Epilogue
Meredith had madeit almost as far as the castle gates before Felix caught up with her and dragged her roughly back, almost falling over in the process. Meredith struggled for a few seconds before suddenly becoming limp in his arms as the adrenaline from her escape faded, leaving her suddenly exhausted.
“I didnae ken me wee brother was so strong, all of a sudden,” she said, scowling at Felix to let him know that she may have given up on her plan to run back into the burning castle, but she wasn’t exactly happy about it.
“Ryder’s been teaching me to fight,” Felix grinned, accepting the compliment and ignoring the tone with which it was delivered. “I daenae think he expected me to be using me new skills on ye, though!”
“He probably did,” said Melissa, joining them. “Ryder isnae stupid; he’d have guessed Meredith would be trouble.”
Meredith opened her mouth to retort, but before she could speak, a commotion from the group of soldiers stationed to the right of where they were standing caught her attention.
“It’s Colby Green!” one of them shouted as the three Quinn siblings started towards them. “Over here! He fell from the tower yonder!”
Meredith had stopped in her tracks as soon as she heard Colby’s name, but, upon hearing the second part of the man’s statement, she started back towards him.
“He fell?” she asked as soon as she drew close enough for him to hear her. “Is he...?”
As much as she hated the man, she couldn’t quite bring herself to finish her question, letting Felix do it for her.
“Is he dead?” her brother asked bluntly. “Is Colby dead?”
“Aye,” the soldier replied, drawing gasps of relief from both Melissa and Meredith. “And not from the fall, either, by the looks o’ him. His throat was cut. He was dead before he even hit the ground.”
Meredith and Felix looked at each other, the same idea occurring to both at the same time.
“It must have been Ryder,” Meredith said excitedly. “Which means he’s still alive!”
“Aye, and probably still atop the tower Colby fell from,” Felix added, his face grim.
Silently, the three siblings turned and looked up at the tower, black against the night sky, but with orange flames flickering from its ramparts and illuminating some of the windows.
“Then we need to go there and find him,” Meredith said firmly. “It’s the only way. We cannae leave him there, Felix!”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Felix answered immediately. “D’ye think I’d ever be able to face Ryder again if he thought I’d let ye run into a burning tower? Nay, I’ll go,” he added, seeing her open her mouth to argue. “Matthew will still be inside. I’ll find him, and I’ll tell him where Ryder is. Daenae worry, Meredith. We’ll bring him back to ye.”
Meredith nodded, her eyes huge with fright. She had no idea when her brother had grown up, but it was as if the Felix who had first arrived at Ryder’s castle for their wedding day had been a different person from the young man who stood before her now.
“Please take care o’ yerself, Felix,” she said, reaching out to grab his hand. “I need ye to come back safely as well as Ryder, ye hear me?”
“I hear ye,” he answered, but his eyes were looking behind her, roaming the darkness for a familiar face. “Angus!” he shouted, finally seeing who he was looking for. “Angus, over here! I need ye!”
Angus Murray approached them at a run, his sword in his hand.
“Felix,” he gasped, “There ye are! I’ve been looking for ye! Did ye hear about Colby?”
“Aye,” Felix replied, “We did. But it’s Ryder we need to think about now. We think he’s still in the tower Colby fell from. Will ye come with me to find yer faither?”
Angus didn’t hesitate. With a quick nod to Meredith and Melissa, he and Felix were gone, disappearing into the smoke that surrounded the building.
“What now?” asked Melissa, her voice shaking. “What do we do now?”
Meredith wrapped her arms around her and pulled her sister close.
“Now we wait,” she said simply. “We just wait.”
* * *
The blaze in the castle courtyard was gradually starting to burn itself out as Felix and Angus entered it; their overcoats pulled up over their noses in a bid to protect them from the smoke that still swirled in the cold air. There must have been nothing else left to burn, Felix thought, as he spun around, frantically searching for Matthew.
He’d felt brave as he’d run towards the building with Angus, but now that he was actually here, he could feel the panic start to rise in his chest. This castle was large and unfamiliar, which meant that finding Matthew --- or, indeed, Ryder himself --- felt like an impossible task.
For once, however, luck was on his side, for no sooner had the thought entered his head than a shout from Angus made him spin around, just in time to see two figures making their way towards them through the haze.
“Angus! Felix!” Matthew shouted as he reached them. “What are ye doing here? I thought I told ye to look after Meredith and Melissa!”
“I did,” Felix assured him. “They’re safely outside, Matthew, and they willnae try to follow us, I promise ye! But we need to find Ryder! We think he might be in the North Tower --- Colby’s body fell from there not long since!”
“The tower?” A shadow crossed Matthew’s face as he turned to look in the direction Felix pointed, but he rubbed his eyes quickly, as if to erase the thought, and turned to the soldier behind him.
“If Ryder’s in that tower, then that’s where we’ll go,” he said. “Come, follow me!”
The two men set off at a run, with Felix and Angus following closely behind them. Felix was relieved to pass responsibility for his mission on to Matthew. At the door of the tower, the men paused for a second to look up at the dark, smoke-filled staircase while Matthew listened intently for any sound that might indicate Ryder’s presence.
“Ryder! Ryder, are ye up there?” he shouted at last. “Give me some sign if ye are!”
The silence that followed seemed interminable, but then, just as Matthew was about to make his way up the stair anyway, they heard it.
“Matthew?” came Ryder’s voice --- faint but discernable. “I’m here! On the stairs!”
Without looking back, Matthew leaped towards the stairs, taking them two at a time. “Hold on Ryder,” he shouted as he ran. “We’re on our way!”
* * *
Ryder had made it halfway down the narrow stone staircase before the smoke that filled it threatened to overwhelm him, and he sank back against the wall, gasping for breath. His arm was soaked with blood where Colby had slashed at it, and the blood loss had started to make him feel dizzy and lightheaded.
“Come on, man,” he muttered to himself as he reached for the rope that served as a handrail, shouting out in pain as his hand made contact with the red hot metal hook that held it to the wall instead. “Come on. Ye cannae get this far and then faint like a lassie. Ye have to get yerself out of here.”
It was sheer willpower rather than physical strength that got him back on his feet, just as Matthew appeared around the bend of the stairs.
“Hold on, Ryder, I’ve got ye,” Matthew said, springing quickly to his friend’s side and pulling his arm over his shoulder, ignoring the blood that still flowed freely from it. Ryder looked at him gratefully.
“Ye’ve come to save me yet again, Matthew,” he croaked, his throat stinging from the smoke he inhaled with every word. “Thank ye.”
“I wouldnae thank me just yet,” Matthew said grimly, as he gestured to the soldier who had accompanied him up the stairs to come and support Ryder on his other side. “We still have to get ye out of here.”
He would do it, though, Ryder knew. Matthew had never let him down yet, and he would not do so now. He already felt he could breathe easier as the three men made their way slowly down the stairs to where Felix and Angus were waiting for them. Felix quickly shrugged his way out of his overcoat, wrapping it tightly around Ryder’s injured arm to try to stem the bleeding until they could get him to safety.
“Meredith?” Ryder gasped, still struggling for breath. “Where is she?”
“Outside the castle walls,” Felix assured him. “She’s safe, Ryder. Ye saved her.”
The knowledge that Meredith was out there waiting for him gave Ryder all the impetus he needed to stagger his way across the courtyard, still supported by the men on each side of him and out through the castle gate.
“Meredith!” he shouted as he stumbled onto the muddy grass beyond the castle walls. “Meredith, where are ye!”
Then, his strength finally depleted, he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
* * *
Ryder woke to find Meredith’s face hovering over his, her expression anxious.
“Ryder!” she cried as he opened his eye. “Oh, thank God, yer alive! I was starting to think ye’d never wake up...”
“He’s only been out for a few minutes, Meredith, daenae carry on!” said Melissa’s voice from somewhere off to the left, and Ryder found himself smiling despite the seriousness of the situation.
“I see all’s well out here, then,” he said, his voice husky from the smoke. “Bickering as usual!”
He heard Melissa chuckle quietly before Meredith’s mouth was on his, her arms around his neck as she kissed his lips, then his face.
“I daenae ken whether I want to kiss ye or hit ye for making me worry like that,” she scolded, her voice light. “Ye big bampot!”
Ryder laughed aloud at that, then immediately started to cough as he realized his lungs weren’t quite up to the effort.
“I think I’d prefer the kiss if it’s all the same to ye,” he said once his coughing fit had subsided. “Maybe even two, if ye daenae mind.”
“Och, I think that can be arranged.” Meredith smiled back at him, then bent to kiss him again. “That can definitely be arranged.”
* * *
Ryder remembered very little of the ride home that night or the chaotic hours that followed when they arrived back at Millar Castle, where Erin Quinn was anxiously waiting for them, but fortunately for him, he had Meredith and Melissa to fill him in on everything that had happened in the days that followed.
“Even Mrs. MacDonald was waiting up for us in the Great Hall when we got back,” Meredith told him, as they walked together to her father’s grave, which they were visiting for the first time since Meredith had been taken from it by Colby’s men. “And Margaret, and Marion, and Ellen, and... oh, just everyone, really! They were all so worried, although none as much as me, of course!”
“Of course,” Ryder agreed, smiling at her fondly. Luckily for him, his mother-in-law had had the foresight to send for a physician, who had been waiting at the castle when they’d arrive back. Ryder being pulled on a cart they’d found in Colby’s stables, most of which had survived the blaze. His arm still stung every time he moved it, and the scar he’d been left with would never fade, but he didn’t care because each time he looked at it, he’d be reminded, not of Colby and his treachery, but of Meredith, and how his love for her had kept him alive that night.
“Can ye believe how much has happened since the last time we stood on this spot?” Meredith asked as they reached the grave. “Faither would never have believed it!”
They stood together silently for a moment, their hands tightly clasped as they thought, not just about Edward Quinn, but of the other lives that had been lost due to Colby and his attempt to double-cross them.
“Nay,” Ryder agreed softly. “Nay, he would never have believed it. I wish he were here so we could tell him all about it.”
“There’s something else I wish we could tell him,” Meredith said shyly, turning to face him. “It’s why I brought ye here, actually. So that he might hear it at the same time as ye.”
“Go on?” Ryder looked at her curiously, but instead of speaking, she simply took his hand and placed it on her belly.
“I ken ye cannae feel anything just now,” she said, smiling up at him, “But soon ye might feel a little kick or a wriggle of some kind. And soon after that, ye’ll get to meet yer first child.”
For only the second time in his life, Ryder’s eye filled with tears as he took her in his arms, unable at first to speak.
“Those better be happy tears,” Meredith teased, raising her hand to wipe them away and then resting it lovingly on his cheek. “Are they?”
“They are,” Ryder confirmed as he bent to kiss her. “They’re very happy tears indeed.”
The End?