Page 20 of Tess and the Highlander
Colin had thrown a blanket over his shoulder. Butshe still managed to glimpse his bare chest every now and then.Tess felt delightfully wicked.
“So what do you do with all of these?”
She knew he was talking about the shells. “I makethem into…things.”
“What kinds of things?”
She shrugged. “Bonny things.”
“Then why haven’t I seen you wear them?”
Tess watched him pick up the bowl of broth and achunk of dried bread and move back toward his bedding across theroom. The blanket fell off one shoulder, but to her disappointmenthe caught it and pulled it back on.
“Because they are impractical to wear.”
“If they’re impractical, then why do you makethem?”
“Because I like to collect them…and look at them.”She pointed to the strands of shells hanging from the beamsoverhead. “And I like to collect them because I walk on the beachlooking for things. And I look for things because you never knowwhat treasure you might find.”
“Or what trouble,” he muttered, lowering himselfonto his bed. He nearly sat down on the gift she’d left him. “Whathave we here?” He picked up the wooden flute.
“’Tis a cuisle, of course. I found it years agowashed up on the rocks.” She saw him manage to juggle everything inhis hand as he sat back and leaned against the wall, facingher.
“I can see that. Do you know how to play it?”
She shook her head. “Whenever I blow in it…there isthis horrible noise that comes out of it. Neither Garth norCharlotte could get it to play any music, either.”
“But you’ve heard other people play it before?”
She hesitantly nodded. “I have these vague memoriesof a child sneaking out of her bedchamber and creeping down someancient stairs to listen to traveling musicians. There was singingand dancing and…” Tess stopped abruptly, shocked that how real theimages suddenly seemed.
She looked down at the pile of shells in her lap andtried to blink back the sudden tears that the memory triggered. Butshe had no past. For so long she had remembered so little of herlife prior to the day that the sea had tossed her up onto theserocky shores.
“Would you like me to play this for you?”
Tess nodded and quickly dashed away a tear as helaid the food aside and brought the pipe to his lips.
After testing it a few times, Colin began to play amelody so hauntingly lonely and yet so soothing, too. It was a songthat seemed so familiar to Tess, like it was a part of her. A partof her childhood, she thought. The notes filled the space betweenthem. The air vibrated with the feeling Colin poured into themusic. Tess saw him close his eyes. His fingers and lips andbreaths seemed to be drawing out the very secrets of his heart.
She let the string of shells drop into her lap. Inher mind’s eye she could see a solitary tree, stunted and bent,braced against the wind. Beside it, she saw herself alone on thisisle, trying desperately to remember his face, the feel of histouch…this melody…for the long time when he would be gone. Then,Tess also thought ofhisloneliness in being separated fromthe people that he loved.
When the song was finished, he played another, andanother…and another after that. After playing for a while, hestopped and laid the instrument down.
As the notes faded, Tess dashed away a tear. “Youplay beautifully.”
“This is an old and very special instrument.”
“I want you to have it.” When he started shaking hishead, she pressed him. “You’ve given me the gift of hearing musicagain. Please!”
“Thank you. But is there anything I can do…well…?”His words trailed off.
Before I go,Tessthought, finishing his unspoken words. Hewasgoing, shereminded herself. Soon.
“You already have,” she whispered, lowering her gazeto the shells lying in her lap.
The aching sadness gathering within her was growingmore painful by the minute. She had lost people whom she cared forbefore. She’d had to learn to adjust and rely only on herself. Butthis time, with Colin, she knew she would feel something even morethan anything she’d felt when Charlotte and Garth had passed on.They were old and it was their time. Tess knew deep inside of herthat this loss would cut her very badly.
Colin finished his food and sat studying the flute.Tess leaned quietly against the wall and made the effort to stringthe shells that she no longer found so beautiful. Not long after,they both settled in early for the night, but sleep eluded Tess andminutes rolled into hours. She could hear the dying sounds of thewinds outside. Gradually, the fire burned to embers and the chamberslipped into darkness.
