Page 27 of Draped in Plaid
Chapter Eight
Shona
We were so close to being found out. To failing.
To never seeing my sister again.
Poor Moira. Where was she?
I rubbed my hands down over my belly, sinking back into the corner of the cell. I was glad that throughout this ordeal, my baby seemed none the worse for wear. He or she kicked eagerly between naps in my womb, and though I was tired, I didn’t ache as I feared I might from our exertions.
Feeling the baby inside me was a good distraction from the pain of separation at having lost my sister. We’d been separated for years before, five in my world, two in hers. And while I’d not been aware of it when I’d had temporary amnesia, I could now feel that aching sorrow that Moira must have felt when I was missing.
She was here somewhere. Had told Rory in exact detail.
I couldn’t get the image that Rory described out of my mind. Moira strapped to a table in the dark, awaiting the fate of some mad scientist who wanted to do experiments on her. I shuddered at the thought. She didn’t deserve that. What had she ever done wrong that Fate felt the need to torment her so? Nothing, it was a cruel trick of the world. Fate, Karma, God, who was to say whatever happened to anyone would be fair or not.
I gritted my teeth against the bitterness that welled inside me.
If the men had not taken Steven down when they did, I was next on the list for battering him into a coma. This entire situation was his fault. Somehow masterminded by him in this time and brought forward nearly seven hundred years.
We left Steven unconscious, locked in a cell, blood seeping from his lip and a cut on his forehead. I gave him a kick in the ribs as I passed.
“For Moira.”
I half-expected one of them to admonish me, but none did. Emma even cracked a smile, though she took a wide birth around the man she’d been married to, avoiding contact altogether.
Logan had stripped Steven of his weapons and his clothes and rolled him onto his belly. Being facedown and nude, if any guards did happen by while the prick while he was sleeping, no one would think twice about a naked prisoner.
Better our chances were if he remained unconscious until all this business was done and we were safely back at Gealach. I’d have a nice bath drawn up, an herbal tea brewed, and a sweet, warm apple tart waiting for me. My stomach growled at the thought.
Ewan glanced at me and pulled a bannock cake from his sporran.
“For the bairn, love.”
I took it without complain, chewing the hard, stale cake until I could swallow it down, grateful to calm the hunger in my belly.
Rory lifted a torch from a wall near the cell that occupied the younger version of dear Emma’s tormenter. The light cast a shadow over the prisoner. The further we walked away from him, the less of him was revealed until he was a part of the darkness.
I smiled and popped the last bite of bannock into my mouth.
“This way,” Rory said. “There are stairs over here. She was in the deep dark.”
“Are ye all right?” Ewan whispered to me as we hurried down the dank corridor toward the stairs.
“I’m perfectly fine.” The bairn in my belly kicked furiously, obviously feeling the affects of the bannock. Happy to have been fed. I smoothed my hands over the wriggling limbs beneath my skin, ignoring the fear that was always there, creeping on the edges of my sanity.
We’d be fine.Please let us be fine.
We took the stairs slowly. Beneath my slippers, I could feel the dust of ages on those stairs, slickness in the middle from being underground. I needed to walk slowly, else fall, tumbling the rest of us down with me like a pack of bowling pins.
“Ye’ve not said much, love. Is the bairn all right?”
I nodded, though he could barely see me in the dark. “Worry has my tongue all twisted up,” I answered honestly. Also, I didn’t want to concern Ewan. He often troubled over me unnecessarily. While it was true I’d never been with child before, I’d helped many pregnant women over the years. I relied on that knowledge to help me weather my own situation. If women could work the fields, withstand battles and famines, I could endure running through time. “I just want to find her. Help her. Get out of here. I want to return to our life. I want to go back to normal. I want a bath and a big bowl of stew, a sweet cake and a hot tea.”
Ewan squeezed my hand in comfort as we continued to hurry down the hall. With a chuckle, he said, “Soon, love. Soon. I’ll see to it ye have everything ye desire when we return. And ye’ll tell me…”
“I will tell you. I promise.”
