Connor was stunned. She had just become his wife and he didn't think he could endure a life of not knowing whether she would still be by his side when he woke up each morning. He wondered how Kevin stood it for thirteen years and had a new admiration for his laird.
Anna continued, "We went back to that house of hell, burned it to the ground and then we found new homes for the servants. Without the servants sneaking food to me, I would have starved to death on more than one occasion."
Justin glanced at Kevin and Kevin looked surprised. That was another thing neither of them had heard before. He wondered if Catherin knew. She was looking down and when he took her hand, she leaned against him. She hadn't heard that part either.
Anna's eyes were somehow brightening with the telling as though a heavy burden was finally lifting off her shoulders. "After that, we tasted true freedom. Mother and I rode horses, swam, hugged you, cried, laughed, and hugged you some more. Hugging you was a thing our father would never let us do and we kept hugging you until you began to protest when you saw us coming."
Rachel smiled. "I believe I remember that too. Why did you come back?"
"We came back because this world was a whole different kind of world than the one I grew up in. I did not trust these people and thought all men were the same at first, but I hungered for the kindness and the warmth of the women. Athena was here and we reasoned if Athena was here, perhaps we would be safe. What we wanted most was a good place where you could grow up in peace. So I convinced mother to come back...just for a little while...to see if she would like it.
"Yet this place had a wall just like the one around our manor in England. When Father wouldn't open the gate so I could go out to ride my horse, I stood for hours trying to will it to open. The feeling of being trapped is...unlike any other. Before we would agree to come back inside the hold, we made Kevin promise to make a secret door in the wall and let us go out whenever we felt the need."
"I see now, but mother would you really leave Scotland?"
"Do you see this man beside me? It was Justin who unchained me and he has been unchaining my heart ever since. I wake with a smile when I find him next to me and I cannot imagine a life without him. Do you understand?"