Healer

Chapter 12

"Here."

Haven't had heard anyone enter, I look from the darkness outside the window towards the entranceway. Symon is standing by the table, setting down water and a bowl of food. I stare at him, blankly until he looks up.

"Why are you acting like this?" I whisper, having expected to be black and blue by now.

He presses his lips together, rubbing his dark beard slowly. The silence before he speaks is deafening. "I love you, Gillian. I didn't before we got here but- somewhere along the way, it happened."

"Did you love me when you made half of my face the shade of a plum?"

"I don't know."

I close my eyes, tiredly. "... If you love someone, you let them go."

"If you can bare let them go, it's not love. I don't want you to leave me and that is why I did what I did today. Why I risked so much to keep you. Why no one else knows about this but us."

"And Callan... What's to stop him from running off and telling the world?"

"He's a smart man. He'd sound like a fool. I've proven myself here well enough. They believe I'm Lachlan and have no proof otherwise."

I shake my head, looking out the window again.

"We're going to marry tomorrow as planned and this- infatuation- if it's real, will fade with time... But you will perform your duties as a wife of mine."

"I understand what you're saying," I growl, not needed clarification.

"Do you?"

I nod, wiping a tear slowly. Moments later, I hear the door open and he leaves, locking it behind him once more to ensure I stay inside.

...

I stare at the ceiling from my bed, surprised by how bright the moon is tonight. I think of all the nights I've run out to meet MacCallan- in a dazed high.

I was high off of love. Off of him.

The highlands.

The affair.

That feeling is gone... long gone. There's an emptiness that's replaced it, leaving me unable to scream or cry or pray. I'm just awake, staring at the ceiling.

The hours pass in eerie silence, only the sound of my breathing and the noises of the old castle to be heard.

Until I hear the sound of keys and sit up, pulling the cover up over my chest. The door rattles and opens, revealing the figure of a woman. Ann.

"Ann?"

"Shh, grab your cape."

"I can't leave," I gasp, awed.

"Quickly. Grab whatever ye need and away, he's waitin' for ye."

"Who?"

"MacCallan!" she whispers impatiently.

Without a thought, I'm out of bed within a single second, running for my cape. I have nothing worth taking so I slip on the cape and wrap my arms around Ann, squeezing her tight.

"Thank you, Ann. I'll never forget your kindness."

"You deserve this love. I'll miss ye, lassie," she whispers, kissing my cheek warmly. "Now, go."

I hurry out of the door, for the willow, knowing that he'd wait there. I get through the chapel, too desperate to say goodbye to any of the things I've grown to love in this castle. I cut across the grass, smiling wide when I find him by the tree, already coming towards me.