Page 100 of The Scottish Bride

“Sir William, this should be yours.”

“This?” Liam looked at him, puzzled.

“It is his harp.” Thomas opened the satchel to show the uppermost edge of the harp, a smooth and sinuous curve of polished wood inset with moonstones in a spiral pattern.

“By the saints,” he murmured, “it is a beautiful thing. I could never take this, sir.”

“You can and you will. This is True Thomas’s own harp, the one the Queen of Faery gave him, and you must have it.”

“I could not, sir, but I am very grateful.”

“Take it. You are the harper in the prediction he made for Dalrinnie. You are the harper that the golden lady, our Tamsin, found. You must have this. I have no use for it now, and no children or grandchildren to play it. Tamsin and her kin are my kin now. Take it and live well and make good music with it.”

“Sir Thomas, it is an honor, truly,” Liam said.

“It is a privilege, and so generous,” Tamsin said. “What can we do for you?”

“For me? Keep this harp alive. Here, packed away, it is like a dead thing. My father would want his harp to be played.”

“I cannot thank you enough,” Liam said, and then reached out to finally take its weight in his hands. The harp strings chimed softly. It felt like his own harp, somehow.

“Thank me by making music with this, and by making your lady happy. And by allowing my father’s legacy to thrive. It is what he would want. It is what I want.”

“You will always be part of our family,” Tamsin said. “We have much to make up for. You must come to Kincraig, you and your wife, to spend time with us.”

“We would like that.” He beckoned them out of the room and led them back out into the bailey yard. He paused, still in shadows, still holding the torch, the dog standing quiet and tall beside him.

“You know,” he said, “the night my father went into the hillside, he was sitting by the fire after supper. Then he stood up. ‘My sand is run, my thread is spun, those bells are for me,’ he said. And then he walked outside.”

“To the hills?” Tamsin asked.

“Aye. We followed, my wife and I, but could not catch him. He began to walk like a young man, long strides and fast. A lightappeared in the hillside, like a silver flash, and I saw a door open in the very rock. Then he was gone.”

“He disappeared there?” Liam frowned. Was this possible?

“Aye. Ancient legends tell of a portal hidden inside those hills. The queen waited there for him, I am sure. She was his true love, much as he loved my mother. She took him back into her world. Perhaps he still lives in there.”

“Forever,” Tamsin said in a hushed voice.

“They say one day he could return to save Scotland. Remember that, you two.”

“Aye so,” Liam said.

“I have lots of stories, you know,” old Thomas said.

“And I would love to hear them,” Tamsin said.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Will this allbe over soon?” Tamsin asked the next morning as she rode beside Liam along the route that would lead over the moorland and back to the great forest.

“What will be over? Not our handfasting agreement, I hope.”

“Not that! All the rest. We have the Rhymer’s book now, which will not go to Edward. And you promised that after a little stay in the forest we could ride to Kincraig to make sure my sisters are well.”

“Soon, aye, we can ride to Kincraig. You seem eager to go.”

“I have been away too long, and so much has happened.”