Authors: Candace Sams

Stone Heart (6 page)

Karen sighed. If it was all true and she wasn't imagining it, what a way to go! She'd probably seen something no other living mortal had ever seen. Her sense of logic and adventure began to take over. After all, what was the
worst
that could happen? She looked up at Angus and slowly put her hand out.

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"I'm Karen Matthews. Forgive me for behaving like a raving idiot, but I wasn't exactly expecting what happened."

Angus smiled and closed his fingers about her small, cold palm. "You are braver than most, Karen Matthews. As I said, I am Angus MacGregor, and I will warrant fair few have ever seen what you have."

He helped her off the ground and led her closer to the fire.

To keep from endangering this newfound friendship, he moved to the other side of the blaze. She was like a frightened doe, and he dared not move too close or quickly in case he might chase her away. Karen was his first friend in this new world. Friendship now meant a great deal to him.

Another lesson he had learned from being alone.

Karen held her hands out to the fire. She was beginning to feel warmer though she couldn't shake the feeling of amazement and excitement.
Magic existed
. Angus was proof.

Would she have enough time to learn more? She prayed so.

"Angus, tell me more about what happened. Tell me about
you
," Karen urged in a small voice.

Happiness filled him. He had someone to talk to. Someone with whom he could share secrets and his feelings. Such a thing would never have occurred to him before, but he was not the same man he once was.

"I lived in a world that was often violent and harsh. The curse you broke was placed upon me because I was a bully and a brute. But I have come to learn some things. One of them is that the power of a friend is everlasting. This I know well."

"You mentioned something about a child befriending you?"

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"Aye. Little Elspeth." He smiled. "I did a small kindness for her and she considered me a friend. When she saw the Druid Sorceress cast the enchantment upon me, Elspeth promised to help. Until she grew old and finally died, she came each day and spoke to me. Of course, I could no' respond."

Karen watched as his eyes began to shimmer with unshed tears. According to Aggie, their ancestors had come from Scotland. It was likely she was kin to the little girl Angus spoke of. Clearly the child had touched his heart. Despite his size, he didn't seem anywhere near as menacing as he did when she'd first seen him leap from the pedestal. He seemed a little sad and alone. Feelings she knew very well.

"What did you do for her that inspired such loyalty?" Karen asked.

He shrugged. "I saved her wee kitten from drowning."

Karen smiled and watched him gaze into the fire.
What a
sweet thing to do
. "How could anyone want to turn you into a stone statue. You don't seem like the bully and brute you've described. Someone like that wouldn't help save a little girl's pet."

Angus looked away from the fire and stared directly at her.

"You haven't known me but a brief second in time, lass. I was once a rogue. I did
unspeakable
things."

Karen watched as his gaze dropped and pain etched itself onto his face. Whatever he had been, the man had had time to change. Three hundred years. Still, something in him had drawn him to a child in need. "So your imprisonment was to punish you, like the story says?"

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"Aye. I believe the Sorceress who bewitched me dinna'

ever intend the spell to be broken. But Elspeth saw and heard what happened and knew the words to repeat for undoing the spell. She must have passed the exact spell from one generation to the next. You came on the proper night and spoke those same words. Loyalty and love are strong in your clan. You are proof."

"My aunt Agatha told me the legend. Actually, she wrote it all down. Before she died, I promised her I'd do as she asked.

She wanted me to find you and recite this silly little poem. I just never imagined..."

As her voice trailed off, Angus smiled. "You never imagined your aunt told you an old legend which was true?"

Karen looked at him and nodded. "So ... You're a real, live, honest-to-goodness Druid, huh?"

"I am. And I want to show you the things in this world forbidden to all others, Karen Matthews. There are wonders so great and beautiful the mind may reel from just imagining them. Would you like to see such things?"

"You're talking about this mythical Order, aren't you?"

"'Tis no myth. And because you and your kin have befriended me, I will show these things to you. Will you trust me to take you to my Order? I have need to be with them now." He held his breath and watched as she clasped her hands and stared down at them. He desperately wanted her to say yes. By caring for Karen Matthews and nurturing the first real friendship of his life, it was his way of repaying a small portion of what Elspeth had done. Suddenly, she looked up at him and her blue eyes glowed with sincerity.

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"I have to be completely honest with you, Angus. I'm not well." She snorted. "Of course, anyone looking at me can see that."

"Aye," he quietly responded. "This I know. I sensed your sickness."

She stoically continued. "I don't know how much time I have left."

He lowered his gaze as deep regret filled his heart. Then, he gazed into her blue eyes and saw acceptance. He also saw a courage that was rare among men and women. "None of us knows the time we are given. But since you are one who knows you are short on this commodity, we should waste no day. I would show you my world and the magical beings there. If they still exist and if this is what you truly wish."

Karen scrutinized his face, watching for the response to her next question. "If I sometimes have to stop to rest, that wouldn't matter to you? You'd still let me see where you came from ... your Order?"

He solemnly nodded. "And if you would rather no' speak of your illness, then I will no' as well. We will take our journey as it comes—moment by moment." With that offer, he was rewarded with a brilliant, lovely smile.

"Good. I don't want pity."

"I will offer you friendship," he softly told her, "and through your eyes, I will see a new world."

Karen sighed in acceptance. "All right, Angus MacGregor.

This is the strangest night of my life. I don't know you from a hole in the wall, but I haven't anything to lose. So ... show me whatever you want."

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"We must go to England where the main body of my kind once existed. I no longer sense anyone near this place with magic in them. I am no' sure the Order will be in the same location. Much time has passed."

She looked at him for a long time, wondering what kind of fool she was. The man could break her neck with one large hand. But if he'd wanted to hurt her, he'd had plenty of opportunity to do so, she told herself. Besides, what could he do that a few more months wouldn't? The knowledge that she was already on borrowed time gave her courage.

"God help me, I don't know what I'm doing, but it's like you said. We'll take it moment by moment."

She was rewarded with his dazzling smile and knew her world would never be the same again. What would he show her? Could the world that Aggie had described really exist?

And what would happen to Angus if it didn't? He'd be the only one of his kind. In time,
she
wouldn't be here anymore. And after three hundred years of being entombed in stone, she instinctively knew he couldn't be left to live alone.

There had to be some place for him. She felt a certain sense of responsibility for bringing him into a world he didn't know and couldn't understand. After all, the man had been a
statue
for three centuries. Even if her ancestors had kept him company, he couldn't know a lot about history and the way today's world worked.

She pushed her long hair away from her face and stared into the night.
This is all so crazy
. But what a last adventure it would be.

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

Angus looked around the clearing. "I will make you a safe haven for this night. Stay close to the fire. I'll be gone but a wee time."

Karen smiled at the sound of his thick accent and moved closer to the fire. She looked up into the star-filled heaven.

"Aunt Aggie, you ought to see this," she whispered to herself.

"Who knows? Maybe you
can
."

Angus soon returned with his arms full of soft evergreen boughs. He placed them on the ground then looked at her and smiled. Karen thought her heart, even if it were
healthy
, should have stopped beating.
Man, what a devastating
example of testosterone.

"'Twould be better if I had a soft blanket to warm you.

Perhaps your long garment would work well enough."

Karen looked down at her coat and slowly shrugged out of it. Though she was warmly dressed, the cold night air hit her body and almost took her breath away. She shivered and wrapped her arms about herself.

"Come quickly, lass. Bed down upon the boughs. You'll warm soon enough.
Hurry
now," he insisted.

Karen did as he requested and stretched out on the greenery. He draped her coat over her, then went to the fire and swept his hands over the top of the flame. It immediately grew higher and the heat reached her makeshift bed. It was a strange feeling to have someone looking after
her.

Here she sat, or rather
lay
, on some evergreen branches, letting a three-hundred-year-old Druid look after her. Aside from her own illness, Karen's life had been very ordinary. She worked from her home, designing computer programs and 51

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

software. It had allowed her and Aggie a decent living, and it was an occupation that didn't physically tax Karen's ailing heart.

Because she had relentlessly confirmed Angus'

whereabouts, and eventually found the information by hacking into a new archival database, here she was—sitting under the stars with a giant of a man chattering away as if he couldn't shut up. She smiled. As he rattled on, Angus MacGregor just didn't seem threatening at all. Why anyone would have cast such a horrible spell and left him alone was unconscionable. Now, he was in a world centuries ahead. It must be like being reborn. And Karen wished there would be time to see what would happen to him. Would the magical creatures that might exist in this world embrace him or cast him aside? If that happened, what would this poor giant do?

How could he possibly survive?

Karen silently made one last promise. If his plans on going back to this Order didn't work out, she'd find someplace for Angus to fit in. If she hurried, there was time. A very long time ago, someone must have given a damn about this man, especially since they'd passed down an old legend from one generation to the next. Karen didn't see her responsibility as stopping when the curse was broken. Angus had to have a home, someplace where people would care for him. In that way, there would also be someone left who would remember
her
. It would be as though she'd done something really extraordinary, and her existence wouldn't be forgotten. Oh, she didn't doubt for a moment that Angus was grateful for what she'd already done. Who, in his place, wouldn't be? But 52

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

the man needed to be safe and happy as well. She couldn't just leave him in a world where he'd be misunderstood or hurt.

Some little well of energy formed inside her.
Here
was a reason to keep trying for a while longer. She wouldn't just quietly give up. She'd fight for every moment her heart could keep. For every memory she could make. When she finally rested, maybe those memories could follow her into the next life. She looked up to find Angus staring at her with a kind of lost puppy look in those beautiful dark eyes.

"You were far away in thought, lass. Do you miss your home and kin?"

She slowly shook her head. "There's no one left to miss.

They're all gone, I'm afraid."

Angus frowned. "'Tis sorry I am. I, too, am without kin."

Then he smiled as a thought came. "
We
could be a family, could we not? We share a common history, if no' blood. And one thing I have come to know. No one should be alone. No'

ever
."

Karen tried to hold off the tears. "No. No one should ever be alone."

"Then give me your hand, wee Karen. We will make a pact, you and I. We will be family and will go forth, as such, from this place. Each of us will protect, care for and carry the memory of the other through the ages."

Karen smiled broadly and placed her hand in his. "It's a pact then."

Angus let out a heartfelt laugh. "In my time, such a pact would have been toasted by drinking from a quaich."

Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

"A what?"

"A cup decorated with designs of my ancestors. 'Tis shared by those who make an agreement or who celebrate," he explained. "Wine or ale would be poured into the cup and we would drink and seal our promise."

Karen snapped her fingers. "I have wine. Food, too. I had it packed for the trip so I wouldn't have to stop along the way."

Angus grinned broadly. "Lady, truly you are an emissary from the Goddess herself. Where is this bounty? I will bring it to the fire."

"It's on the back seat of my car."

Angus tilted his head. "What is a ...
car?"

It was Karen's turn to smile. "I'd better show you..."

"No, Karen. You should stay by the fire and keep warm.

Just tell me where to find this thing and I will retrieve our feast."

She pointed toward the path and road beyond. "It's a big, silver box with wheels. A form of transportation."