“Or a warning,” she suggested. “Ghosts were something I gave little credence to. They were part of tales told to entertain and frighten. Since arriving in the Highlands and experiencing things that sometimes lack reason, I wonder if there is a grain of truth to those tales.”
“A thought better left for the morning. Sleep now, you are safe in my arms,” he said, hugging her close and running his hand along her back to chase the chill from her body.
Flora snuggled against him but did not close her eyes. Her husband had certainly shown he could keep her safe, but could he keep her safe from her dreams?
* * *
No snow had fallenin the last few days and things had been quiet around the keep and in the village. Many were hesitant to believe the ghost was gone but relieved he had not made himself known again. No more attempts had been made on Flora’s life to her relief, though that could be attributed to her husband’s intense vigilance. Whatever the reason for the quiet, Flora was grateful for it. It allowed her to think more clearly and sensibly.
She smiled and hurried to Philip’s cottage seeing him standing outside waiting for her.
“For you,” she said once inside, handing him a wool blanket and placing a cloth bundle she also carried on the table. “The winter is far too cold here to keep warm with only one blanket.” She glanced at his narrow bed, having noticed the single blanket the last time she was there.
“That is most generous of you, my lady. My old bones do not take the cold as well as they did when I was young,” Philip said and placed the folded blanket on the bed. “Please sit, my lady, I have a hot brew ready for us.”
Flora untied the knot of the cloth bundle spreading it wide to reveal its contents. “And I have cook’s delicious honey bread to go with it.”
Philip grinned with delight. “Honey bread has been my favorite since I was young.”
They both sat to enjoy the hot brew, the bread, and to delve into conversation.
“My mum told me it was the first food I ate upon our arrival here in the clan and that I never stopped eating it,” Philip said, smiling softly at the memory.
“I thought you were born here, Philip.”
“I might as well have been. I was barely two years when my mum and I landed here. My da had died from an illness that hit him quickly and took him just as quickly from what my mum told me. After that, my mum could not work the farm alone and so we had to leave. We found a home here with an older aunt who took us in and was alone herself. I wed Jenny, a lass I had known since I was young, just after my mum passed. We shared the good and bad together, losing two bairns, one shortly after he was born, and the lass succumbing to a fever that hit the clan when she was five years. Jenny and I had many years together after that, but not nearly enough when you love someone. I miss them all every day.”
Flora reached out to rest a comforting hand over his aged one, seeing tears gather in his eyes. “I know the feeling well. I think of my parents and miss them every day.”
“It is good you have Lord Torin to love you and look after you and it is good to have a fair and caring ruler once again. You both will do well by the clan.” He shook his head. “Years later, after Lord Dermid passed, I heard someone say that he hoped Lord Hamish did not change like his da had done.”
“He was not a kind man?” Flora asked.
Philip shrugged. “How does one judge a man who must lead a clan? So much responsibility.”
“You have heard nothing through the years, not even a snipit of gossip, as to why the tower room was sealed?” Flora asked.
“I wish I could help you, my lady, but with the room already sealed when my mum and I arrived here and few people willing to speak about it, or so my mum said, there is little to tell. As I got older, she warned me to keep my distance from the keep, Lord Dermid was quick to anger for little to no reason. To this day, I have never been inside the keep.”
“Oh my, that is not right. You must come visit and see for yourself the welcoming place it has become.”
Philip smiled. “I truly would like that, my lady.”
Flora smiled and laughed as conversation continued, enjoying tales of Philip’s younger years, and learning more about the clan and the keep along the way.
She left Philip smiling, having enough honey bread to last him until tomorrow though he warned it would probably not last him the day.
Closing her cloak tight around her against the cold and seeing the sky had grayed considerably, a sure promise of snow, she had one more place to stop before returning to the keep. She had planned to do this sooner but found herself making excuses to delay it. Now, she was determined to see it through.
She spotted him walking through the village and called out, “Walsh, a moment please.”
He stopped and approached her slowly. “I knew the time would come that you would want to talk. That you would have questions, but I do not know if I will have the answers you seek.”
“I do not know what answers I seek,” Flora admitted not only to him but herself.
“Then I will tell you what your da told me to tell you if the time ever came, though he hoped it wouldn’t, that his secret was revealed to you, and you had more questions than there were answers.”
“Aye, please tell what my da advised,” she said, eager to hear the message her da had left for her.