Page 26 of Highlander’s Fruit of Eden

A Timely Escape

“ H elp!” shouted Amelia.

“Help!” Ada joined in with the shouts.

The two of them called, over and over, with no response.

As they called out for help, they both ran their hands over the stone walls.

There was no one waiting outside to let the unconscious man out, and they would have come in by now with all the shouting, so there must be a way to get out unless someone was coming back.

No matter which was Amelia looked at it, it felt hopeless.

As she searched for a way out and shouted to try and garner someone’s attention, she kept one eye firmly fixed on the man.

She had searched him too, just in case Ada had not done a good job, but there were no keys on him.

There were no weapons either, except for the knife that had dropped from his hand when he had been struck on the back of the head.

Amelia currently held the knife in her shaky hand, hoping that she would not need to use it. If he did wake, she was not sure that having a weapon was going to be any help, though she felt safer holding it. Perhaps the two of them could overpower him.

“We’re never gettin’ out of here,” said Ada suddenly. “Even if we were to run that knife through the man’s chest, we’d still just be stuck in here with a dead man, and how long is it going to be until someone notices him missin’? They’ll send someone else down here, and they’ll be more careful.”

“We can….” started Amelia.

“What? Fight our way out?” asked Ada. “We got lucky with this man. I don’t think we’ll get so lucky a second time. We had surprise on our side, but we don’t anymore. How did me life ever end up like this?”

“Well, you do have yourself partly to blame.”

Ada let out a wry chuckle. “Aye, I do. I hitched me wagon to the wrong horse. I tried to warn ye off Jon, and truth be told, when I did see the two of ye together, I was a little jealous. Not because I wanted him or anythin’ like that, but because I wanted that with the laid and knew that I would never have it.

I loved Vincent, but he did nae love me. Nae in the way that Jon loves ye.”

“Do you think that he does love me?” asked Amelia.

“Oh, it’s as plain as the nose on me face. And ye love him too, don’t ye?”

“I do,” said Amelia. She burst out laughing, tears rolling down her cheeks, partly in joy and partly through fear.

“What are ye laughin’ at?” asked Ada.

“This is ridiculous! I’m trapped in this… what is this?”

“If ye ask me, it looks like an old crypt. They probably had bodies down here at one point, but they’ll have been moved to a better place.”

Amelia took a second to study the bare stone walls.

“A crypt,” she uttered. “I am stuck down here in a crypt with the woman who tried to have me killed and the man who was sent to kill me, and I am speaking fondly of a relationship that will never happen as if I am speaking with one of my closest friends.”

“Well, when ye put it like that, it does highlight the absurdity of life,” said Ada. “I’ll spend the rest of me life trying to make it—”

“Enough,” ordered Amelia. “We spoke about this. You tried to have me killed, and you also saved my life. In my eyes, we are even, and I will leave the rest up to the creator. In another life, we could have been friends.”

“Aye,” said Ada. She broke down in tears. Amelia wanted to go to her and hold her, but she was not there yet, and was not sure that she ever would be. Ada had tried to kill her, and that was not the start of any friendship.

Amelia turned her back to the wall and slumped down it, holding the knife out in front of her.

She could see her own face reflected in the dull metal.

Her features were blurred, but the fear there was obvious.

She did not want to die, even if she had wished for it in the moment when the man had been standing over her with the knife, and all of this felt like torture.

They were stuck here, and they would eventually die, but that would be dragged out first in one agonizing moment after another.

Ada made her way over to where Amelia was sitting and sat down beside her.

The woman sitting on the stone floor with Amelia should have been her mortal enemy, but she felt like a friend—one of the weirdest friendships that she had ever had—perhaps solidarity was a better word.

A hand touched hers, and Amelia did not pull back.

She let Ada take her hand, and she tightened her grip when it was held.

The two women sat in silence and waited.

They both knew exactly what they were waiting for.

The held hands tightened. Sobs started soon after, both women crying in solidarity.

The crying was wiped out when the groan came from the man on the floor.

Both women jumped quickly to their feet as he stirred on the floor.

Amelia held the knife out in front of her.

“I cannot do this,” she whispered. “I do not think that I can kill a man. You should take it.” She handed the knife to Ada, but the other woman would not take it.

“Hittin’ him over the head was one thing, but I cannae do it either. I’m too much of a coward.” Ada looked around, and Amelia could see where she was looking. The metal serving plate was on the other side of the room, and the man was between them and it.

Amelia still held Ada’s hand in hers, and the grip was getting tighter and tighter. She could feel the nervous energy, and she knew that both wanted to run to the other side of the room, but they did not dare.

Another groan came from the man, and he slowly rose to his feet, rubbing the back of his head and taking in his surroundings. When he was stood up, he wobbled a little but managed to stay upright. He shook his head quickly as if shaking away his injury.

“If ye had wanted to kill me, ye would have done it already,” he said without looking at them. “That was a nice wee trick before, but ye won’t catch me by surprise again. How about ye drop the knife, and we can need this.”

“Do not come one step closer, or I will use it,” said Amelia. She could hear the lie in her own voice. She had tried to sound convincing, but she had failed.

The man let out a booming laugh. “Oh, and here I had hoped that ye were going to put up a proper fight. I dinnae get to fight lasses much, and I’d like to see what ye’ve got in ye, but I guess ye dinnae have much of a fight.”

“You do not have to do this,” said Amelia. “Just speak to Jon, and we can figure all of this out. Is it money? He can pay you more?”

“Oh, if only it were that easy, darlin’. Nay, what must be done must be done, though I do like draggin’ this out. I might not get a fight from ye, but I’m mightily enjoyin’ this back and forth.”

“Just do not come any closer,” said Amelia.

Her voice was shaking, along with her entire body.

She hoped that her words would be enough, but they were not.

The man wiped his hands on the front of his shirt and smiled at the two women.

He started forward, and Amelia dropped the knife.

The clang on the floor startled her, and she immediately jumped back, hitting the wall and realizing that there was nowhere to go.

The man bent down and retrieved the knife, turning it over in his hand and smirking. He wiped at it with his sleeve. The screeching noise came soon after.

Amelia did not know what to do or which way to run.

In front of her, the man stood with the knife, and, behind her, the hidden door was starting to open.

She spun on the spot, letting go of Ada’s hand.

The older woman placed herself between Amelia and the man, perhaps to protect Amelia or perhaps to protect herself from whoever was coming through the door.

The man with the knife stood hesitantly with his weapon.

When the door was open far enough, a man pushed his way in with a sword held in his hand.

“Jon!” screamed Amelia. The joy was too much for her, and she wailed out in pleasure, the tears filling her eyes. Her legs buckled from underneath her.

“Get behind me,” Jon said. He moved farther into the room, moving for the man with the knife. “Drop yer weapon, Angus.”

Angus did not need to be told twice, he knew when he was at a disadvantage.

“Guards!” shouted Jon. “Take Angus and lock him up. I’ll talk with him soon. I dinnae think he’ll need to be watched like the last lad. Ye were the one who helped him on his way, weren’t ye?”

Angus only snorted as two guards appeared at his side and held his arms.

“And, ye! Over by the wall!” shouted Jon at Ada.

“No, Jon. She saved my life.”

“She also tried to kill ye,” said Jon.

“I know, but… well, a lot has happened since then. It is a lot to explain. How did you know that we were down here?”

“I used to explore this castle every day as a wee lad. Me uncle did nae think that I kenned all of the secrets of this castle, but I do ken some. When he told me I would never find ye, I guessed that he had ye in the old crypt. Ye cannae find it unless ye ken where to look.”

“Oh, Jon, I am so glad to see you. I thought that I was going to be killed.”

“I thought that ye were already dead,” said Jon.

“What happened to Vincent?” asked Ada.

“He’s gone,” said Jon. “He passed.”

“Oh, Jon, I’m so sorry.” Amelia wrapped her arms around Jon to try and ease his pain but also to satisfy the joyful urges that were running through her body.

She thought herself dead, and now she was in the arms of the man she loved.

Behind the two, Ada walked out of the crypt with the one remaining guard, leaving the two of them alone.

Jon hugged her even tighter, and Amelia never wanted him to let her go.

She would never be able to let him go now, not after what they had gone through.

There had been moments with him when she thought she was the happiest that she had ever been, but this trumped them all.

This was the happiest moment of her life, the moment after she should have died and now found herself in her lover’s arms.

“I killed him,” Jon whispered into her ear. “I did nae want to, but I had to. I had to kill me uncle.”

“I am so sorry,” said Amelia. “He is not the man that you thought that he was. He is not the man that anyone thought he was. But this means that it is over, right?”

Amelia could feel Jon’s nodding head on her shoulder.

She could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he sobbed.

The tears continued in her eyes too. She adjusted herself and wrapped her arms farther around him.

His muscular body was her pillar of strength, and he had come to her rescue again, just in the nick of time.

“It’s over,” said Jon with one final deep breath in. He moved his arms to Amelia’s shoulders and held her so that he could gaze into her eyes. “I found ye.”

“You never lost me,” she said.

He pulled her in so that they could finally kiss. The emotion held within both of their souls came pouring out. They kissed and cried together, Jon for his uncle and Amelia for being alive.

They pushed into each other, wanting to be more together than ever before.

Amelia could not bear to be without this man for a second longer.

She felt his tongue invade her mouth, and with it came excitement and familiarity.

She moved her head and opened her mouth wider, meeting his lips with hers.

Her hands moved down to her rear, cupping the solid cheeks, two rumps of meat that she wanted to take a bite out of.

His hands gripped onto her back as if he were afraid that she would slip from his grasp again.

Amelia dug her fingers into Jon’s buttocks, hoping that there were no more guards left to oversee them but not caring if there was.

His hands moved up into her hair and held her head.

There was a roughness to his movements, a rushed anticipation.

He was holding back to savor the moment, but he could not stop the passion from coming at the same time.

Amelia knew everything that she ever needed to know in that kiss.

When they came apart again, Amelia saw that they were alone, and she was thankful for that. There had been a chill in the crypt, but that was no longer lingering now that her man was here.

“There’s somethin’ that I want to tell ye,” said Jon.

“Somethin’ that I’ve wanted to tell ye for a long time, but I never said it.

I should have before, but I did nae, and I almost lost ye before I had a chance to.

I love ye, Amelia Cooper. I love ye more than anyone I have ever loved before, and I will love ye more than anyone else in this world.

Ye are the love of me life, and I’m never lettin’ ye go. ”

“You better not,” said Amelia, “because I love you too, Jon Nelson.”