“Ye’ll see.” There was a mischievous gleam in her eyes as she laughed, and Jack’s heart lightened in response to it.
Jack took her to the stables and handed her a horse to ride on her own. “First off a race,” he said.
“I will fall off and break my neck,” she said as she held the reins of the black stallion, he handed her and laughed.
“Not on my watch,” Jack told her. “Just sit on the saddle, hold the reins tight and keep yer balance.”
She nodded, then did as he instructed. Jack waited until she was comfortable on her mount before he climbed on his saddle and started the race.
Isla couldn’t go too fast, so he maintained her pace, and made sure he stayed by her side as they rode far off into the moors until they got to the top of the Ardenhill Cliff.
The Castle lay far off from where they were now, and from the top of the cliff, Jack could look down and enjoy the lovely green pastures and loch beneath.
He had been down the cliff before with his brother when they were younger. The Clan had gone hunting, his father had killed a red deer, and his mother had stayed in their tent with her lady friends knitting and entertaining them.
It was Jack’s first hunt experience, he was eight. He remembered thinking then that his father was a brave man ready to fight and make their land great. Jack hadn’t known the darkest truth of battle then.
“My first-time hunting was at the foot of this cliff,” he told her after silence had passed between them. “I was eight.”
“That was brave of you,” she complimented and glanced to his side.
“Aye, it was. Even though my faither did the killin’.”
She laughed, and he joined her with a light chuckle. “When I was eight, I spent time with my nurse reading books and learning poetry.”
“We’ve led different lives,” he told her. “Too different.”
“But yet it feels similar, like I've been here my entire life.”
They fell silent again, and Jack was enjoying this time with her. They had walked the garden a few times and enjoyed riding, but he hadn’t really talked to her this deeply in a while.
Jack thought about his brother and men asking for their wedding date.
Oh, how I wish that could be true,he thought. It would be nice to spend many more days with Isla like this. They could go riding, fishing, hunting, and even sleep out in the cottage near the caves so they could hunt for more gold.
He would protect her, and make sure she was happy. They would have many healthy babies. Lads and lasses who would play around the Castle and fill it with laughter that sounded like Isla’s.
Jack would love for all of this to happen. He wanted this to be real, but what could he do? It wasn’t possible. He didn’t believe the magic that had brought Isla here would let her stay.
Sooner or later, the time would come for her to return. And the Birlet Shallows Fair was drawing close now.
His deep longing for more time with her caused him to sigh. He was suddenly curious about what she knew of his Clan in the future. Jack remembered she had mentioned a series of events when they first met.
He could barely remember them now.
“What does it say about me in yer history books when I'm fifty?” he suddenly asked her.
Isla turned to him, and her eyes held his for a long moment. He tried to read the expression in her green orbs. Lines pulled at the corners of her mouth and made it twitch. A thin smile finally showed as she looked away from him and answered,
“You wed the most beautiful woman your Clansmen had ever seen, and you have babies to take over your reign.”
It seemed like a logical end for him, Jack reasoned, but not a happy ending. He could tell because Isla was a terrible liar, and she couldn’t hold his gaze while speaking.
24
Over the next week, Isla and Jack spent most of their time together. They went riding on the moors and then hunting past the village. Isla had never shot an arrow, or even held one before then, but Jack taught her all the tricks.
She got her first deer one afternoon while they went hunting past the village fields, and her excited laughter filled the air as Jack hurried to bring the deer to their horse. They took it to the Castle and handed it over to the guard that carried it to the kitchen.