by Leela Ash
In the dark room of the nunnery, Alex McDonald held onto the still, warm body of his beloved Andra. The dawn had just started to break, and a weak sun was rising above the mist. He knew that she was safe and that she would come back to him. As long as he kept holding her, she would not die. Their love was eternal.
THE END
This exciting story continues with Highland’s Dream, available from Amazon now
Into the Highlander’s Arms
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
1.
Zoe rolled over and turned off her alarm. It was 7:00 am and it had been blaring at her for half an hour. Even though she’d been determined to get up early, she found herself repeatedly hitting the snooze button and dozing under her quilt.
The cold nipped her skin each time she moved the blanket and she knew the second she actually got out of bed she was going to be miserable.
It was mid fall and the days had gone from sunny and mild, to murky and cold within the space of a week. She was resisting giving in and turning on her heating for fear of her bills rising too high too early in the year… She liked to save those kind of luxuries for the dead of winter.
Zoe rubbed her eyes and looked across the room to the door of her bathroom. She could drag the quilt with her and turn on the shower, letting it all get steamy and warm before getting undressed, but she was already running late and she couldn’t make a bad impression on her first day. She sighed and quickly threw the cover off herself, jumped to her feet and ran into the bathroom. With as much speed as she could muster for someone still half asleep, she flicked on the shower and whipped off her clothes before climbing over the side of the tub and dancing about in the warming water.
It wasn’t quite how she had envisioned her first day of her new job, but at least she was up and running.
After Zoe showered, she dried her hair and tied it into a tight ponytail. She moisturized her skin and made her lips dewy with gloss before she slipped into a pencil skirt and a tight cardigan and tied a red scarf around her neck. In her mind’s eye, she would look intellectual, perfect for her first day at work in one of the city’s oldest libraries, but in reality, as she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked more like a flight attendant. She scrunched up her face with disappointment and flashed a glance up at the clock. She didn’t have time to change, so it would have to do. She grabbed her coat and her keys and trotted out of the door of her apartment and into the cold autumn day.
The job at the library had been one of Zoe’s steps to begin again after her latest failed relationship. When she met Ross, she thought they were meant to be, but after just a short time, she learned that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. He’d broken her heart, even though she would never admit it to him, and after stewing for a few weeks, she decided that she needed a clean break and to mix things up. Her life had been stagnant for too long, and she wanted new and exciting experiences. She had quit her job as a receptionist at a law firm and landed the job at the library as an assistant librarian. It was something completely different to anything she had done before and she was sure it would open her mind to a whole other world of possibilities. She day-dreamed about meeting a scholar from Harvard or a professor who would be there researching and poring over ancient tomes. Maybe she would even be inspired to go back to college and take up a new subject. That was the magical pull of an old library—there was so much information under one roof, she was never going to be bored.
As Zoe walked down the street, she looked up at the trees that had been glowing with red and orange leaves seemingly a few days before. Now they were becoming bare and their branches poked out at different angles like bony fingers. This was her favorite time of year, and it felt perfect to her that she should be starting her new job as the world was preparing to start again, too.
She rounded a corner and stopped as she looked down the street. The library was standing tall and proud at the end and had an air of so much rich history about it that it made her smile from ear to ear.
“Here goes,” she said to herself as she stepped forward and walked towards it.
The Gold Rose Library was a very old building in the center of the city and looked gothic with its gargoyles and high spires. As Zoe approached the main door, her nerves were almost on top of her, but she breathed out deeply and heaved open the huge, heavy handle.
As she stepped inside, she was greeted almost immediately by a short, plump lady with large glasses and an even bigger smile.
“Good morning, Zoe!” she beamed. “Welcome to The Gold Rose!”
2.
As first mornings went, her time in the library was relatively easy and enjoyable. Zoe had been expecting to be shouldered with a lot of work that no one else really wanted to do, but instead the lady who had greeted her, Mrs. West, let her get accustomed to her surroundings in the main hall.
The Gold Rose wasn’t due to open until 10:30am, and Zoe had been shown to her desk in the center of the main hall, where she sat at a high oak information point in the middle of a stack of dusty hardcovers. Everything in there seemed ancient, and the whole place oozed with history and secrets. Zoe had never felt more intrigued at what could be hidden there within the walls.
She flipped through her employee manual, which looked as if it hadn’t been updated in about forty years and snuck a look at her cell phone. She had a text from her mother wishing her good luck on her first day and another from her best friend asking her to go for drinks on Friday night. She smiled. It was nice to have people who cared for her, but it didn’t matter how many friends or caring family members checked in, no one could fill the gap that Ross had left. Even after their short time together, Zoe had grown so used to having a partner that she was struggling without him.
She sighed and pushed him to the back of her mind. She had taken the new job to forget Ross and move on with her life. She was determined she wouldn’t be defined by a failed relationship and that she would thrive by finding new interests and a new career. She looked up and around her. The main hall really was an amazing sight. Its ceilings seemed as tall as the sky and the dark wood was so brooding and atmospheric it made her shiver. She had never really thought before about why the library had been given its name, but now she could see as she sat there that it had been decorated many years ago all around the edges of the ceiling in gold leaf in the shape of roses. She smiled as she thought about the artist deciding to do this and how he or she would have made it up so high to complete the intricate paintings.
“Must have taken them a long time,” said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see a girl about her age standing there with a large stack of books in her arms.
“That’s exactly what I was just thinking,” Zoe smiled.
The girl climbed up into the desk area and thumped the books down next to her.
“I’m Rebecca,” she smiled as she held out her hand.
“Zoe.”
“It’s nice to have someone else working here who isn’t as ancient as the library,” she laughed.
Zoe giggled too and nodded. “I can imagine it gets a little boring in here at times with no one to talk to.”
“Yep,” Rebecca sat down next to her and pulled the manual across the desk. “And I wouldn’t even bother reading this. They make everyone do it on their first day, but it has literally no relevance.”
“Thank God, I was starting to fall asleep,” Zoe fake yawned.
“So, Westy sent me down here to show you the ropes,” Rebecca smiled as she swiveled around on her chair. “What made you want to come and work in this place, anyway?”
“I just thought it would be an inter
esting change,” Zoe shrugged.
“We get a load of geeks wanting to work here,” she laughed. “I’m glad they seemed to hire someone normal.”
“Thanks,” she blushed, unsure of whether it was a compliment or not.
“Okay,” Rebecca grinned. “So, I guess we should start with the basics, but it’s all pretty straightforward…” She got to her feet and acted as if she was on stage in front of a large audience, and as she spoke her voice echoed around the empty room. “We are the faces of the lovely Gold Rose,” she took a bow and continued. “We are here to serve and educate the masses with the wealth of knowledge we have at our fingertips.”
Zoe started laughing. Rebecca was certainly funny.
“Okay, too over the top,” she laughed and sat down. “Basically, we’re information assistants. If anyone can’t find a book, we show them where it is, look it up on our database if necessary, check no one has already borrowed it and it’s still in the building so-to-speak, and then reshelf any books that have been returned…which sounds pretty easy, but it’s actually a lot of work…or hopefully not now you’re here, because I was doing it myself!” She stopped and sucked in a big chest full of air. “You literally have no idea how happy I am to have you here!”
Rebecca’s enthusiasm and sense of humor was infectious, and Zoe knew she was going to have a lot of fun working with her.
“Well, believe it or not, I’m really glad to be here, too,” she smiled. “It feels really good to have a fresh start…and just look at this place. It’s so beautiful!”
“Oh, I know,” Rebecca said as she turned and looked around at the huge hall they were standing in. “I suppose I’ve been here so long now, I take it for granted.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get bored at looking around it,” Zoe beamed. “It’s just so full of history.”
“That sounds a bit geeky,” Rebecca said. “Alert! Alert!”
“Haha, okay, sorry,” Zoe said as she looked down at the floor. “I promise I’m not a geek… Don’t worry.”
“Good,” Rebecca said as she swept the books back up into her arms. “Well, come on then, we better get going. We have lots to do this morning.”
“Okay,” Zoe jumped down from her chair and held her hands up. “What should I bring?”
“Just yourself for now,” Rebecca said ominously. “You’ll be helping me with the stack of books from hell any second.”
“Oh great,” Zoe said as she followed Rebecca out of the information point and down one of the long corridors of books. As they made their way further into the maze of the library, Zoe knew she had definitely made the right decision. She was going to love working there, she could feel it.
3.
The girls spent the rest of the morning on their hands and knees at the very back of the main hall, sifting through returned books and checking the library map for where each pile they were making should go on its designated shelf. The doors opened as planned at 10:30 and although the first hour was very quiet with barely anyone coming in, as it approached lunch time there seemed to be a few groups of tourists and the odd actual visitor looking for something in particular.
Zoe made her way back to the information point as Rebecca shelved some of the returned books. She climbed into her big leather chair and began to read the manual as she tried to get to grips with the database. She was glad that she hadn’t been approached by anyone and asked for help yet as she still didn’t have a clue how anything worked. Rebecca had been a good trainer, but she was so funny the girls had spent most of their time messing around and cracking jokes.
She looked up at the gold leaf roses all along the ceiling and wondered to herself how much all of the artwork in the library must be worth. She watched the tourists wandering around, snapping photographs and picking up the odd old book to show to one another. She remembered how she and Ross had once visited a bookstore downtown and he bought her a copy of Wuthering Heights. She closed her eyes and sighed.
Don’t do this to yourself, she thought. You’re having fun… Don’t make it all about him…
She blinked back the tears just in time before Rebecca came bouncing around the corner with two mugs of coffee.
“Right,” she said. “We’ll have lunch up here today,” she placed the cups down and clapped her hands together. “Normally we get half an hour, but I guess you probably have tons of questions, and to be honest, I can’t be bothered going out for a walk… Plus, we have to go down into the archive in about an hour.” She rolled her eyes and pretended to put a finger down her throat.
“The archive?” Zoe asked.
“Yeah,” Rebecca said as she sat down and blew on lightly on the top of her coffee. “We have a selection of rooms that are technically underground here… And they’re called the archives… I hate going down there, they give me the creeps.”
“That sounds awesome!” Zoe said a little too enthusiastically.
“Well, you won’t think that when you’re covered in dust and spider webs and freezing cold while trying to take an inventory to make sure nothing has gone missing,” she laughed.
“Missing?” Zoe was suddenly very intrigued. “Why would anything go missing?”
“Look at this place,” Rebecca whispered. “Some of the books in here alone are worth fortunes… Never mind the sculptures and artwork.” She leaned in closer and raised her eyebrows. “And that’s the stuff they have on display… Imagine the things they don’t want people to see.”
“Seriously?” The hairs on Zoe’s arm stood up on end.
Rebecca nodded and sipped her drink. “They made you sign that secrecy act thing didn’t they?” She spun on her chair.
“Yes, but they said that was because this was a heritage site…”
Rebecca raised her eyebrows again.
“It’s because you might see things the rest of the world doesn’t know about.”
Zoe sat back in her chair and cradled her cup of coffee in her hands. She couldn’t tell if Rebecca was messing with her or whether she was being deadly serious. In any event, she couldn’t wait to get down to the archives and see what they were all about.
“So when are we going down?” she asked, pretending not to be too interested.
“After lunch,” Rebecca opened one of the desk draws and pulled out two packets of chips. “Not exactly a five-course meal, but it should hit the spot,” she shrugged.
Zoe wasn’t even hungry, but she accepted them with a smile.
The next hour seemed to drag painfully along as her mind raced with what she might see down in the archives. It was the sort of thing she had seen in movies or read about in books, but when she had applied for and taken the job, it had never even crossed her mind that there may be secret rooms or even secrets of history hidden within the library walls.
Rebecca didn’t seem to think it was a big deal, but it was exciting Zoe beyond belief. She thought back to her interview and of how Mrs. West had handed her the secrecy form. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal at the time, maybe because she was used to dealing with confidential information at the law firm, but now it was taking on a whole other meaning.
“Right then,” Rebecca closed her laptop and got to her feet. “Should we head down there and get it over with?”
Zoe was on her feet before Rebecca had even finished her sentence.
“Yes,” she said. “Show me the way.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes and began her walk down the long center section of the main hall towards the back.
At the end of the hall, there was a set of doors and when Rebecca opened them they led out into a long hallway. It was colder out there and the lights were dim. Zoe immediately felt herself shiver and pulled the scarf tighter around her neck.
“It’s right down at this end.” Rebecca looked at her over her shoulder and walked down into the darkness. The further they went, the more the light seemed to disappear, and it looked like this part of the library was largely neglected.
“No one comes dow
n here,” Rebecca said. “It’s just a place for the janitor to dump all of the broken chairs.”
Zoe looked around the hallway and realized in the darkened corners were crumpled and broken bits of wood. It was a mess—a dusty, forgotten mess, and Zoe felt sad that parts of such a beautiful building were being left to rot.
Rebecca stopped at a door at the end of the hall.
“Here we are,” she said as she turned and looked back at Zoe. “Are you ready?”
Zoe nodded and held her breath. Rebecca smiled and pushed the door. It creaked open…
4.
Rebecca stepped forward first, entering the dark room and groping around on the wall for a light switch. Z0e hung back with bated breath. She didn’t know what to expect and her skin was tingling all over.
When Rebecca found the light and turned it on with a flick, the room was illuminated with a harsh fluorescent glow. It looked like any old room, one that was neglected and filled with junk, but there was nothing remotely exciting or special about it. Zoe’s heart sank. It looked just like any old crumby janitor’s room, full of mops, buckets and forgotten furniture.
“Is this it?” she asked with a scowl.
Rebecca burst out laughing and shook her head.
“Of course not,” she laughed as she slapped Zoe playfully on the arm. “Do you really think anything of value would be kept in this crappy room!?”
Zoe felt heat creep over her cheeks.
“Here, come on,” Rebecca said as she grabbed her lightly by the arm and pulled her to the back of the room.
What looked like a closet door, partially hidden by a stack of dusty chairs, was the entrance to the archives. Rebecca pulled the chairs away, and they screeched along the floor. Zoe covered her ears and winced. When Rebecca stood back and pulled a flashlight out of her back pocket, she flipped on the light and reached into her other pocket and pulled out a key.
