“Not anymore,” Annis claimed confidently. “We will see each other often, since I will no longer be kept from my sister.”
Rannick went to his wife to curl his arm around her waist. “You will have to travel here then, since your sister is with child.”
Annis’s eyes went wide. “Truly?”
Bliss smiled and nodded. “Truly.”
Annis let out a squeal of delight and hurried to her sister and they hugged once again. She wiped tears away as she stepped back from Bliss. “You and Elysia will make the best mums. I only wish she was here now with us.” Her eyes went wide. “How will you ever deliver Elysia’s bairn when you will probably be close to delivering your own?”
“Not to worry. I will see to it,” Bliss assured her and caught a look of concern on her husband’s face, he just now realizing the delicate situation.
“With you both with child, it is now more important than ever to see this curse ended once and for all,” Annis said. “We need to talk privately.”
Lady Helice stepped forward. “I had your father’s solar prepared with food and drink for you. Worry not about your friends, Annis, Lord Lochlann and I will look after them.”
“Thank you, Lady Helice, that is very kind of you,” Annis said.
Rannick took his wife’s hand and led Brogan and Annis to the solar.
Lady Helice grabbed her husband’s hand when he went to follow.
“You can see to the guests,” Lochlann said. “I will hear what they have to say.”
“Nay, Lochlann,” Helice said softly. “It is no longer your fight. It is for your son to see to now.”
“But this started with me,” he insisted.
“The good Lord willing, it will end with Rannick, and he will have a good life,” Helice said, and took hold of her husband’s arm. “Now, what do you say we see how Annis came to be with these mercenaries.”
Bliss sat beside her husband with her sister and Brogan across from them at the table Lady Helice had seen set up for them in front of the hearth. There was food and drink aplenty and, after the troubling few hours, Bliss was relieved for the respite and thrilled that her sister was there to enjoy it with her. Though, she did look forward to time alone to talk with Annis.
“You are not as frightening as I thought you would be,” Annis said with a nod to Rannick after a sip of wine. “Though I imagine my sister tamed you some. She is good at doing that.”
“An yet she failed with you,” Rannick said, with a slight rise of his goblet of wine.
Bliss and Brogan shook their heads.
Annis smiled. “Nice retort, but my sister understands about me what others do not, though Brogan was the exception. She knew taming me was not what I needed. She was wise enough and loved me enough to let me be who I am, and for that I am ever grateful.” She brushed at her eyes before a tear could fall.
“The only difference between us then,” Rannick said, taking his wife’s hand that rested on the table, “is that your sister freed me of the heartless man I had become, to become a better man and, like you, I am forever grateful and will forever love her.”
Annis looked to her sister, still smiling. “You worked a miracle.”
“Did you as well?” Rannick asked. “Did you accomplish what I failed to do? Did you find the witch?”
“We found much more,” Brogan said.
“But we will start with the witch because that is where it all began, “Annis said. “I believe she found me, set it in motion for me to go to her. For some reason, the time has been made right for the curse to be made right. She sent Brogan and me on a merry chase. I won’t give you all the details right now, but it led us to discover that the MacWilliam bairn lives and to also meet Gunna.”
Bliss dropped the piece of bread in her hand and Rannick splashed his wine over the rim of the goblet, he placed it so fast on the table.
Annis continued before they could ask any questions. “Gunna posed as a woman named Luna and joined us in the village for a while. Unfortunately, she left before I realized who she truly was, though Troy knows her well. She took shelter with the mercenaries after being badly injured all those years ago and that is why she was never found.”
“Gunna knows where the MacWilliam bairn is?” Bliss asked anxiously, thinking how this curse could be made to end soon and the damage and pain it could bring finally brought to an end.
“Where the MacWilliam bairn, now grown woman, is… is the problem,” Brogan said. “The bairn was given to a childless couple to raise as their own so none would suspect any difference. When Gunna returned after a few months to check on the bairn, she discovered the couple had died. She had no idea where the bairn was. The only thing she knew that might have helped locate her was that two other young bairns had been placed with the MacWilliam bairn in case the ruse was discovered. And one of them had bright red springy hair.”