Rose shrugged. “I am not sure what can be said that will change anything. We are alone now. It simply is what it is.”
“Ye cannot be so dour, Rose.”
Rose turned and faced Kelly. “Why not?” she said. “Look at how far we have fallen. We have lost everything. These past few days have been filled with nothing but torment and strife. I cannot imagine that it will get any better.”
Kelly moved forward, taking up Rose’s position on the rock and sitting cross-legged as she looked out at the horizon. “This is not the Rose MacGillis I am accustomed to,” she said. “I have never heard ye speak in such a way before.”
“Because all is lost,” Rose said. “We have nothing now.”
“We have a destination. Sean pointed us the way.”
Rose’s heart sank when she heard his name. “What then?” she said as she closed her eyes. “What do we do once we arrive? There are only two of us now, Kelly. How are we supposed to make a life with only us tending the land? We have no food, no supplies, no way of making this work. We were so reliant on Sean to help guide us there, perhaps to a fault.”
Kelly waved her hand dismissively through the air. “We were plenty competent before he arrived,” she said. “I have a hard time believing that his absence will hinder us from starting again.”
Rose turned and faced her. “And what about our people? They are gone. Our numbers our dwindled.”
“Then we find more.”
Rose laughed. “A wild fantasy, my dear friend. The Scots are no longer. There is no way we can rebuild what we once had.”
Kelly stood, Rose seeing the fire in her eyes as her gaze became intensely focused on her. “This is not the end,” Kelly said. “And ye are dismayed because of something ye know well but don’t want to admit out loud.”
“What are ye saying?”
Kelly took a step forward. “Ye love him,” she said. “Sean. And now that he is gone, it aches ye so. This is the first time, perhaps in a long time, that ye have allowed someone into yer heart. And now…it is broken…and ye do not know what to do about it.”
Rose shook her head. “My heart is not broken.”
Kelly held up her hands, gritting her teeth as she said: “Just stop, Rose. The hard-headed act that ye are putting on does not sway me. I have known ye for years now. I know when ye are troubled, and right now, that is the case. It is okay to feel the way ye do…just stop lying to yerself about it.”
Rose’s lip quivered. Thoughts of Sean and flashes of his face entered her mind. It ached her heart that he was gone, that he left her so abruptly the moment her heart, for the first time in a long time, felt full. She opened her mouth to offer up another retort—but nothing but tears started to roll down her cheeks. She felt vulnerable, more so than she ever had before. Her heart swelled with pain, and Rose, perhaps for the first time in years, felt once again like a child.
Rose rushed forward, hugging her friend tight and feeling the warmth of her embrace. Kelly began stroking her fingers through Rose’s hair, cooing in her ear as she held her tight and didn’t dare break the embrace.
“I miss him so much,” Rose said through her crying. “I cannot believe this has happened to me.”
Kelly nodded. “I know, my dear. I know…”
“Why did he go? What did I do wrong?”
Kelly shook her head. “It was nothing ye did, Rose. Sean made a mistake. There was no reason for him to leave. He is blaming ye for something that is not yer fault.”
Rose broke the hug and stood back, still holding onto one of Kelly’s hands. “I do not blame him for leaving,” she said. “His family perished, and it is possible that mine was the cause of it.”
“Still,” Kelly said, “he should not hold ye accountable for the actions of someone else. He is in pain, aye, but he is dismissing what I’m sure is one of the greatest women in all of the Highlands.”
Rose smiled. “Yer flattery is always welcomed, my friend.”
Kelly shrugged and returned the smile. “Aye,” she said. “I am quite good at it, no?”
Rose laughed as she wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. “What do we do now?” she said. “Where do we go from here?”
“It is like I said before: we go to our new home. We figure out a way to make it work. We build a new life; we press forward and continue to fight. Struggles like these always come about in the midst of change. The only way that we win, the only way that we survive is to not allow it to bring us down. We are in the final stages of finding our new path, and I’ll be damned if I allow ye or anyone else to get in the way of that.”
Rose drew a breath. She knew her friend’s words to be right and true. Her heart was aching, yes, but there was no point in letting it destroy her. Rose knew full well it did not mean the pain would still not linger, that she would not miss Sean as much as she did—but she had to press forward. She had to keep living. She had to live with the pain and allow the course of time to let it subside. There was no other option. There was no other way.
Rose jutted her chin to the east. “Sean had said we were close,” she said. “Maybe a day’s ride away. If we continue down the path we are on, and we make no stops, we will make it there soon.”
Kelly nodded. “Aye. And once we arrive, we will figure out how to set about securing supplies. We can make this work, Rose. We will make this work.”
They hugged once more, holding on and cherishing the moment for a few minutes before breaking the embrace and mounting their horses.
“I’ll take the lead,” Rose said as she held a tight grip on the reins. “Once we arrive…”
Kelly squinted as Rose’s voice trailed, watching her as Rose’s gaze began to look around suspiciously behind them.
“What is it?” Kelly asked.
Rose said nothing—but she could hear a soft rumble gathering off in the distance. Thunder? she thought. Are the rains approaching?
She tilted her head to the sky, trying to make out if any gray clouds were on the horizon. But as the noise began to gather and accumulate into a cacophonous roar—she realized that it was the sound of dozens of men or horseback approaching them with a swift and relentless haste.
“My God,” Rose said, bringing a hand to her mouth. “They’re here…”
Kelly’s eyes went wide, drawing her sword and sitting up high on her saddle. “Who is?” she said. “Who is here?”
“It’s him,” Rose said as she also took out her weapon. “It’s Lord Marcus…”
As soon as she said it and ascending over the hill behind them from eighty-some-odd feet away was about two dozen men on horseback, with Lord Marcus in the lead and approaching them with a ferocious haste.
“There are too many of them,” Rose said, placing away her weapon. “We need to flee. Now!”
Rose and Kelly wasted no time, slapping their reins and riding hard and fast away from Lord Marcus and the approaching riders. They rode side-by-side, casting occasional glances over their shoulders as they tried desperately to put some distance between themselves and the English.
Lord Marcus, approaching hot on their heels, screamed at the top of his lungs to his men to chase them down. Rose’s heart was beating, her skin feeling hot as she felt and heard the riders coming down on them quicker than she ever thought possible. We can’t outrun them, she thought. They are faster than we are…
“Break left,” Rose called out to Kelly. “We’ll split up. It’s the only way we can outrun them.”
Kelly opened her mouth. “But what if—”
Her protest was cut short, the wind knocked out of her as several arrows launched by Lord Marcus’ men burrowed themselves into Rose and Kelly’s horses and knocking them clear off of their saddles. The horses perished, falling and tumbling over each other and throwing Rose and Kelly clear off of their saddles.
Rose and Kelly collided; the wind knocked out of them as they landed on the ground with a hard thud. Rose saw the world spinning, a sickly feeling overcoming her
as she laid on her back and saw a fleet of men on horseback circle around her. She knew the worst had arrived. She knew there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide—they had finally been defeated.
Lord Marcus slipped off his saddle, smiling with a grim satisfaction as he took out his sword and sauntered up to Rose and Kelly. They were on their backs, struggling to regain their senses as the men circled around them and made sure there was nowhere for them to run.
Lord Marcus stood before them, looking at his sword and sporting a dismissive demeanor like he was doing nothing more than going out for a morning stroll. “Rose MacGillis,” he said. “We finally meet, at last…”
Rose connected eyes with Lord Marcus, the two of them remaining unblinking as time passed and nothing but the wind blew. Lord Marcus then took a step forward, smiled again—and buried his sword deep into Kelly’s stomach.
“No!” Rose cried out in defiance, attempting to stand but knocked to the ground with a swift kick of Lord Marcus’ boot to her chin.
Rose nearly passed out, but she managed to regain consciousness as Lord Marcus pulled the sword from Kelly’s stomach as Kelly’s face began to take on an ashy shade of white.
“Kelly!” Rose pleaded, turning over and pressing a hand to the wound. “My God, no!”
Kelly’s eyes were wide with shock, the life slowly retreating from her as she struggled to gather the breath to speak. “R-rose,” she stammered. “It’s…okay…it’s okay…”
Kelly shook her head. “No, no, no! Please! Don’t go! Don’t do this to me!”
Kelly, using the last shred of energy she had left, gripped onto Rose’s hand and showed the wryest of smiles. “It’s not over yet,” she said. “It’s not…over…yet…”
Kelly then collapsed, releasing a breath as her head tilted to the side.
Rose watched on in shock, her mind unable to catch up with the events playing out before her as she saw her oldest and dearest friend seemingly pass into the unknown. It happened so swiftly, so suddenly…and she never had the chance to say a proper goodbye.
Seething, Rose turned her gaze to Lord Marcus. Though she was depleted and wounded, she stared at him with lethal intention as he wiped the blood from his blade and placed it back into his sheathe.
“It hurts,” Lord Marcus said. “Doesn’t it?”
Rose’s fingers curled into a fist, nothing more than sheer and potent vengeance on her mind. She was readying herself to stand, prepared to kill the man in front of her even if it meant her own death would follow swiftly after.
“Ye will pay for this,” Rose said. “Marks my words…ye will pay.”
Lord Marcus crouched down onto one knee, cocking his head to the side like a curious canine as he forced another one of his sardonic smiles. “That will be between me and God,” he said. “But for now—you and I need to have our own little chat.”
Lord Marcus then raised a fist, cocked it back, and threw it toward Rose’s chin. Rose saw the flesh of his knuckles swoop past her vision, and in all of an instant, as she felt the sorrow and anger and frustration boil up inside of her, her world went completely and utterly black.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sean was on the outskirts of arriving outside the area where he had last left Rose and Kelly. He was elated, unable to help himself from beaming from ear to ear as he approached the incline that led up to the clearing. All will be well now, he thought. I’ll have to explain myself. I’ll have to beg for forgiveness, but I know that this is right. Lachlan is correct. This is where my life is leading. It doesn’t matter any longer who did what or why. I need to embrace the good things that have been laid before me. I need to accept that it is okay to be happy once again.
He kicked at the sides of his steed, perching forward as he came to the incline and the horse galloped with all its might up the hill. Sean was ready, hoping to still see Rose and Kelly waiting in the clearing. It’s possible they may have left. I hope I have not missed them. But if I have, I will simply catch up to them. It’s time to make things right. It’s time to move forward with my life.
The horse came over the incline, Sean perking up and opening his mouth to shout out Rose’s name—but he saw nothing, no one in sight. He brought his horse to a settle, swiveling his head around in every direction to try and make them out.
“Maybe they left,” Sean said out loud. “If they have, they have not gone—”
He closed his mouth, his heart sinking to his stomach when he laid eyes on it—Kelly’s body, laying on her back, white as the driven snow with a ribbon of ruby trickling out from underneath her back.
“No,” Sean seethed. “No, no, no!”
He slapped the reins, moving quickly towards Kelly’s body and dismounting before it had a chance to come to a settle. Sean got down on one knee, cradling Kelly’s head and lightly shaking her hand.
“Please, God, no!” Sean protested. “Kelly! Kelly, wake up! Please!”
But Kelly didn’t stir, didn’t move, and didn’t twitch. Sean looked around in vain, hoping that there was someone, something, that could take back what was happening—and then Kelly coughed.
Sean’s eyes went wide. “Kelly! God in heaven, are ye all right? Look at me!”
Kelly blinked several times. She gasped for air. It was apparent to Sean that she was holding onto the last remnants of her life.
“Speak if ye can,” Sean said, holding her gently and stroking her hair. “Speak…”
Kelly coughed, reaching her hand up wearily to Sean’s face. “Wanderer?” she said with confusion. “Is that ye?”
Sean nodded. “Aye. It is me. I have returned. I came back for the both of ye.”
“We…we thought ye were gone…we…we were going to…” She began to fade, Sean shaking her lightly to keep her in the light.
“No, no!” Sean said. “Stay with me! What happened? Where is Rose?”
Kelly coughed again, a small sliver of red trickling out of the corner of her mouth. Sean dabbed at the blood, then looked down to her torso to see the wound she had sustained. It was already apparent how and who was responsible for her grave injury.
“Talk to me,” Sean said. “Kelly, please.”
She blinked several times, on the verge of losing consciousness once again. “It was…Marcus…Marcus and his men. They…they found us…they…they took Rose with them…”
“Where? Which direction?”
“E….east…they went east.”
“Yer sure?”
Kelly nodded, nearly passing out from the exertion. “I am…not long for this world,” she said. “I am…I am passing away.”
Sean wanted to offer her something, anything to try and ease her pain—but he knew she was right. Kelly was not long for this world, and it enraged him so to known that Lord Marcus, that the English, had once again taken someone from his clutches, someone that he dared called a friend.
“Do not offer me lies,” Kelly said. “I can see…I can see ye struggling to give me false hope.”
Sean shook his head. “Ye are smarter than that, Kelly. I wouldn’t even dream of it.” He held her close, Kelly relaxing slightly and looking as if she was taking comfort in his embrace.
“She…cares for ye,” Kelly said. “Rose very much cares…for ye…it broke her heart so…when ye left…”
“I came back,” Sean said, once again feeling the tears begin to well. “I want to fix what I did.”
Kelly nodded. “Ye…can…ye can still…save her. I…believe in ye, Sean. I…trust ye.” She brought up her hand, gently caressing his face and sporting a small smile. “Ye are a good man, Wanderer….Ye are a good man…”
Kelly, blinking once more, let out a last gasp of air before her hand fell from Sean’s cheek and draped across her chest. Her head cocked to the side, her pupils dilated, and she passed away into the unknown.
Sean held onto her for several minutes, his anger causing his skin to turn red as he looked on at the horizon and imagined Lord Marcus out there amongst the greenery. Y
e bastard, his mind pondered. I will find ye. I swear on all I love that I will find ye and end ye. This is the last life ye took, ye bastard. Make no mistake about it…
After a few more moments of cradling Kelly’s corpse, Sean slowly released her from his grip and stood back. He stared on for a moment at Kelly’s body, unable to help but note that she looked somewhat at ease. He then turned his head to the sky, closed his eyes, and said: “God…guide this woman to yer kingdom. Show her mercy. Grant her everlasting peace…”
Sean then took the body and brought it to the edge of the clearing. He laid it down, and then set about gathering a pile of wood in the surrounding area, enough to build a fire that would properly burn the body. Once all the wood was gathered, he set it up in a pile and then placed Kelly’s body on top of it. He used two rocks to strike a fire, and then set Kelly ablaze and stood back as he watched her body burn and the smoke curled to the heavens.
Legend of a Highland Lass: Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance Page 23