Happy at last, Rachel stood on the landing outside the door, leaned her back against her husband and felt him put his arm around her waist. She loved all the dancing and the music, yet something made her stare at the closed door of the Keep.
"Do you want to go in?" Connor asked.
"Nay." She said it, but she wasn't sure why. Something was wrong and she didn't know what. She glanced at the door again and then turned to smile up at him. An instant later, she was once more staring at the door. Somehow, she felt there was pain behind the door and she never wanted to go through it again. But then, there was also something behind the door she desperately wanted.
"Rachel, what is it?"
"I do not know."
She turned in his arms, kissed him and tried to make the feeling go away. Suddenly, a dark memory crossed her mind. She was a little girl sitting on a wooden floor wearing a pink skirt. Her mother sat across from her, but every time her mother moved, a chain made noise on the floor. She lifted her mother's skirt and saw the chain locked to her mother's ankle, but then a huge man grabbed her from behind and had her around the waist. He was holding her too tight and she was screaming.
"Dear God," she breathed.
"What is it?"
She violently shoved Connor away, burst through the door and screamed, "Mother!"
Everyone stopped eating and stared. Her mother was seated at the table next to Justin and when Rachel spotted her, she ran into her arms. She was crying so hard, she could hardly breathe and then she slumped down on her knees. "I remembered."
"Oh no," Catherin moaned. She began to cry as well and soon, Anna was kneeling beside her little sister with tears running down her face.
Rachel could hardly speak, "You were...chained...I saw it. A mean man grabbed me...and I was screaming...I wanted to be with you, but he put me in a little room. It was dark and I tried to open the door, but..."
Behind her, Connor looked horrified and so did most of the others.
Catherin wiped her tears away with the back of her hands. "Rachel, look at me." It took a moment for Catherin to pry Rachel's arms away and lift her face. "You were too little to open the door. I have prayed every night that you would not remember. I wanted your heart free to love a lad the way a woman should -- without fear." She drew Rachel back to her and held her tenderly, but Rachel's tears didn't stop.