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)
Chapter 15
Reena stared at the map in front of her, quill in hand. She had retired to her room over an hour ago and had yet to lay quill to paper. Her mind overflowed with all that had transpired in a single day, and she was now trying to make sense of it.
Talk during the evening meal was of the mysterious messenger. Tongues wagged and gossip spread, but no one had an answer as to who could have sent him. But Reena’s mind continued to wander to the kiss she and Magnus had shared.
She could not rid her mind of the taste of him. He lingered there and on her lips, warm and pungent, tempting the senses, and she responded to the vivid memories.
Her skin grew warm, her flesh tingled, and she ran her tongue slowly over her lips, reclaiming the taste of him. She shivered, and gooseflesh rushed to prickle her skin.
She shook her head, a firm, hard shake to clear her thoughts. She was foolish to dwell on a kiss. She had work to do and she was wasting time on nonsense. Magnus was lord of Dunhurnal and she was in his service. She certainly was not the type of woman he would love. He would love and wed a woman who would give him many heirs, tend to him and their children and his keep. She, on the other hand, wished to map, and that would mean travel. She had no time for love, and she did not think she was suited to be a mother. Adventure, travel, mapping was what interested her, and they did not go well with being a wife.
Or were they mere excuses she made for the stark cold fact that the Legend simply would never love a woman such as her?
She turned her troublesome thoughts to the prospect of drawing Magnus. His defined features were made for drawing, and she intended to do as he suggested—draw him.
Would she then understand him better?
There was much to understand, especially the journal she had discovered in the trunk. It had belonged to Magnus’s mother, and the trunks seemed to have been hidden away in that small room.
She had had no chance to continue reading the entries. Footsteps had fallen heavy on the stairs, and she had quickly returned the journal to the trunk before closing the lid. Two of Magnus’s men had entered the room and removed the trunks, though she knew not where.
Questions gathered like storm clouds in her mind, filling with possibilities and getting ready to burst. Could his mother have lived here at Dunhurnal? Or had the trunks been brought here and hidden? And was there more to the reason why the king had granted Dunhurnal land to Magnus?
She rubbed her forehead, her thoughts a jumble of questions with few answers.
“You work too hard.”
Reena jumped, startled by Magnus’s sudden presence.
“I did not hear you enter.”
“I doubt you would have heard a troop of men enter. You appeared too engrossed in thought.” He approached her desk, walking around to where she sat to stand beside her and look over the map she worked on.
“I have not gotten very far.”
Magnus disagreed. “You have done more than I expected, and your detail is remarkable.” He studied the tower room she had drawn and marveled at the preciseness of her strokes. The windows matched in size, and each window was marked with a Roman numeral and a direction inscribed in Gaelic and Latin, as was a spot on the wall where the door to the small room would be located.
Reena pointed to the Latin inscription. “North, south, east and west so you know where you look upon. The Roman numeral corresponds to another map, which will give you the view from the window. The numeral on the door corresponds to a map of the small chamber, which shows little—a bare, cell-like room with a metal ring secured to thick wood.”
“You noticed the metal ring?”
“I make myself aware of all that I see and record what I see. I know not if it is important, I only know that I see it and therefore record it.” She asked one of the questions that troubled her thoughts. “Do you know the metal ring’s purpose?”
Magnus remained silent for a moment, and she waited, knowing he would answer after his own thoughts had settled.
“The metal ring is to chain a prisoner.”
“The small chamber is a prison?”
“A special prison that no one knows exists.”
Reena was appalled. “How horrible. The room is too remote, far removed from the rest of the keep. A person could die in that room and no one would ever know.”
Magnus pointed to the tower room. “In this room as well. No cries would be heard even from the windows; they are too far up. The screams would sound like a mere whisper when they reached the ground.”