That night just after dusk, before Nicol made his nightly trek down to the garden to spend the night with Freya, I went down to meet the ghostly woman I’d heard so much about.

It startled me when I saw her. While intellectually, I knew she would simply appear once the sun dropped into the sky—it was still shocking to witness. She was stunning. Translucent and bright, her long dark hair fell loosely around her waist, and her eyes were the darkest I’d ever seen. If not for her smile, she would’ve been rather frightening.

“I can see the resemblance between ye and yer sister. I’m verra fond of her.”

I smiled. I couldn’t help but stare at her, my eyes wandering up and down the length of her body. “I’m fond of her too. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Come and sit, lass. Nicol willna be down for awhile still.”

I followed her over to a small garden bench and together we sat down.

“Does he come even on nights like this? Even when it’s freezing and raining?”

She nodded a little sadly. “He does. Despite my insistence that he needn’t do so, he comes each and every night.”

“He loves you.”

“And I him. How do ye find the castle?”

I glanced up at the tall, foreboding fortress and then turned my gaze to the garden surrounding me. It had long since withered and died.

“The people are wonderful.”

Freya laughed. “Ye long for more beauty just as I do, aye?”

“Why haven’t they tended to this garden for you? Made it a place that is at least pleasing to be when you’re here?”

“I doona believe it has occurred to them. Truly, there is no need. I couldna smell the flowers or feel the warmth even if ’twas here.”

I knew from my own experiences beautifying people’s surroundings that the aesthetics of one’s home holds so much more power than people realize.

“No, but you could see them. Sometimes that makes all the difference.”

She looked past me to a long-since-withered bush of something that once bloomed, and I could see the sadness in her eyes.

“Mayhap ye are right.” She paused and reached for my hand. While I could see her touching me, I could feel nothing. It made my heart ache all the way through. How painful it would be to be stripped of the ability to feel someone’s skin against your own. “I’ve a feeling Machara’s temper willna be the only thing that changes now that ye are here.”

“Machara’s temper?” I looked at Freya curiously.

“Aye. She’s frightened. Her hold over me has bound us together, and she has never been as frightened as she is now.”

That gave me a sense of hope. I’d been right to ignore her stinky request that we meet. Whether Maddock and Nicol believed it or not, I was a threat to Machara, but I was currently more concerned with the other ways Freya mentioned that I might change things.

“I have an idea. What happens to you during the daytime?”

She shrugged. “I simply doona exist. ’Tis as if I’m sleeping, though I never dream.”

“So, if there are men building and banging things around out here, it won’t disturb you?”

She shook her head. “Nay, lass, it willna disturb mye. Might I ask what ye have planned?”

“A garden wedding, and a place for you and Nicol to finally find some peace.”

---

I could tell that Raudrich was intrigued by my idea. He had both arms crossed tightly against his chest, but his brows were furrowed as if he was thinking. The more he thought, the more he began to smile. “’Twould please her, I’m certain.”

I nodded. “I think it would. When Laurel spoke of the wedding she always wanted—not that she spoke of it very often—she always said she dreamed of an outdoor wedding, which isn’t really possible in Scotland with the way the weather has been lately. And I also know that with the way you guys have decorated this place—as in, not at all—it’s going to be really difficult to beautify it enough to be wedding-worthy over the course of the next nine days.

“If you guys pulled together to do this, if you could find some way to make what I’ve sketched out here, whether it be with your hands or magic, then it would solve so many problems. Not only would Laurel have the most beautiful wedding ever, but Nicol would have a place to spend his nights where he can stay dry and warm. Plus, perhaps most importantly, Freya will have some color in her life again.”

Raudrich paced the length of the room for the longest time as he held my sketch out in front of him. Finally, after I was certain I would doze off while waiting for him, he turned and spoke. “’Twas truly not so difficult to spell the walls to Nicol’s room, and I have often worried that we shall wake one morning to find him frozen to death outside. ’Tis possible such work would drain us less than much of the magic we often use.”

“I guess you could give it a test first.”

“Aye, we can test our magic on a small piece of the cabins we are building for all of ye.” He paused and then threw his hands up as if he’d just had an idea. “I know how we can surprise both Laurel and Nicol.”

“Oh yeah? How?”

“I know of a dressmaker on the mainland who could make Laurel the most beautiful dress. If I tell Laurel that we mean to finish the cabins with magic…’twould be a lie, o’course, but a worthy one, then mayhap she will agree to let Nicol take her there, seeing as he has no magic with which to help us.”

I nodded excitedly. “That’s perfect! What if the magic turns out to be too draining?”

Raudrich was too excited to back down from this idea now. He was all in.

“Then we will gather every able-bodied man on the Isle, and we shall build it by hand.”