Page 39 of A Little Highland Magic

“I would go somewhere familiar, somewhere restful,” Graeme said, ignoring her abrasive comment. “Perhaps we should try her bedchamber. The MacLeods have left it as it was when she once resided there.”

“Perhaps also the tower. Lady Janet spent a lot of time there over the past five years,” Aria added, pleased that they had a few ideas. As they walked back to Dunvegan, Aria turned her face towards the morning sun. A sigh-soft breeze ruffled her hair and caressed her cheeks. She drew a breath of the tangy sea air. For a moment, she closed her eyes, drinking in the sensations. After tonight, who knew when she might feel such things again. The sea, a soft wind, and the warmth of the sun would always remind her of Dunvegan.

The trio searched the entire castle as the sun continued its slow, inexorable journey across the sky. It was late afternoon when they once again stood in the front courtyard, out of ideas of where the ghost might be. “She has to be somewhere.” Aria was finding it harder and harder to hide her concern. Yet Gille seemed to grow happier with each passing hour.

Aria had tried summoning the ghost as she had in the past several times, to no avail. “Perhaps we should start considering the fact that we might have to wait until the summer solstice to breach the divide between our two worlds.”

Fiona, Tormod, Orrick, and Isolde stepped outside the castle and came towards them. “We wish to help you search. Should we search the grounds?” Tormod asked.

At the sight of two of the MacLeod triplets, an idea came to Aria. Lady Janet had stayed at Dunvegan after her death because of her children. Her humanity, her will to protect those she loved, kept her tethered to an afterlife that was less than ideal. If she were injured or hurting, would she seek out the only part of her mortal self that remained in the human world? “Where is your mother buried?”

Tormod frowned. “Our father would not allow her to reside in the principal burial site for the MacLeods at Rodel on the Isle of Harris. She is buried just outside the gate on a hillside overlooking the water.”

“I believe that is where we will find your mother. Can you take us there?” Aria asked.

Tormod took Fiona’s hand. “Come this way.” He led the small group beyond the gates and to the north-eastern slope beside the castle. The afternoon sun’s warming rays slid across the ground, casting a golden hue over the landscape. A gull glided effortlessly through the cloudless blue sky, then down along the cliff’s edge to the water of the loch below.

And there, on a small patch of land, was the misty image of Lady Janet, lying atop her own grave. Aria closed her eyes and uttered a fervent prayer of thanks.

Orrick raced to his mother’s side and dropped to his knees. “Mother, what can we do to help you?”

As Aria approached the spectre, she gasped. Lady Janet was now faceless, and only a collection of shadows made up her form.

Orrick reached out to touch his mother, trying to get her to respond. “Mother?” Anguish drew out the word.

Where Orrick touched, some of her corporeal substance returned. He turned to the others. “Everyone, lay hands among her mist. Our essence seems to give her corpus the strength she needs to return to us.”

“Do we want her to return?” Tormod hesitated, and at his pause the others waited as well. “Haven’t we been waiting for her to pass to her afterlife?”

Aria knelt beside Orrick and extended her hands, fighting against the shiver that moved along her spine. “If we are going to rescue Keiran this evening, we need her help. Otherwise, we must wait until the solstice.”

As though sensing her desperation, Graeme settled beside her and extended his hands. “We can figure out how to send Lady Janet to her eternal reward another day.”

Tormod growled in frustration as he dropped to his knees. “I am sorry, Mother.” He placed his hands inside the swirling mist that made up her body. Fiona, Isolde, and Gille joined in the odd ritual.

“Is it working?” Orrick asked as the body before them shimmered in and out of being. “We need more help.”

“Then ’tis a good thing we followed you,” Alastair said as he, Gwendolyn, Rowena, Marcus, and Callum knelt in between the others and added their hands to the essence that made up Lady Janet’s once-earthly body.

Silence fell over them except for the sound of the water lapping at the edge of the loch below.

A groan. My children. The words were faint.

Aria’s breath jammed into her throat as the mist before them swirled faster and became an opaque grey. The features of Lady Janet’s face took definition and tears streaked her cheeks. Aria reached out and touched the image of moisture closest to her and her hand came away wet. “She is crying real tears.”

Not one of them moved. They could not. All they could do was stare at the half woman, half spirit, who meant so much to each of them for so many different reasons. After several long moments, Lady Janet moved to a sitting position atop her grave.

Aria’s breath rushed from her lungs in a painful sigh of relief. She dropped her hands to her lap. “Are you well, Lady Janet?”

Lady Janet looked to each person surrounding her with a smile. Thanks to my loved ones, aye.

“Can you stand?” Orrick asked with concern in his voice.

The others moved away, allowing their mother room to gain her feet, which she did with ease.

Tormod moved to Lady Janet’s side and laid a hand on her shoulder. It slipped through the mist as it had in the past. He frowned. “I apologise that we had to bring you back, Mother.”

I remained partially in this world, partially in an in-between place because I was not yet ready to leave all of you. She turned her gaze to the sky. What day is it? Have I missed my chance to help Aria and Graeme? Her gaze dropped to focus on Gille. Will you be helping to bring Keiran home?

Gille nodded, then paled as all eyes turned to her. “It’s the least I can do to make up for stealing the twins.”

“We all understand that Oberon forced you into that act,” Alastair said. “Now that Mother is revived, let us return to the castle for the baptism of our children. Reverend Vollar arrived shortly after you left. He and half our army are with the twins now.”

Alastair and Gwendolyn took the lead. Callum walked beside their mother, and the others followed. Graeme offered Aria his hand. She took it, revelling in the warmth as together they began the short journey back to the castle.

A deep sense of peace came over Aria, to be here with these people who all meant so much to her. All that was missing was her own mother. Now that Lady Janet had reanimated, they could begin their journey at sunset to bring her mother and Keiran back home to Dunvegan.