Entwined Read Free

she took two short, stuttering breaths.
    “It’s over, Rose. You don’t have to tell us any more,” I whispered gently.
    “I have to, that’s not all,” she said. “This other guy asked about the kid.”
    “And what did Angus tell him?” Simon asked, his eyes as sharp as a blade of steel.
    “He said that it was as good as dead.”
    “Rose, you can tell us this another time.”
    “No,” she said, her voice stronger and steadier. “At first I thought this guy was going to help the woman. He pushed the knife against Angus’ throat.”
    “What happened to the baby?” Simon interrupted.
    “The guy lit a candle and disappeared with the kid.”
    “He took the baby?” I asked in dismay.
    Rose nodded.
    “And Angus? What did he do?” Simon asked.
    “He grabbed my arm and lit a candle. Before I knew it, we were back here.”
    “Thank you, lass,” Simon said, fixing a cold look of disgust on the corpse of his brother.
    “Just find him. Please?” Rose said, feeling a sudden frantic need to know what had happened to the child.
    “We don’t know enough about this child.”
    “We can’t just leave him with that guy. I mean, can’t we, like, go back there or -? Oh I don’t know,” she said with an exasperated shrug. “Just do whatever it is you guys do.”
    “The child could be anywhere. By your own admission, you have no idea who its mother is, or even what time she is from.”
    “He’s a kid, for God’s sake. It’s gotta be worth trying.”
    “I can’t see what harm it would do, Pa. The search might even lead us to my real mother.”
     
    I recoiled at his words, immediately recalling what the Stag had said to me. Duncan had never spoken of his blood mother. I had never thought of his need to know her. For all of his young life I had been his mother. The one who had loved him, cherished him, protected, and cared for him. He had no need for the woman who had borne him, had left him for dead, abandoned on the banks of the River Ouse. I stared at him, a broken woman, because his words had reminded me that I wasn’t - and never would be - his real mother.
    “Finding this baby would be no easy task. It is probably dead. As for the woman you call your mother? I have already searched for her,” Simon said.
    “Just because a task is difficult, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be attempted,” argued my son.
    “Aye, and I will try, but I warn you not to raise your hopes. We have other more pressing issues,” replied Simon, rubbing his hands thoughtfully through his untidy mass of black curls.
    “And they would be?” I asked.
    “I believe we owe Rose an explanation,” he said, turning to face the girl. “Do you have any questions you would like to ask us?”
    The girl nodded slowly, her dark eyes a stark contrast to the powdery white of her face.
    “I would like to know where you are from.”
    “I will tell you, Rose, but you have to understand that no matter how absurd and bizarre the story may seem, it is the truth,” I said, taking a deep and deliberate breath. “Will you trust me?” I asked gently.
    “I’ll try,” she replied.
    “Well,” I began, playing nervously with my hands, “A long time ago there was an attack on my village and I fled into the mountains to hide,” I paused and lifted my head to look at her, “I should have died.”
    Rose held my look, her head cocked slightly to the side, her narrowed eyes intensifying her gaze.
    “How did you survive?” she whispered.
    “A Stag found me,” I said, drawing a long breath.
    The girl’s eyes were now wide with surprise, her pupils shifting uneasily from side to side but her look spoke of fear not disbelief.
    “And Simon,” she asked, “What’s he got to do with it?”
    I scuffed at the floor with my shoe, watching the dust as it rose around my foot.
    “Simon was a soldier, a Redcoat and a child of the Campbell Clan. He was one of the men sent by the King of England to destroy our village.”
    “Never,” she