Page 67 of The Best of Madeline Grant

She understood. What did one say to a recluse?

Chapter Nine

Maeve hears words from her mother and father through Callie.

Maeve looked at Callie. “What did you say to him? He looks confused, muddled.”

“I had a message for him just like I have a message for ye, Lady Maeve. Please sit down and warm yerself by the fire.”

Maeve wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and pulled her chair closer to the fireplace, sighing as warmth moved through her. “I don’t understand, Callie. How can you have a message for me?”

“Someone who is with my mama has a message for ye. He says to listen carefully.”

Maeve didn’t know what to say. Were Callie’s communications with her mother all in her mind, or did they truly have some kind of connection that let Callie hear thosewho’d gone beyond the grave? She was not sure whether to trust the lass or not, but curiosity made her speak.

“Go ahead, Callie. Who is this person?”

“He says to tell ye that Maitland will safeguard yer heart. That ye must get over yer fears and trust him.”

She’d love to believe her words, but she couldn’t without knowing who they came from, if it really was from someone who’d passed on. “Who is speaking, Callie?”

“He says his name is Alexander. He’s yer father.”

Her heart skipped a beat, but then she reminded herself that she’d told Callie all about her parents, including their names. “What does he look like?” She had to test her somehow.

“He has hair the color of the darkest night, and the woman with him has golden hair like ye do. And there’s a black horse behind him.”

She still was not convinced. Everyone on and near Grant land knew what Alex and Maddie looked like and had heard of Alex’s stallion, Midnight. “What else does he have to tell me?”

“Yer mother says that if ye would trust Maitland and spend yer days with him, even when he travels and leaves Grant land, ye will have a happy life. And that ye will soon need to conquer yer fears in order to save more lads and lassies from sharing yer old life, before ye were rescued. Ye must leave Grant land. But ’twill be in yer hands. Ye will have the secret he will need, though ye dinnae know it yet.”

This puzzle confused her. Why would she need to leave Grant land, and how could she save anyone? Hew was long gone—he could steal away no more bairns.

“Yer father said ye need to find a place for yer square of plaid. It need no’ travel with ye. Keep sewing the fold into yer skirt, but ye need no’ store the square any longer. Ye are strong without it, and he is watching over ye whether ye have the square or no’.”

Tears flowed down Maeve’s cheeks, and she had no idea how to stop them. No one knew about the square of plaid. No one. Not even Kyla. She’d been too embarrassed to admit it to anyone. That small square gave her comfort. She hadn’t started carrying it until after her father’s death.

How could anyone know about it? Especially this strange, soft-spoken lass. Were her parents truly watching her from Heaven?

Baffled by this odd conversation, she wouldn’t have believed a bit of it until Callie had mentioned the square of plaid. But she didn’t know what to do with any of the words the lass had spoken.

“What is the secret I have?”

“I dinnae know. But I know ’tis a memory, like the memories that haunt yer dreams. Ye’ll know when ye learn it, and ye’ll know exactly what ye must do.”

She nodded, swiping at the tears.

“Yer mother says yer true love is in the next chamber. Dinnae lose him. He will bring ye all the happiness ye long for.”

She looked to the bedchamber, wondering whether to believe what she’d heard, but her mind was in too much disarray to know what to think. Secrets and plaids and love. Too much.

“Yer father said Maitland is the only one deserving of yer love.”

She gasped because that was the one thing her father often said to her. One man or the other had offered for her, but his remark was always that they were not deserving of Maeve’s love. Her mother had agreed. She always said, “Your true love will find you.”

But he never had.

“Now yer true love has found ye. Love him with all yer heart, Maeve.” Callie smiled softly, as if she knew just how Maeve felt—confused and happy and melancholy all at the same time.