Shawna quickly leaped from the rock and found her horse, mounting just as the others came around the outskirts of the trees.
“Shawna!” Gawain said with a frown. “What are y’doing here alone, lass?” he demanded. She was somewhat startled to realize that Gawain didn’t seem happy that she wasn’t safely within the walls of the castle.
“Dusk is such a beautiful time in the Highlands. I stopped to watch the sun fall. But I shall rejoin you all now if you don’t mind.”
“You must do so,” Hawk told her.
Shawna urged her horse along with their party. Sabrina, she noted, was riding ahead just a bit. Concerned, Shawna trotted her mount until she had caught up with her. “Sabrina?”
The young woman turned to her, startled. Still ashen.
“I…” Shawna began awkwardly. “I just want you to know that it’s all right, really.” She realized she was blushing herself. “I mean, Edwina does tend to be right about such things, and if you are expecting a child, I don’t intend to say anything to anyone. I understand?—”
Sabrina slowed her horse and swung on Shawna. “No, you don’t understand, you can’t possibly understand. How could you even begin to say that you understand this, Lady MacGinnis?”
Consequences…Shawna thought. She couldn’t begin to explain.
But she tried to keep her peace and her temper. “Fine. I don’t understand. But I won’t say anything to anyone since it’s apparent this is one matter you’ve not chosen to share as yet with your sister.”
“I haven’t yet shared it honestly with myself,” Sabrina murmured, her beautiful cobalt eyes closing for a moment as she pressed her temples between her thumb and forefinger. “Everything happened so quickly. My stepfather’s death, the trip out West, the journey here…” She opened her eyes, glancing sharply at Shawna. “I’m sorry. But truly, you don’t understand.”
“Does the father know?”
“Good heavens, no!” Sabrina said in horror.
“Then perhaps?—”
“This is nearly impossible!” Sabrina said, more to herself than to Shawna. “How in God’s name could that woman know?” She stared at Shawna then. “And she—she knew about David.”
“Yes. And Fergus heard her. The entire village will be running around, whispering about David’s rising from the dead.”
“Well…he did rather do that, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but he’s really alive.”
“Perhaps he should just be alive then,” Sabrina said.
“I’ve suggested that,” Shawna murmured. “But he’s determined?—’’
“That someone in your family tried to kill him, and he doesn’t intend to be killed again?” Sabrina asked.
Shawna flashed her an angry glare, only to realize that Sabrina was sitting on her horse easily and watching hersympathetically. “He’s wrong,” Shawna said, alarmed to realize that her voice held a note of uncertainty.
“Then you have to prove him wrong,” Sabrina said. “Shawna, if you’d already been left for dead once, you’d be very careful in the same circumstances a second time.”
Shawna shook her head. “You can’t have the same circumstances a second time. And you’ve managed to talk about me instead of yourself.”
“Have I? Well, there’s not much to say about me at the moment.”
“The father really has a right to know?—”
“Indeed, he does not!” Sabrina hissed with an anguished vehemence that silenced Shawna for a moment.
“If I can help in any way?—”
“You can’t. I shall manage. I’m telling you, you can’t begin to understand?—”
“I’m telling you, I can.”