possible detail for Aeschene. It was second nature to both of them. When Aeschene took a step forward, Marisse stopped her with a gentle hand. “Wait for me,” she said.
But before she could walk around her to lead the way, a far less gentler hand had grasped Marisse’s arm. “What in the bloody hell are ye doin’?”
“Lachlan,” Marisse said, offering up one of her most dazzling and sweetest smiles.
He was not impressed. “Again, I ask ye what ye three are doin’ up here.”
Marisse wasn’t about to feign the same ignorance that Mildred had. “If ye must know, Aeschene needs to have a word with yer laird, her husband, the cold-hearted lout!”
So stunned by her outburst and the insult about his cousin and laird, his eyebrows sprang upward, very nearly reaching his hairline. “Why did ye not just send for him?”
Marisse rolled her eyes, as she often did when dealing with foolish people. “Do ye think we’re so simple minded?” She asked, giving him no time to respond. “Of course we sent for him. On five separate occasions in the past two days. But each time, he was either gone, or too busy.”
Exasperated, Lachlan ran both hands through his hair. “So ye climbed out on a balcony with one auld woman and a blind young lass?” he asked incredulously.
“I am not that auld!” Mildred protested, angered by his insult.
“What else were we to do?” Marisse asked, her tone most stern. “I’d die an auld woman before he came to see Aeschene. He’s a pig-headed, stubborn, mean lout!”
At remembering Aeschene, Lachlan turned his attention away from the annoying lass to find her cohort. The blood drained from his face when he saw what she’d done.
“Aeschene! Stop!” his voice boomed and echoed off the walls, causing man and beast alike to stop whatever they were doing.
Marisse spun around only to find her dearest friend was very close to killing herself.
‘Twasn’t the loudness of Lachlan’s voice that made Aeschene stop dead in her tracks. ’Twas the level of fear she heard in it. So loud and terrifying it sounded that she came close to losing control of her bladder.
Although tempted to turn around and ask him why he was screaming at her at the top of his lungs, she thought better of it. A moment later, when she heard her husband cursing like a madman, she became frozen in place.
“Aeschene!” Black Richard called out. Oh, lord above, he sounded furious. Though not nearly as terrified as Lachlan sounded. While her stomach knotted and instinct told her to turn and run as far away from Black Richard MacCullough as she could, she was too afraid to do anything but breathe.
“Do not move!” Richard called out to her. “Stay there!”
Oh, she must have done something quite foolish. Perhaps she had stepped in fresh mortar?
Richard’s voice grew nearer. “Lass, I need ye not to move, not a muscle, do ye understand?”
Now he sounded worried. That in turn made her worry. “I — what is the matter?” she asked. Unable to see, she couldn’t help herself if she didn’t understand the situation.
“Aeschene,” Marisse spoke to her from the opposite direction. “Ye’ve stepped out onto a plank. We need ye not to move. Black Richard is comin’ for ye.”
A plank?
She refused to panic. Panic was something only weak-minded people did. Nay, she refused to panic. At least not so much so that she would begin to shake and possibly plummet to her own death.
Before she’d lost her good sight, she’d never been afraid of much. Not heights or ghosts or much of anything really. In yer younger years, her fearlessness had been the one thing that had gotten her into the most trouble with her mother.
But now? She could only imagine how far above the ground she now stood. Could only imagine how much it would hurt when her body collided with the earth below.
“Aeschene?” Black Richard called out to her. “Did ye hear me, lass?”
Nay, she hadn’t. She’d been too busy trying not to think about how far she’d be falling if she made the wrong move. Trying hard not to think of the sound her body would make when it finally came in contact with the ground below. She gave an extremely slow shake of her head. “Nay,” she admitted, her voice cracking on the fear bubbling up.
She heard him curse again, but his tone lacked some of the heat as before. “Lass,” Black Richard began, making a grand attempt at remaining calm. “I am goin’ to