The Ghost by Greyson, Maeve (best motivational books to read .txt) 📕

until he returned—and once he did, none of those answers mattered. All she needed was her dear one back at her side. Even if fate decreed she die in this bleak darkness, she could face it, as long as her sweet love held her in his arms one more time. At least Keigan was safe with Catriona and Alexander. That bit of comfort brought her a sad smile.

“Diabhal gabh e!”

Dagger drawn, Brenna whirled about, searching for the source of the shout. Who had shouted, ‘devil take it’ in the old tongue? A woman for certain. Was it Cadha? The cursing had come from the right of the storage plateau where Magnus had said the fissure widened too much to cross.

Brenna went to the rim of the rock shelf and held the sputtering flames of a makeshift torch over the edge. The blackness of the void laughed at her efforts, making the light as insignificant as a spark. Another glimmer glowed several lengths down below, but it was so faint, it barely illuminated the form huddled beside it. “Cadha? Is that ye?”

“Well, who else would it be, ye stupid cow?” The lass lifted the lamp as she scowled upward, her grimy face ghostly and pale.

Brenna had half a mind to leave the sharp-tongued wench where she sat. In fact, the girl needed to think about that. “Forgive me for bothering ye, yer highness. I’ll leave ye to yer privacy. After all, I’m far too stupid to pull yer sorry arse up from that ledge.” She stepped back and swept the torchlight away from the void to make Cadha think she meant it.

“No! Wait!” A shuffling echoed up from the fissure, accompanied by a meek, “Hello? Are ye still up there, mistress?”

After a long enough pause to make the girl a bit more respectful, Brenna cast her light back down into the hole. “I am here. Are ye hurt?”

“I think me arm’s broke, and my lamp burnt me leg when it fell down beside me.” She snuffled, sounding as though she had just wiped her face on her arm. “Least it landed on the shelf and stayed put. Thought I could make the jump. Did it afore. But this time, I came up short. Held on to the edge for a bit but couldn’t pull m’self out. Lucky for me, I dropped to the ledge.”

“Let me get one of the ropes ye missed ruining when ye destroyed the stores.” Brenna’s conscience wouldn’t allow her to leave the girl to die, but it didn’t demand she be nice to her.

Cadha didn’t comment. Brenna took that as a confession that the maid had been the one to sully the cache. She scooped up one rope, then stopped. The distance down to the rock shelf looked to be quite a stretch, and Cadha would have to wrap the rope around her slight body. Just to be sure she had enough, Brenna brought along the other rope as well.

After securing her torch in a crack in the wall, she knotted the rope, satisfied with how the loop closed up with just a tug. She lowered it over the edge. “Step into this and hitch it up under yer arms. It’ll go tight as I pull ye up, but shouldna pinch ye too much since ye’re just a wee thing.”

Cadha did as instructed. “I canna hold the rope if’n I bring my lantern up, too,” she called out. “I had it hooked to me belt, but the latch broke when I hit the wall, and it willna hold it now.”

Brenna hated the thought of abandoning any source of light. “If I lower the other rope, too, can ye tie it to the lamp somehow?” With an arm broken, one of Cadha’s hands might very well be useless.

“I think I can. Send it down, and I’ll try.”

“I’ve knotted a loop in this one, too.” Brenna tossed it to the girl’s outstretched hand. “Tie it wherever ye think it’ll hold and not catch fire, then yank tight and tell me when.”

After several fumbling attempts, Cadha leaned back against the wall and waved upward. “Try it now but go slow lest the oil shifts and tips it.”

Brenna eased the smoking oil lamp upward, noting the slight weight of it and wondering how long Cadha had been wandering the caves. She set it aside and dropped the extra rope beside it.

“Hurry. I dinna like the dark.”

Brenna understood. She secured the rope tied to Cadha around her back and planted her feet to hold the girl’s weight. Slow and steady, she pulled, feeding the rope through her hands. The lass weighed more than she looked. Brenna backed up a step and resettled her stance, bracing herself as much as she could. “Climb some if ye can,” she called out, but the girl didn’t answer. Brenna feared the maid had passed out from the pain of her broken arm. She inched backward, keeping the rope taut and hoping the edge of the precipice wasn’t sharp enough to sever it before the girl reached safety. When the lass popped into view and clamped her forearm up over the edge, Brenna blew out a relieved huff. “Praise God!”

“Dinna drop me, ye cow!” Cadha struggled to grapple the rest of the way out of the fissure. “Ye can sing yer praises to God once I’m sitting by the fire, ye ken?” She rolled to her back, gasping to catch her breath.

“Ye’re an ungrateful creature, I’ll give ye that.” Brenna yanked hard enough to drag the sour-faced girl well away from the pit. She untied the slip knot and jerked it from around the maid’s body. “There. Get close to the fire, and I’ll check yer arm.”

“Dinna ye worry with it.” Sullen as a spoiled child, the lass dragged herself over to the fire, hugging her wounded limb to her chest. “I’ll find me a healer on my way to Fort William.” She shot a narrow-eyed glare back at Brenna. “Thanks to ye, they captured him. I