CHAPTER TWENTY
G uilt, shame and unease burned a hole in Paige’s chest. She gathered her things up, then hurried after Norah. She did not know if she would find Norah in time to apologize before Ruben caught on to her massive blunder.
She rushed into Ruben’s room and his meeting room, hoping he was there so she could talk to him first. He was nowhere to be seen, and she began to fret.
“Oh nay, nay, nay,” she spun around, frantic. “This is nae good. He’ll be furious when he finds out.”
Paige knew she had to find Norah and apologize, maybe find a way to explain why she had brought up the abduction attempt.
“I suppose me attempt to befriend her has failed,” Paige spun and around while thinking. The most logical place for Norah to go would be to her rooms, but Paige feared going there. “I’d have to ask directions first.”
Swallowing her pride, Paige set out to find Norah and a helpful maid told her where to go. Norah’s room was a story higher than the rest of the house, almost in the attic.
She came to the door and knocked—and pushed the door in a little. Not daring to step in, Paige heard soft sobs inside and felt her heart grip tight in grief.
“Norah,” she called through the door. “I am so sorry. Please, let me explain what I meant earlier.”
A sob came from inside the room, so soft, she would never have heard if her ear had not been cocked to listen. Her heart ached even more, “Norah,” she tried again, “Please, let me talk with ye. I can explain, I really can.”
Still, all she heard was sniffling and the stifled sobs of someone trying not to scream their pain away. Unable to stay where she was, Paige stepped into the room and found Norah in a corner on the floor, a pillow held to her chest as she cried.
“Norah,” Paige fell to her knees, frightened, and unsure of what to do. Should she reach out and touch her? Would that frighten Norah more? “May I touch ye? I?—”
The poor girl was in distress. Tears rolled down her cheeks, glistening in the dim candlelight. She had her lower lip pinned between her teeth to hold back the sobs that made her shoulders tremble in silent quakes.
Paige wanted nothing more than to flee this dimly lit room and the pain she couldn’t truly grasp. But…
If I’m to be the Lady here, I must see to the needs of the clan. Even the needs I daenae completely understand.
Even frightened out of her wits, Paige wrapped her arms around Norah and pulled her in for a warm hug. Norah did not seem to notice that she was being held.
The girl was crying buckets, her face flushed more than Paige believed was healthy. “Norah, I am sorry. I am so sorry that I—” she swallowed. “—I never wanted to hurt ye or bring back bad memories but?—”
The girl was losing her breath and Paige was frantic. This was not right. “Norah—” she stood and pulled the girl up. “I think ye need to go to the healers. Please, come with me.”
As she tried to pull Norah, the door opened, “Norah, are ye willin’ to come—” Ruben ran into the room, his eyes flickering to Paige. “What in God’s name happened to her?”
“I—”
Instantly, Ruben hauled her into her into his arms and took off to the healing hall, taking the steps two at a time. Paige could not do much but follow him, fearing his reaction when she told him what had led to this.
“Me laird, what is the—” a healer looked at Norah and called out to another woman there. “—get the calmin’ draught and a wet cloth.”
When they delivered the draught to Norah, Paige stood aside, hoping the elixir would help but Norah did not seem to improve. Her face was still flushed and her breathing erratic.
“Get the pure valerian root,” the healer said calmly.
With steady hands, she carefully undid the vial and carefully dribbled a few drops in Norah’s mouth. “This is strong. It should be enough to get her to sleep the night through.”
Finally, Norah began to calm and Paige felt Ruben’s eyes on the side of her neck. When the healers pulled a soft blanket over her, he wrapped a hand around her arm and pulled her from the room.
He did not speak a word to her until they arrived at their set of rooms and slammed the door behind him.
“What happened?” Ruben demanded.
Paige winced. “Ye’re hurtin’ me.”
He pulled his hand away but his gaze pierced right through her. Massaging her arm, Paige took in a trembling breath. “I found Norah in the herb garden and joined her because I—” she took in a long breath. “I wanted to tell her about the man who almost abducted me.”
“Ye did what !” Ruben roared.
Fury transformed his face into that of a snarling wolf, his eyes narrowed and spitting fire. The beast she once thought him to be was truly coming out. “Did ye lose yer senses woman? Why would ye do such a thing!”
Paige marshaled her wits. “I thought it would make her ken that she wasnae alone. I understand that nay, I cannae fully ken what she’d felt in those moment when she was taken, but I hoped?—”
“Hoped for what ?” His blistering gaze roved fiercely over her. “That ye could build some connection with her? Are ye foxed or mad, lass?” he demanded with outrage.
“It’s absurd to even suggest?—”
“On that we agree.” Ruben’s cold words.
Paige wondered whether there would be any possibility of arguing her way out of this. She could not think of any.
“I just wanted her to ken that she was nae alone. That of anyone else, I have seen the eyes of the devil and feared death.” Paige said miserably as she sunk to a chair. She gazed at the floor. “I dinnae think she would react this way.”
“Because ye dinnae think at all,” Ruben snarled the stalked out of the room.
“Wait!” Paige called out loudly, stopping him as his hand rested on the door latch. He did not turn, but he did not move either. “Is there nay any way we can talk this over? Please.”
“…Nay,” he said, pushing the door in and stalked through them.
Night was falling but Ruben was hardly finished. His powerful arms sliced through the water as he swam the breadth of the loch, shore to shore.
Despite the beating thrum of range heating his blood, he forced himself to keep to good form. The tide had come in so the lake was higher than normal but he was not afraid of deep water.
He couldn’t believe that Paige had something so foolish and risky as forcing Norah to face her demons. Holding on to the dark rock on the further side of the loch, Ruben hauled himself up and took a perch on the edge of it.
“I need to take Paige out here one day to teach her to swim.” Or so he’d planned, but at the moment he couldn’t look at Paige without seeing Norah’s haunted face. And he couldn’t look at Norah without seeing Paige’s protective care for her.
The moon was out, casting its light over the and turning the lake into a sheen of faceted silver over the glistening waters of loch. It was a breathtaking sight, but Ruben was blind to it.
He was in turmoil.
Seeing Norah like that had cut him deeply—but it was the first spec of true emotion he had seen from her in years. From the moment he had had found her in the field, tied up and unconscious, Norah had walked around with one expression on her face— haunted emptiness.
“I willnae ken how she is until she wakes.” He sighed to himself. “But what if this makes her retreat more than the abduction had—” his gaze flittered to the horizon. “—is it fair to be angry with Paige at all knowin’ she might have broken through to me sister?”
A cutting wind made the water ripple and Ruben shook his head; he’d been out there for half a day. It was time he returned. Diving back into the water, he swam over to the shore that led to the castle. There, he quickly dried off, dressed and went to the horse waiting on the shore.
Heading to the castle in the dark, he felt the steel of his sword in saddle bag under his thigh. Dark shapes scurried across the road at time, most likely brown rats or shrews, but he made it to his home with no attack.
“Me laird,” Galan said. “Correspondence from the archbishop has arrived. I’ve placed it in yer meetin’ room.”
The bishop had acknowledged the marriage—it was now real.
“So now we tear the beddin’ off the mattress and fly the bloodied sheet out the open window to show yer completion of the marriage vows.” Galan grinned.
A twist of apprehension turned Ruben’s stomach on itself.
“I ken that look,” Galan sighed. “What is the matter now? Do ye nae want to prove to the whole town yer love for yer wife?”
“Love?” Ruben’s head snapped to his second in command. Eyes narrowing, he grated, “Who said anythin’ about love?”
Dropping in step with Ruben as they strode deeper in the castle, with servants bowing and sidestepping them.
“Nay one had to say it,” Galan said as they came to the room. “It’s plain as day. Almost every guard who were with ye when she was almost abducted saw the fear in yer face. It was clear how ye wanted to tear the men limb from limb.”
Stifling the surge of emotion flaring in his chest, he went to the table and plucked up the letter from the table. The red seal at the bottom had him holding in a groan. Sitting, he leaned forward and steepled his hands before his face.
“All right,” Galan said. “Somethin’ else must be botherin’ ye. I daenae have the strength to drag it out of ye, so are ye going to tell me on yer own volition?”
Rubbing his tired eyes, Ruben sat back and tonelessly uttered. “Paige told Norah about the men who almost abducted her. As ye can imagine, she dinnae take it well and cried herself into a paroxysm. We had to give her valerian root to make her sleep.”
Grimacing, Galan asked. “How bad is it?”
“I willnae ken until she wakes,” Ruben said. “But I am afraid for her. Such a thing could set her back into the almost insensate state she had been in since she was found alive.”
“Or,” Galan said, “It could wake up what was asleep inside her and get her to finally tell us what had happened in those months she’d been taken. She could finally end the mystery of who took her so ye can catch the bastard.”
“I can only hope,” Ruben said, his eyes flickering to the window and tracking the slow arc of the moon.
The delayed effect of his strenuous swim began to draw down on him and Ruben stood. “I’m going to me chambers,” he told Galan. “Only come callin’ me if there’re invaders barrelin’ down on the village or well, if somethin’ is on fire.”
“Aye, sir,” Galan nodded.
Before he headed to his rooms, Ruben went to see Norah and found her still sleeping. In the moonlight, she looked so young and fragile. The dark smudges under her eyes showed her exhaustion and her sunken cheeks showed her illness.
“Me laird,” a healer came closer. She looked in Norah’s direction and smiled faintly. “She’ll wake by the mornin’. Right now, her body is overwhelmed with the sudden nervous crisis she’d had earlier. I daenae think ye sister has been sleepin’ well for the last few months either.”
Ruben ground his teeth in futile aggravation. He had not seen that either. Something so simple as sleep deprivation was easy to spot. If he had not recognized that, what more had he overlooked?
“Ye cannae blame yerself for nae seein’ it, me laird,” the healer told him. “Ye have had yer attention occupied for months on end. Years, in fact.”
“I am still her brother,” he said while his hand clenched at his sides. “I should have seen it.”
“Either way,” the healer’s tone carried the emotion that she would rather not debate with him. “Mayhap this is the openin’ yer sister needs to start the healin’ process, in her mind as well as her body.
“Ye should go and get some rest as well, me laird. There is nothin’ ye can for her now. I give ye me word, as soon as she wakes, ye will be the first person I’ll call.”
Regretfully, Ruben had to agree and with a goodnight to the healer, headed to his rooms. Heading to the washroom, he splashed his face with icy cold water and then turned an eye to the door leading to Paige’s room.
Should I go and speak with her…or nae?
“She’s probably asleep,” he muttered to himself while reaching for a cloth to dry his face. “I’ll speak to her tomorrow.”