Page 44 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
“No.”
Not just then, anyway.
“Did he show ye the gardens?”
“Not yet.”
“Dae ye want to see them?” Eilis asked. “I ken a secret way to reach them.”
Lydia nodded. “Certainly, but you will have to guide me. I am still learning these long passages.”
“Ye willnae get lost with us!” Eilis said confidently, and Lydia followed them in the opposite direction to where Callum had gone.
By the time she reached the gardens, Lydia was thoroughly confused about the direction they’d come from, but the girls were in high spirits.
The kitten had taken to sitting on Amy’s shoulder, and Lydia wasn’t sure how it kept its balance. For much of the journey, it had sat facing her, its bright green eyes blinking at her curiously.
“Here we are!” Eilis said. “I told ye I kenned another way. That tunnel comes out in a place where ye can hide from the guards.
“Thank you for showing me,” Lydia said, looking around her at a small walled garden that was set back from the rest of the castle.
The flowerbeds all around her had been badly neglected, and weeds were thriving on every side. Thistles protruded from the dirt, and ivy cascaded over the walls.
It was a beautiful wilderness, and she much preferred it to any garden she had ever been in.
I have seen more kinds of beauty in Scotland than I could have dreamed of in London.
“What dae ye like to dae other than hide-and-seek?” Eilis asked as they all began walking along the line of the castle wall.
Amy was beside her, holding the kitten, but Lydia noted that the second twin rarely spoke unless she was spoken to.
“What doyoulike to do?” Lydia asked in response.
“Amy is always running and climbing things,” Eilis said, and as if by design, the kitten wriggled out of Amy’s grip, and she had to chase it before it scurried under a bush.
“I like painting,” Eilis added as they followed Amy up the path.
“And what do you paint?” Lydia asked.
“I tried to paint Amy, but she wouldnae sit still. I am nae very good. I painted a dragon once, like the one on faither’s crest, but it looked like a snake.” Eilis turned to her, tugging at her long, dark hair. “What about ye?”
“I like to study the stars,” Lydia replied, surprising herself. She had not meant to say that.
“The stars?”
“Yes, but my father did not like it. He forbade me from using his telescope a long time ago.”
“What’s a telescope?”
That was Amy’s voice. She had reappeared again beside Lydia, with the kitten cradled in her hands. She seemed to have grown bored with holding it and handed it to Lydia without a word.
She took it, feeling the tiny warm body nestle immediately against her arm. It really was very sweet, mewing feebly as the girls walked in front of her.
“A telescope is a device that scientists use to look deep into the night sky. I could show you many things that you could not see from the ground, including the stars that fall in April.”
Eilis and Amy looked up at her, their mouths agape.
“Stars thatfall?” Amy asked. They were such attentive little girls.
