Her Healing Touch.

Chapter 10.

Lydia and Bella were sitting in her solar, mending some clothing for Cambryn and his brothers when a thought suddenly started to make her feel unrested. Pausing, Lydia turned to Bella to inquire of her.

      "Bella, my dear, where did you learn the healing arts? I don't believe you have explained it to me yet?"

Bella smiled. Especially when she thought of her granny. 

     "I was very young when I was taught the teachings of the healing arts. My father the laird, ordered the old village healer to teach me. I called her Granny Skye, but I believe my father called her Esme Skye." 

When Lydia heard that name, she hesitated before she continued asking more questions. Where had she heard the surname Skye before she thought? Then it hit her. She wasn't exactly sure of herself, but she was almost positive, that she heard her own mother speak fondly of a woman named Esme Skye a long time ago.

     "You called her 'Granny'? Was she terribly old then?"

Bella shook her head. 

      "When I was young, she wasn't an old woman. She was only in her late twenties, but to a young child, I suppose anyone older then yourself would seem to be a 'Granny' right?" Bella said as she laughed lightly. Lydia joined her, in expressing her mirth. 

    "Did she have any children with her, when she was raising you?" 

         "I don't think so. But I did hear, that she had a young daughter before I arrived in her life. Apparently, her daughter was killed in an accident that involved the late laird's wife!"

Lydia laid her hand against her breast, 

    "Goodness child. What Happened?" 

    "I don't know, but I did overhear the village women gossiping a few years after I arrived when I was old enough to listen and remember. It is said that the late laird's wife became very ill, which caused her to see things, that were not there. And when she happened to see the healer's daughter playing outside her bedchamber window, she lost it. I am guessing, it had to do with her own daughter's death, which caused her to become crazed. As the story goes, she raced down the stairs and kidnapped the child, claiming that the healer's daughter was, in fact, her own daughter and nothing could dissuade her from that truth. When she was confronted by her husband in their solar, she was standing too close to the window, and when the laird tried to convince his wife, that the child that she was holding onto strongly, wasn't their late daughter, the laird watched in horror when he watched his wife and the child lose her balance and fall from the window. When the laird rushed to see the outcome of the incident, he was heartbroken to see not only his wife dead but the child as well. Feeling guilty for the death of Esme's daughter, it is said that my father, or the man whom I came to call father, went on a long journey and when he returned, I was with him. Of course, I don't remember much of this, since I was only a month old myself. But Granny Skye once told me that is how I came to be living with her. She was so distraught over her daughter's death that she took me into her home and raised me as her own. She didn't want me to call her mama since she wasn't my true mother, so when I was old enough to speak, she insisted that I called her Granny instead." 

Lydia gathered Bella into a hug and embraced her tightly. She then kissed her on the cheek and smiled at her as she gazed into Bella's eyes. 

   "Did she mention anything else that she may have heard from your father about the origins of your birth?"

Bella sighed. 

   "No. Unfortunately, she knew nothing. But I did overhear something my father said one time to his cousin when he thought that no one else was listening. Apparently, when he found me, I was lying next to a woman who was almost dead. It looked like she just gave birth to me on her own, and as she was trying to feed me, she was set upon by strangers and was raped violently. I was forgotten, as this was happening. Because she was able to hide me before she was attacked." 

Hearing that, Lydia gasped. It couldn't be! It had to be impossible. This child couldn't be, who Lydia thought she was.

    "Did your father mention, the girl's name when he found her? How much alive was she when he found her? 

Bella nodded. 

    "Yes, she was just barely alive, but she pleaded with my father to take me in and to tell me when I was older, that I was loved by both her parents. Although, she mentioned that the man who was my true father didn't know that I existed. But that her mother will always be in her heart." 

   "But did she mention her name to him?" 

Lydia stressed. 

    "Oh. Yes.  Sorry about that, I got carried away from telling you the story. My father said that her name was Elsa McFallon and was the second cousin of the McKladdin Clan." 

When Lydia heard this, she gasped, and her eyes rolled back and she fainted.