The Lady's Highlands

Part 4

Maybe two or three more chapters. I'm not sure. 

And I'm sorry it took me so long to get it up! :( I hope everyone is still hanging in there! Please comment and tell me what you think! What do you think Lillia saw when she opened the door? What do you think Scarlette's opportunity is? And how do you like the way Lillia found out? Would you have allowed her to find out for herself or would you have done something different? I really want to hear from you! :) 

Love you all :) 

___________________________________________________________________________

“How d’ya like me land, lass?” Evrett asked after he tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow. She tilted her head to the side, keeping her eyes front as she scrunched up her nose.

“Ya may own the people on the land, but ya donna own the land, M’Laird. No man or woman can own the land.”

Evertt grinned ruggedly, “Right ya are, lassie. My apologies.”

“Ya’r much more polite than the man Duke Lozen warned me about this morn.”

“Ah, Duke Lozen. Not the most agreeable man.”

“He’d say the same about you, I’d wager.” She rolled her eyes.

Evrett scoffed, “He’s more a brute than I’ve ever been. And for no reason.” He shook his head, “Ya know he sends a man ta my land more than one time a month just ta cause trouble in my village?”

Scarlette laughed humorlessly, “It would’na surprise me.”

“Is yer sister really marryin’ him?”

“That she is, and she’s proper smitten with him too. She’s not the type for realism.”

Evrett shook his head, “She’ll learn, be it the hard way. Most have ta learn the hard way.”

Scarlette sighed, though she agreed. “I donna want to see her hurt. But I canna protect her from everythin’ anymore. What’ll happen when she has her own babies if she canna handle her own problems?”

“True that, lassie.” Evrett grinned down at her and halted their advance. “Are ya ready ta see my clan village?”

“I am.” She smiled, the beauty radiating from her pores enough to convince Evrett that this woman was not human, but a fairy sent to him by the earth itself.

The village rested in a valley, protected by mountains all around. From their vantage, Scarlette and Evrett could make out nothing but the roofs of the houses surrounding a small castle made of stone. Not a posh palace like Lozen’s, but a fortress built to survive the elements and human influence.

The image brought to mind a painting Scarlette had once seen. In the painting sat a child, and she was directly in the center dancing happily in a heavenly light. All around her was black, an oppressive surging coiling black, but that heavenly light surrounded her and kept her safe from the horrors on the outside. And Scarlette believed that the little village below was that little girl, and that the mountains, the wind, and the forests were the heavenly light protecting it from the horrors of the outside world.

The village looked like salvation to her. A salvation that she wanted more than life itself.

She did not realize she spoke the words out loud until Evrett replied.

“Ay, lass. It’s salvation alright.” He looked upon his clan with such a prideful gleam in his eye that Scarlette could not help but covet. She wanted to own something and have it own her in return the way Evrett and his clan were connected. She felt as if her life had no purpose. Her family, once they realized how wild she was, had no expectations for her, and in turn everyone around her began expecting nothing more than what she was. She has always been who she was and was never pushed to be a better “her”. She did not need to change in order to make a difference, and that was something that her family never could understand.

But when Evrett looked at her with those eyes alight with the fire of passion for his clan, Scarlette saw opportunity unfold before her.

She could be who she was and still make a difference, and for the first time she really could feel it.

**

Lillia fretted over her sister’s absence all day. Scarlette had not yet come back, though the guard sent to trail her came back hours ago. He claimed that she lost him purposefully, and Lillia did not doubt it. That sister of hers was a special type of woman, one that Lillia wished she had the strength to emulate.

She was the good one though, the obedient and sweet one loved by all. Though for once she wanted to be thought of as having a backbone. She always feared that she was a walking-mat of a woman and no matter how much she told her sister that she wished to be stronger, Scarlette never helped her. Lillia could not imagine why!

Can strength not be taught?

She glanced behind her at the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Scarlette walking to the palace from the market unscathed and whole, but saw nothing but a servant boy running down the pathway, holding his hat to his head with a grin on his face.

She couldn’t help but be disappointed. She imagined her time being spent here much differently than the reality turned out to be. She hoped that Lozen would be at her side, saying the sweet things to her that made her fall in love with him in the first place, but she had only seen him for a short time in the morning before he took his leave of her.

And there she sat, lonely and consumed in her thoughts. Perhaps once they are married Lozen will be much more affectionate. Perhaps he is simply worried that she will change her mind if he is too forward. She smiled to herself at the thought and stood from her seat. She would find him and she would ask to spend time together. She would show her own kind of strength!

In the hallway outside her room she found a maid who stopped when Lillia asked her to.

“Hello,” She smiled at the maid and bobbed her head, something that made the maid’s eyes widen. Had a noble lady really bowed her head to her?

“Hello, my lady.” The maid curtsied, “What can I do for you?”

“Can you tell me where my fiance is? I have not seen him, and I wish to spend a little time with him before supper.”

The maid pailed and looked away bashfully, “He’s busy, my lady.”

Lillia sighed, “I should still like to see him.”

The maid looked into Lillia’s eyes and saw the innocence there, an innocence that Lord Lozen was going to crush no matter when. The maid did not want to be cruel, but what would be more cruel, allowing her to fall deeply in love with him after marriage when she can no longer change her mind before she found out the truth, or allowing her to find out as soon as possible the sort of man she had agreed to marry?

The maid did not want to see such innocence destroyed, but she was a woman first and foremost. A woman has a job to the women around her to protect her from harmful men, that’s what her Ma always taught her. And that was what she was going to do.

“My lady,” She curtsied again, determination steeling her quivering hands. The pain this innocent young woman was going to feel when she found the truth... but it had to be done sooner so it was not worse later. “He is in his quarters. Do not knock or you may disturb him. Simply go in.”

Lillia beamed with such happiness that the maid’s eyes swam with tears at the inevitable fall the poor woman was bound to face.

“Thank you! What is your name?” She asked.

“Clairyt.” The maid whispered.

“Thank you, Clairyt.” Lillia took the maid’s hands and squeezed them between her own. She wanted to be a good lady of the house, a kind one. Lillia began to walk in the direction of Lord Lozen’s quarters and Clairyt followed quietly behind until she reached them.

But there are not many things more horrible in this world than the very moment a person’s innocence is taken from them. And when Lillia opened the door Clairyt could not bare to stay and see it happen.

But she heard it.

A mournful cry of shock and pain and fall-from-heaven disillusionment.