WAKING AHEW
Amabel felt herself stirring to consciousness.
Everything hurt. Her whole body was a dull ache. She felt as if she had fallen down the stairs and was sure she must have broken every bone in her body. She tried to feel her feet, tentatively wriggling her toes. They appeared to be numb.
As she slowly returned to the present, she sought for memory. It leaked through slowly from the dull fog that filled her.
Alina. She was safe. They had stormed the fortress and rescued her. Her mind sent her an image of her sister, white and drained, her dark eyes closed. A shell of complete beauty, frozen like a crocus in ice.
“Alina...”
“Hush,” she heard a gentle voice. “I am here.”
Amabel opened her eyes. She stared. She could see firelight. It hurt her eyes and so she slitted them. Then she saw a face.
A pale oval, the face the shape of her mother's. For a moment it was her, grave and smiling. Amabel wondered then if she was dead, and it was her mother who sat there by her bedside. Then it became another face. One with a slightly longer forehead, a thinner nose. Wide black eyes like pools of mystery. The eyes were smiling. As were the full, dusky lips with their Gaulish pout.
“Alina!”
Her sister smiled. Her face flushed. “Yes, sister. It is me.”
Amabel shuffled to sit against the pillows. She was weeping and smiling, and she held out her arms wordlessly. Alina leaned forward into her embrace.
“Sister! You're alive!”
“Of course, I am, you silly dear. Of course, I am. I was worried about you...”
They were both laughing, tears streaming down their faces. Amabel breathed in her scent of rosemary and lavender, dried flowers and iris and incense.
“I love you, sister. Never leave me again...”
“I love you, too, sister.”
Amabel could not quite believe it. She leaned back on the pillows. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered.
Alina smiled. “We have a healer in this family.”
“Actually, two healers. When are you going to believe me?” an exhausted voice sighed.
“Aili!” Amabel felt her face split with a grin. She turned to see the older woman standing there.
“Yes.” Aili smiled. “It's me. Your auntie. My, but you were feverish. Alina has not left your side since she woke herself.”
Amabel looked down to where Alina's throat was still bound. The wound must have been clean, for she could see no redness or swelling to suggest any infection. She sighed.
“Thank you, Aili, for your gifts.”
“Don't think to thank me,” Aili snorted, thought she still smiled. “Doesn't come from me.”
Amabel nodded. “Thank you, anyway.”
Aili smiled and turned away.
Lying back, memory returned to Amabel. She did not want to ask if Duncan were alive. She was almost sure he was dead. Alina was inscrutable as ever – if she wanted to know she would not be hearing it from her.
Aili was busy preparing something – she could hear her grinding herbs in the corner near the fire.
“More like a party than a sick-chamber, this room,” she was grumbling. “Always people stopping in. And here's another one...”
As she spoke, Amabel saw Alina turn. She looked at the door, back straight, body tense.
“Amabel?”
Amabel drew in a breath.
“Duncan!”
Duncan walked slowly to the bed. He stood beside Alina, resting a hand on her shoulder. Alina took it. Together they smiled down at her.
Duncan frowned. “Amabel. I cannot thank you for what you have done. But we wanted to make you a gift.”
Amabel stared at him. “Duncan?”
He reached behind his back, face wreathed with smiles. What he passed her was a carved board. She felt over it, brow furrowed. Then her sight cleared as she recognized what it was.
“Duncan?”
Alina smiled. “It's a cradle-board.”
Amabel nodded, wordless. It was the carven headboard for a cradle.
But that meant... that meant...
“Amabel?”
His voice. She knew that voice. She turned to the doorway.
Broderick was there. He was smiling. His presence filled the room, and she felt her heart so full that she thought she might burst.
“Broderick! You're alive.”
“Yes.” His eyes twinkled. “I am, apparently. And you are, too. Which was by far less certain.”
His face stiffened then, and Amabel realized how worried he must have been.
“Broderick!”
He closed his eyes. He was trying not to cry. Amabel felt her own throat full and turned away wordlessly. Duncan and Alina looked at each other, and together they walked from the room. Aili had left already.
They were alone.
Broderick sank down beside her bed. Amabel looked at him. She reached out a hand. She ran her hand down his warm, living face. She was laughing and crying at once.
His eyes, dark and wide, looked into hers. He was crying, though he smiled at her. He reached out and took her hand and held it fiercely.
For a long time, they simply looked at one another. Amabel let the image of his face sink into her senses. She had thought she would not see him alive again. She could not believe her eyes.
He leaned forward. Gently, tenderly, he kissed her.
Amabel closed her eyes and let the wild sensations flow through her. She was exhausted, but his touch and his closeness still flared inside her, making her body want his.
They sat together, his hand resting on her chest, her hand on his shoulder.
“Amabel,” he said softly. “I will never forgive myself for not believing you.”
Amabel stared. Then she smiled. “Broderick?”
“No, dear.” He shook his head. “I am wretched. You were trying to tell me I was fighting shadows. You knew who my enemy was. I refused to believe it. I will never dismiss what you say again.”
Amabel was still smiling. “My dearest. I am gladder than I can say that we can trust each other. But I cannot say I am angry. I am not.”
He smiled, though his eyes were sad. “You should be.”
“Broderick. You were raised to follow only your own counsel. You have learned to trust others. That is the good part. What happened was not your fault.”
“No,” he said slowly.
“You saved me. You saved Alina. And we know the truth.”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “We do.”
He took her in his arms and they sat closely for a long time. She breathed in the musky scent of him and closed her eyes.
“Amabel,” he whispered.
“Broderick.”
“I love you.”
Amabel sighed. Her heart melted. “Broderick MacConnaway. I love you, too. With all my heart. Now and forever.”
Still holding each other, they sat together until the sun's last rays leaked through the open drapes and turned her hair to flame.