Page 72 of Highlander’s Hope

She stood up and walked to him, an oxeye daisy with only one petal left in her hand. She held it in front of him and plucked it demonstratively. “Loves me,” she said and beamed. “I think she loves ye, Konnor.”

Rub salt in the wound, why don’t you? The scent of lavender and freshly cut grass enveloped Konnor as she came near. She threw the remnant of the daisy away and looked at him with her shiny, sparkling eyes. The tiny freckles looked dark brown in the twilight.

“If she does, she shouldn’t,” Konnor said. “I’m leaving.”

She narrowed her eyes and cocked her head as though she couldn’t decide where to put a flower in a bouquet.

“Are ye sure about that?”

He ground his teeth and said with more confidence than he had, “Yes.”

“If ye leave, ye’ll only have one last trip left. Are ye truly sure?”

Was he? Isbeil’s words came to mind. Was she right? Was this not the end of his and Marjorie’s story?

Would she come after him? To forgive him and say goodbye? Hope bloomed in his chest at the thought, cool and soothing. He looked back into the gray woods. Watched the branches moving in the wind ever slightly.

Wait… Was it her face?

No. Just the shadow of a bush swaying.

She wasn’t coming. And even if she were, all he could offer her was more disappointment, because he would still leave. Wouldn’t he?

He let out a half-sigh, half-growl, angry with himself now, because he dared to consider another option.

No. No more lingering and hoping and waiting. GTFO.

“Yes, Sìneag,” he said. “I’m sure. This is best for everyone.”

Sìneag’s eyes grew sad. Without casting another glance at her, he marched towards the flat stone that had already started to glow and slammed his hand right into the handprint. A buzzing went through him and surrounded him like a tornado. The cool rock under his palm disappeared, and he started falling into the emptiness, but he still looked back, hoping to see Marjorie for the last time.

But there was no one there.

Chapter 28

Three days later…

“Mother, please play soccer with me,” said Colin coming to her with Konnor’s hay ball tucked under his arm.

There were no enemies here now. The waves of the loch splashed by her shoes, created by the breeze. Green, violet, and brown hills were calm under the leaden sky on the other side of the loch. Trees and bushes rustled in the wind behind her, and sheep grazed by the castle to her right.

Aye, she was alone with her son outside the castle walls. And she felt quite safe and secure. If she could protect Glenkeld against the MacDougalls, if she could defeat John MacDougall, what was there to fear in a wee walk outside the gates?

But despite the calm picture, Marjorie was in pain. Konnor’s dear face was in her mind. Oh, how she missed him. Oh, how his rejection stung. She took in a lungful of air saturated with the scent of sheep, and lake water, and greenery.

Playing soccer would plunge her right back into that beautiful day when Konnor, Colin, and she played together. And that would torture her, reminding her again and again of what she’d never have.

The man she loved. A family with him. Happiness with him.

But her son didn’t need to suffer just because she was. He deserved better, and she’d give him every happiness in the world.

She pressed on a smile. “Aye, of course I will.”

The strange bracelet that Konnor had left for Colin shone on his chest. The bracelet was too big for the lad, and he’d put it on a leather string around his neck and wore it together with his cross. Marjorie was pretty sure it was something like a wee clock or a sundial, but it looked like magic, with the wee hand moving on its own, producing the tick tick tick sound. The surface was the smoothest steel she’d ever seen, smoother than the blades of a new sword. The thing was beautiful, masculine, and brought a sense of wonder.

When she touched its cool, sleek surface, she felt she not only touched Konnor, she touched the future as well.

Colin had been ecstatic about the thing and called it “the ticker”. He even slept with it. He didn’t even take it off when he bathed, and the miraculous object still ticked even under water.