Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
She took a breath to calm her racing heart and walked with Tarr to a table in the empty hall. “Fiona is fine; she rests.”
“The babe—”
“From what I can tell he seems fine, just fussy,” Aliss said, and attempted to move his worries off the babe. “I am surprised that Mother and Father didn’t come with you.”
“Your father suffered a sprained ankle—”
“Is he all right?” she asked, concerned, then realized Tarr was grinning. “He didn’t sprain his ankle?”
“Let’s just say your sister has been a bit difficult to deal with lately.”
“Mother remained behind willingly?”
Tarr nodded. “Insisted that she needed to look after her husband, though she secretly informed me she would be rested and ready to resume care of her daughter upon our return.”
“She will be upset and worried when you don’t return home soon.”
“I will send a message so they do not worry, though the clan had looked forward to your return. Wagging tongues had it that Fiona would not be half as difficult to contend with if you were there.” Tarr paused, clearing his throat. “Your sister misses you, especially now.”
Guilt squeezed at Aliss’s heart. “I should have been there all along for her. We have always been there for each other. I have been selfish.”
“It wasn’t your fault you were abducted.”
“But what followed is my fault.”
“I would say love should take the blame,” Tarr said. “And we certainly can’t argue with love, and I don’t think you’re selfish. It is good we are here now with you in Fiona’s time of need.”
“I would swim the sea if need be to help my sister.”
“Fiona would have done the same if I had not talked sense into her the day we discovered you were abducted and a ransom demanded.”
“We think alike,” Aliss said, and then asked, “Who occupied this isle?”
“The land belonged to my mother’s people. An older brother of hers occupied it for years until he died. My grandfather bequeathed the isle, then uninhabited, to my mother when she wed with the stipulation that her firstborn son inherit it.
“My father reminded me often enough that this isle belonged to me and should pass to my son and that I was to allow no one to take it from me.”
“Yet you surrendered it to Rogan?”
“My mother told me one day that this land would bring peace to many. She was right. This land has brought clans together and will keep sisters close. It has served its purpose.”
Chapter 37
“I am feeling better,” Fiona said the next morning, when Aliss checked on her. “I slept soundly and I have had not a pain or ache.”
“Which means you want permission to get out of bed,” Aliss said.
“I beg you,” Fiona said with clasped hands. “I promise I will take it easy, rest, do nothing, worry not, just please, please let me out of bed.”
Aliss pulled back the covers. “After breakfast you can come with me to my healing cottage and rest there, then we can talk when I’m not tending someone.”
“Wonderful,” Fiona said. “I have missed talking with you.”
“And I with you, Fiona,” Aliss said, extending her hand to help her sister. “Though I talk with you often in my head.”
“I do the same, I must confess . . .” Fiona said, pausing to slip out of her night shift and into her day shift and tunic. “You mentioned when first we found you how you spoke with me often in your head after the abduction. I did the same, encouraging you to be strong and reminding you every day that I would come for you.”
“I heard every word.” Aliss hugged her sister. “You kept me strong.”
“I think you kept yourself strong and I admire your courage.”
“You taught me.”
“Nonsense,” Fiona said. “We learned from each other.”
They hugged each other tightly.
“Let’s go,” Fiona said, grabbing her sister’s hand. “I am starving.”
Rogan and Raynor stood when the twins entered the hall. Tarr hurried to his wife’s side, his arm going around her.
“You are well enough to be up?”
“So says Aliss,” Fiona said, giving her husband a peck on the cheek. “After we eat, I am going to spend the day with her at her healing cottage, so you needn’t worry. If I deliver, she will have everything at hand.”
Tarr paled.
“She jests,” Aliss assured him, and walked to sit beside her husband at the table while Tarr seated his wife.
Raynor stood to assist.
“Everything looks delicious,” Fiona said, licking her lips while her husband piled her plate with food.
“Rogan has worked wonders with the isle,” Raynor said. “A field is ripe for harvesting, the storehouse is near full for the winter, logs and peat have been gathered and stocked by each cottage. Shelter has been constructed for the animals and the cottages fortified against the cold.”
“You turned a foe into a friend?” Tarr asked with no malice.