Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
“I have something to show you, Philip. I found it when cleaning out the tower room.” Flora said and pulled something out of a pouch that hung from her belt. She spread a small scrape of cloth out. In the middle was embroidered, quite skillfully, a horse. She smiled softly. “In Latin, Philip means fond of horses.”
Philip stared at it, tears pooling in his eyes. He got up slowly from the table and went to a small chest and took something from it. He returned to the table and after sitting, unfolded a cloth identical to the cloth Flora had laid on the table.
“She was your mother, wasn’t she, Philip?” Flora said. “You are Lord Dermid’s son.”
Tears slipped down Philip’s aged cheeks as he nodded. “Shortly before Lord Dermid died, he came upon me fishing and told me we needed to talk. He explained everything to me, and then gave me this cloth. My mum, Annora, had embroidered it for me while waiting for me to be born. She knew she would have a son and she had chosen my name. She believed it a good name for a gentle yet strong soul much like the nature of a horse. My da told me that I was like my mum, a gentle yet strong soul. He said I had her eyes, but he was relieved I did not possess her magic.”
“She was a witch?” Flora whispered as if someone might hear.
“Many believed so, not so my da. He believed her a wise woman and loved her with all his heart. His world shattered when she died giving birth to me. She warned him she would die but he refused to believe her. She told him what needed to be done to save me and that one day they would be together again.” He wiped at his falling tears. “My mother told him to send me away after I was born and have me stay away for at least two years, then have me returned here. But never ever was he to acknowledge that I was his son, for there would be those who believed her son evil as they did her and would want me dead. I was given to a woman who could be trusted and who would do as my da asked, and she did just that. My da looked after me from afar, doing as my mum asked and told me to forever keep the secret unless the room was unsealed in my time.
Flora waited when Philip grew silent for a moment.
“My da came upon my mum one day deep in the woods and fell in love with her. He visited with her often and he told me they had three glorious years together, then she got with child, and something happened that placed her life in danger. That was when he brought her to hide in the tower room. He purposely let rumors spread that it was a place of torture so that no one would go near it. There were two servant women my mum trusted, one of them is the woman I was given to.”
“He sealed your mum away to keep her safe even in death,” Flora said.
“Nay,” Philip said. “My mum instructed him to seal her away once she passed and instructed him to make sure no one unsealed the room. She told him the room would release her when the time was right.”
Tears ran down Flora’s cheeks and she stretched her hand out to take hold of Philip’s hand. “And it did. Your mum saved my life.”
“And now she is finally free,” Philip said. “Does Lord Torin know?”
“Not yet, but I am sure he would like to know he has a granduncle. You will join us for supper tonight and you can tell him all about it.”
“I would like that for it means my mum’s prediction comes true. She told my da that one day in the far future I would be welcomed into the keep and accepted as family.
“And so you shall, Philip, so you shall,” Flora said as they shared tears together.
“I still cannot believe I have an uncle,” Torin said as he and Flora lay in bed together later that night. “I am so glad he lived these many years. I have so many questions for him.”
“You asked quite a few of him at supper,” Flora said.
“I am hungry to know it all, though I find it difficult to believe that my grandda, Lord Hamish, knew nothing about it. He was twelve and two years at the time and no doubt curious.”
“If he did know, he wisely kept the secret which meant he kept his half-brother safe,” Flora said.
“I so wondered what had turned my great-grandda into an unkind man when he had once been a good one. It is good to know that he was not evil like some said. He was just a man angry at the loss of the woman he loved. I wish I could say the same about my da. He had no excuse for being unkind. He simply cared for no one but himself.” He turned on his side to face his wife. “I feel for my great-grandda for I would be angry to if I lost the woman I love. I do not know how he lived the many years without her.”