrior held her safely as they rode across another moor, this one steeply graded upward. Late summer flowers bent with patches of tall grass in the autumn breeze that had picked up as the day drew to a close.
She shivered and Searc wrapped his woolen plaid higher up under her chin. “Almost there, lass.” His warm breath near her ear causing tingles to race down her cocooned body.
“Make you young? Don’t you think I’d have done that for myself if I could?” Rachel barked a laugh that included a roll of her eyes.
“Ye do look like a lass of a score and five,” Alec countered.
Rachel shook her head, trying again to explain the miracle she and Searc had been able to pull off in the dungeon under Holyrood Abbey. “She hadn’t really aged.” Rachel glanced back at Elena. “All the little parts of her had just been, well I’m not certain, drained of moisture and energy. They were like empty shells that I just had to fill up again. Each of us is full of moisture and life energy.”
“So why do I look old then?” Alec winked at Elena. She smiled at the handsome older man who had obviously given Searc his height and build.
“Because you’re full of old moisture and energy.” Rachel smiled gleefully at her own wit.
Elena felt Searc’s chest rumble with laughter as she leaned back into him. Alec cursed but then roared with mirth. “I’ll show ye just how young and vigorous I am, lass.” He grabbed to pull Rachel from her horse. She shifted away and kicked her mount into a run across the moor. Alec flew after her as did Cheò, who had journeyed with them the entire way, his bushy tail flying behind. Elena laughed as Rachel turned in a wide circle, letting her husband catch her in the twilight. Alec pulled Rachel across her mount to kiss her. Their shadows melded together.
They had left Edinburgh nearly two weeks before and were almost to Munro land. They must arrive home before the first snows and had insisted on leaving Edinburgh immediately after presenting information to Marie de Guise. Brother Peter’s quest for power to help Lord Arran overturn her rule had passed the line of traitorous fervor right into insane madman.
Father Renard had been obstinate about wanting to charge Searc and Rachel for practicing witchcraft. The foolish priest may have ended up with his tongue cut from his head by Alec until Hannah turned from a mouse into a tiger. The cleric had shut his mouth when she swore to tell Marie de Guise that he’d been part of the plan to oust her from power and had urged Peter to put the stinging nettles under her saddle. Since Peter had begun his quest to kill Marie based on Father Renard’s private rantings, he realized just how guilty he would look. Father Renard decided hastily that it was in his best interest to agree with the slightly altered story Elena and Rachel told of being rescued.
“I love that sound.” Searc kissed Elena’s temple.
She twisted to see him. “Your father cursing?”
He smiled that devilish grin that made her heart pound harder. “Nay, yer laughter, lass. Yer happiness.” He caught her chin, tilting her up for a kiss that made her melt into him. She completely forgot that she was on a horse and would have fallen off if he hadn’t steadied her. He ran his thumb over her flushed cheek. “Have a care, lass. If anything happens to ye I may never recover.”
She laughed gently. “I will try not to injure myself.”
“Ye have a penchant for disaster.�
� He raised one eyebrow, and she gave him a mock frown. “I best keep ye safely in my bed.” At his low voice, Elena felt that delicious ache to which she was becoming quite accustomed. “I promise ye it will be much more comfortable than the forest floor.”
“My rugged warrior requires a soft pallet.”
“Most assuredly.”
Elena laughed and Searc’s gaze moved past her to where his parents waited, their silhouettes in dark contrast against the fading sunset. Searc pressed Dearg to meet them and Elena surveyed a sweeping moor with mountains soaring up at the far end. At the base of the mountains, as if cut from the mountain itself, jutted the shape of a castle. A village of cottages with pale thatched roofs sat along several winding lanes leading from the castle out to the moor. Lights from torches twinkled like sparse stars and the smell of cook fires signaled civilization.
“It’s large.” Elena’s voice held reverence and she tried to quell the nervousness in her stomach. “It must be beautiful in the full light of day.”
“It’s home.” Searc’s features were stiff.
She leaned her face closer to his. “I love you. No matter what.”
He kissed her forehead though kept his serious expression. “And I love ye too.” She faced front, and he pressed Dearg into an easy gallop down into the basin. Cool evening air whipped about them, tugging on the plaid around her shoulders. Searc’s arms remained strong, an anchor around her as they flew through the twilight.
Alec and Rachel plunged forward too, all three horses eager for their home stables. The laughter and ease from moments earlier had vanished. Did they all worry about the reaction of their clan? Searc had warned her before that he may be turned away, but she just couldn’t believe it. Alec and Rachel had left too soon to know how opinions had settled out. But these people must know Searc was neither evil nor cursed if they lived with him, grown up with him. How could they condemn him? Elena’s indignation rose up in her, strengthening her for the battle ahead.
Elena startled when Searc blew a shrill whistle. She turned and stifled a gasp at the slinking shapes across the moor to the right. A large pack of wolves fanned out and advanced, but halted as Cheò tore past Dearg to meet them.
“Will he be safe?” Elena had never seen so many wolves.
“Aye, ’tis his pack. He leads them.”
She remembered Searc’s story of saving Cheò with his powers when the wolf was a pup. “He leads them because of you.” She watched the wolf slow and the others surround him. They tipped their noses into the air and began a howl that echoed in the valley. The sound made her heart race and Searc squeezed her.
“They are his pack now, but aye, ye have nothing to fear from them when I’m with ye. They know my scent and my power.”
He sounded so tense. She hated the doubt he still had within him. “Well,” she whispered lightly, “if things don’t go well at your home, we can always live with the pack I suppose.”
He exhaled on a small chuckle. “The only cave floor I would let ye sleep on is a cozy hideaway I’ve found up in that mountain to the left.” He pointed past her gaze, his arm strong and straight. “Spread upon a soft tick with furs beneath yer bare back.”
“Hmmm? Enticing. Perhaps we should bypass the castle and keep riding.” She sighed. “But cowardice breeds only failure.”
“Another bit of sage advice from Lord Seymour?”
She nodded. “I think…he’d approve of you.” She turned to look at his strong face in the rising moonlight. “Except that you aren’t wearing a crown.”
Searc grinned and swept his hand toward the side where the wolf pack was running together back into the forest. “Ah, but I control armies.”
“That you do.”
They neared the edge of the village where two warriors kept watch at the perimeter. Alec rode ahead with Rachel and hailed them, Searc pressing Dearg into a faster pace to follow.
“The chief returns!” a man yelled toward the village. Several doors opened, spilling firelight onto the darkened road.
One woman ran forward toward Rachel. “Milady, Fiona is tending Brianna now. The bairn is coming soon. We’ve sent for Lady Meg, but she hasn’t yet arrived.”
“I’m certain Fiona has it under control.” Rachel dismounted, handing the reins of her horse up to Alec. “But let us go see if we can assist.” She took two steps away and turned back to look at Searc. “Take your bride to see her new home.” A proud smile lit her voice. Then she turned back to the woman who trudged quickly beside her down one of the narrow lanes. Elena felt all eyes turned toward her and sat up straight.
Alec spoke in Gaelic to the guards. Elena was going to have to learn their language as soon as possible. There was nothing smooth to it like the nasally notes of French. It was strong, rugged, raw—just like the Highland landscape that harbored them. Searc nodded and pressed Dearg to follow Alec and the two horses up to the castle. The portcullis was lifting and near the top when they rode through the soaring walls of pale stone. Searc remained stiff and silent behind her.
It didn’t matter to him that Marie de Guise, the rightful ruler of all Scotland, had knighted him and made him her Highland ambassador. Nor did it matter that she’d thanked him for foiling the assassination attempts on her life. He cared not that he wore a shirt of fine lawn and a newly woven plaid and jeweled kilt pin. Riches and royal trappings meant nothing to the fierce warrior who lifted her from his mount.
He placed her hand on his forearm but she slid it to his warm hand. He paused to look down at her, their gazes meeting. “Together,” she said. His frown cracked slightly and he gave her a slow nod, intertwining his fingers with hers.
“Phillip!” Alec boomed out to the man at the top of the steps before the arched double doors. “All well here?”
“As well as how ye left it.” The man dodged around him to take a look at Elena. “Well now. What lovely do we have here?”
The elderly man had a devilish look but a kind smile. She smiled in return. “I am Elena. Elena Munro, wife to Searc Munro.”
“Wife?” He smiled broadly and looked to Searc. “And exceedingly bonny despite her Sassenach accent.”
“And exceedingly good with a bow and arrow,” Searc countered, a teasing tone to his grumble. “Elena, watch out for this wily old man. He’s got an eye for the lasses.”
“Well then.” Phillip nodded and winked at her. “I’ve been warned.” He bowed his head to her. “Welcome to Munro Keep, Lady Munro.”
She bobbed a quick curtsey. “Elena, please.”
Phillip came forward to take Searc’s forearm in a solid embrace. “’Tis good to have ye home, lad.” His tone was filled with sincerity. Elena liked the man immensely.
Phillip swept his arm wide and let Searc bring her inside through a dark entry with a single torch. “Weren’t expecting ye home so soon.” Phillip walked beside Alec. “Sent the warriors to their homes at sun down.”
“Better that we get some rest.” Alec took a full tankard off a side bar. “It’s a long way from Edinburgh for the lass and Rachel.” Phillip asked various questions as Searc guided her up a few steps into a great hall that reached two stories of arched stonework. Torches were lit about the walls but the hearth was dark, making the room as chilly as the outdoors.
“I sent Margaret to make up a fire in yer room, Alec, but I didn’t know Searc would be with ye.” Phillip handed her a goblet of cool wine.
“I’ll see to it.” Searc caught his own tankard.
“Shall I send up some food or will ye be too busy with that…fire?” Yes, Phillip was a scoundrel, but she still liked him.
“Yes, please,” Elena called out. “He makes me work up quite the appetite.” The man burst into laughter. She touched her cheek with her one free hand, cooling her blush with her palm. Searc chuckled beside her as she mounted the dark steps. She sighed with a small smile.
Searc held a torchlight over them. “A contented sigh?”
“Mmmhmm.” She climbed the solid, winding step
s upward, her hand guiding her on the side. “Content to be away from my old life and safe from the scheming of desperate men.” She fingered the locket she wore at her breast.
They reached a landing and Searc guided her down the hall, stopping to push into a dark room. He went to the hearth while Elena squinted to make out tapestries along the walls. From what she could see they were stitched beautifully. She’d have to examine them in the daylight. Maybe she could help stitch more, be of use here. Her chest constricted a bit as she watched Searc blow on the dry peat. “I promise I won’t be a taxing obligation to you, Searc. I…I am most appreciative of you bringing me here.”
He turned on the balls of his feet where he squatted and stood, stalking toward her so much like a muscled, powerful beast that her pulse picked up. He clasped her face in his hands. “Ye need to get that out of yer head, Elena. I have never considered ye a mere obligation, something to be protected only to fulfill my duty as a warrior. Ye are in no way a burden..” His voice was rough as if emotion deepened it, frustration and a touch of hurt.
“Oh, I have been to many.” She tried to smile to make the ugly truth sound lighter, but her mouth couldn’t quite create the expression.
He shook his head and released her face. “Those were lies, Elena, lies told by people who couldn’t see the gem that ye are.” He ran a hand down the side of her face. “Ye did not have the family I had, the growing up with people who care for ye, and not just for what ye can bring them.” He shook his head. “That has changed. If things do not work out here, we will move on, because I will not let ye live another day in a place that sees ye as anything less than the blessed miracle ye are.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears, one drop escaping. Searc’s finger caught it. “Elena, ye saved my mother, ye trusted me to use my power to nearly take yer life.” Another tear slipped out of her eye and Searc shook his head. “We haven’t had time alone on this journey back, to talk.” He kissed her forehead and lowered his head so he could gaze directly into her watery eyes. “I never thought I’d find anyone who could trust me, let alone trust me enough to let me touch them with my magic. And then I found ye. I love ye, Elena Munro, for now and forever.”
Highland Hearts 03 - Crimson Heart Page 30