One more taste of that mouth and he would not hold back.
“We should return,” he said through his labored breathing.
Isla swallowed hard, he saw her throat bob, and her lips parted as she nodded. “We should.”
Jack moved away from her, turned around and shut his eyes. He willed his breath to return to normal, then he walked over to his horse and mounted.
“Another ride?” he suggested after giving her time to mount.
“Oh yes,” she answered, then trotted forward without warning so she could gallop ahead of him.
* * *
The injured woman woke up the two evenings later, and Isla was the only one in the healing chamber when she groaned and opened her eyes.
“Goirteas,” she mumbled, then licked her dry lips and swallowed.
“I do not speak Gaelic,” Isla said to her as she put more cloth under her head for support.
“It hurts,” she repeated. “My sides hurt and my head too.”
“You will heal,” Isla told her. “I must tell the Laird you are awake. Do you feel dizzy in any way? You lost a lot of blood, and yer wounds were deep so you will feel a lot of pain, but that will pass too.
The woman shook her head and that relieved Isla a bit. She brought her a tonic for the pain, then watched her drink from it before she took the cup away.
The woman’s skin had regained some color and even though she still winced in pain and complained of aches everywhere, Isla could tell that she would recover quick.
“What is your name?” Isla asked next because she couldn’t hold her curiosity any longer.How could both women resemble each other so much?
She stared deep in the woman’s blue eyes and waited for a reply. Isla suddenly became aware of her heartbeat. A stroke of heat flooded her and made her insides hotter.
“Penelope,” the woman replied. Every reasoning came to a grinding halt at the mention of the name, and Isla blinked.
This is real… it’s her.
She didn’t know what to say next, so she nodded, and rose to her feet. “I will be back.”
Isla’s mind raced with different thoughts as she hurried out of the chamber. This was proof that reincarnation was possible.
So, does this mean the fate the gypsy saw really is mine?
Her body trembled and she chose not to believe it still. The thought of dying or being dead in her time was one she couldn’t completely deal with.
It can’t be, she told her herself even though deep down she could no longer doubt it. Her coming to the past was enough proof.
Isla went in search of Jack and found him in the courtyard standing with his brother and Aideen. They were engrossed in a conversation when she got to them and interrupted. “The woman is awake,” Isla announced. All three men moved at once to follow her to the chamber.
By the time they returned, no one lay on the bed and the chamber was empty.
21
Jack’s heavy chest made his breathing difficult, and his mind raced with panicked thoughts.How did she get away?Someone must have entered the chamber while Isla left, else how would the injured woman go missing?
“Search the entire Castle grounds, I want her found and brought back,” Jack ordered, then stormed out of the chamber himself. He planned to go searching himself. He had to find the woman as anything she knew might be helpful in finding who had attacked her inside his Castle.
He noticed Isla still stood inside as he walked away, but he didn’t have the time to go to her yet. He had to find the woman.
His guards marched around the Castle as they searched. Jack and Elliot hurried to the ground landing and used the back stairs to get to the escape grounds beneath the Castle. Whoever had taken the injured woman from the Castle knew his way around.