She didn't come back. A week passed and when each night came, Kevin stood in the window of the bedchamber, he hoped to share with her, watching the meadow until he finally crawled into bed. Then another week passed and another.
He realized he was acting like a soppy teenager instead of a twenty-six-year old man and he had to force himself to concentrate on his responsibilities. Each time a messenger or another laird came, he silently prayed for word of her. There was no word of her. How was it possible she managed to keep so well hidden in Scotland? It was the horse, he realized and he remembered to be grateful they had such a good protector.
A hundred times, he made up his mind to send men out to look for her, but Athena and Katie always talked him out of it. Besides, they could have left Scotland and be in the heart of England by now. Did Anna have aunts and uncles they could go to? He admitted he had no idea. In fact, he knew very little about his wife. All they really talked about was her father.
He thought about how happy she was to see him when he came home, and about the first time he could really hold her and kiss her. But those few minutes went by too quickly. What haunted him the most was the feel of her when she laid her injured head on his chest and listened to his heart. She stayed there for a long time and it was still vivid in his mind. Half of the time, he hated that memory and the other half, he believed it was the only reason his heart kept beating.
Justin wasn't handling it much better and sometimes Kevin spotted him leaning against a tree at the edge of the meadow. There were details of men assigned to hunt, fish and cut wood, but each time they went out, they came back -- without Anna.
*
Anna sat in the warm afternoon sun on a large rock, wearing traditional English clothing, and hugging Kevin's neatly folded plaid. Threcher grazed while Rachel picked wild flowers in the small clearing.
"I have never loved a man," Catherin said, sitting next to her daughter on the same rock.
"It is not altogether pleasant; missing Kevin takes all my strength. I am not as brave as I thought."
"I think about Justin sometimes."
"Do you?" Anna smiled. "Justin is a good man."
"I trusted him, but I do not know why. Rachel loves him and wanted to be constantly with him when we rode to the MacGreagors."