Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 99206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“Find out how he feels toward me, and then I will gather the courage and speak with him. But what of you?” Brigid returned the challenge.
Reena acted as if she did not understand. “What do you mean?”
Brigid laughed and shook her head. “I know you as well as you know me, Reena. We have grown up together and have known things about each other before a word was spoken. As you have seen my love for Thomas bud and grow, I have seen the same with you and Magnus, though I must say, his love for you has been evident.”
“You speak nonsense,” Reena said.
Brigid laughed again. “You know it is not nonsense. Magnus keeps you forever at his side.”
Reena sighed and slumped back in her seat. “I am confused.”
“Sounds like love,” Brigid teased.
“I had thought love was more simple and more defined.”
“If only it were,” Brigid said and relaxed back in her seat.
“The ache in my stomach—”
“Is part of love.”
“The constant thought of him—”
“Is love,” Brigid repeated.
“I tingle when he is near,” Reena whispered.
“Love.”
Reena grew silent, staring at the flickering flames in the hearth.
“Why do you fight your love for him?”
Reena turned to her friend. “I ask myself that question. How can the Legend love me?”
“Why would he not?”
“Gossip says the Legend knows not of love, and look at me.” Reena held out her arms as if offering herself for inspection. “I am not exactly the type of woman the Legend would find appealing.”
“You never did pay attention to gossip, nor cared about it. Foolish tongues make for foolish minds, you would say.” Brigid’s tone turned adamant. “And why would the Legend not find you appealing? You are truly beautiful.”
“True enough about gossip,” Reena agreed. “But me appealing to the Legend?” She shook her head.
“You have come to know the Legend—”
“Nay,” Reena corrected. “I have come to know Magnus.”
“They are the same.”
Reena shook her head. “They are not.”
“Then you do not look close enough.”
Brigid’s words startled Reena, and she stared wide-eyed at her friend. “I look too closely?”
“What is in front of our eyes is usually what is the most difficult to see.”
Reena turned away to stare at the flames and think on her friend’s words. The Legend was not in front of her long enough for her to know him—or was he? Was she failing to see what was in front of her? And if she did, was she failing to see the possibility of love? She turned her eyes to her friend, when suddenly she remembered something, and her gaze shifted quickly to the concealed door in the wall.
“I had forgotten.”
Brigid looked at her strangely.
“I have been so busy mapping the keep that I forgot about the chests in the concealed room.”
“Of what do you speak?”
“Secrets,” Reena answered and sat forward. “There is a concealed room here, and when first I saw the tower room the door to the concealed room was ajar. Inside were two chests. One of the chests contained journals.”
Her voice lowered to a whisper, and Brigid sat forward, the better to hear her.
“One journal was written in French by a woman who wrote, ‘Today I gave birth to a son and I named him Magnus.’ ”
Brigid gasped. “Magnus’s mother?”
“I had the same thought.”
“Could Magnus have brought the chests here?”
“And placed them in a concealed room in the tower?” Reena shook her head. “That would not make sense. Besides, the room looked as though it had not been opened in some time.”
“Unless he did not want anyone to know about them.”
“Or the chests had been here all this time.”
Both women grew silent in thought.
Brigid broke the silence. “Thomas has made mention that Magnus does not allow anyone to take from him what is his. Could this land, this keep, be rightfully his?”
“The king granted him this land for a favor well done.”
“But why this land?” Brigid asked.
Reena shook her head. “I do not know. And what of this map Kilkern claims was stolen from him. Could it actually exist? Would it show the two lands as one?”
“If the two lands were actually one property, then who does the land rightfully belong to? Is it Kilkern property or Dunhurnal property? And why was the land divided?”
Reena had her own questions. “And how is Magnus’s mother part of it all?”
“Where are the chests with the journals? Reading them would help solve the mystery.”
“If only I had paid heed to the chests. I grew busy mapping the keep and gave no thought to the journals. When I recalled reading the brief passage, I went in search of the journals, but the chests were already removed from the tower room.”
“What of the concealed room?” Brigid asked with excitement.
“It has been closed each time I have visited this room.”
Both women stood.
“Do you know where the concealed room is located?” Brigid asked.