Nelly Bass turned the key in the brass lock, and swung the door open. Shuffling through the door, clothes in one hand and a pot of food in the other, she saw Ruth, and stopped abruptly. “Who are you?”
“This is my mother,” Helen said, stepping forward.
“You don’t say,” Nelly chuckled. “That guard downstairs thought you a bloody fool. He’s looking for you. Thought you should know that. Are you the woman who put a knife to my ma’s throat?”
“I didn’t harm her,” Ruth replied.
“Aye, well, you scared her right enough.” Nelly put down the pot and pulled out a wooden spoon that she had tucked down her cleavage.
“Can you get Helen out of here?” Ruth asked.
“I don’t know about that. I was told to bring you dry clothes and some food.” Nelly thought for an instant how easily she might walk Helen back down the stairs dressed in the servants’ clothes that she had brought. Even if she was to run with Helen, Keith would go after her and bring her back. She shivered at the thought of Keith’s revenge. “Even if I did, he would find out. Do you have any idea what Dugald Keith would do to me if he caught me helping you escape? Besides, your lover was supposed to do the rescuing, not me.”
“My lover…?” Helen’s head perked up, her voice urgent.
“William, I think he said his name was. I took clothes to where he was lodging just as I said I would. Supposed to meet me outside the gate before sunrise, he was. I waited as long as I could, but he never came. Thought better of it I suppose. Here, let me help you out of that dress.” Nelly looked at the torn, blood-stained wedding dress. “Then it’s true, what William said?”
“What did he tell you?” Helen seemed desperate for word of William.
“That Dugald stole you from the altar. Killed everyone, burned them alive.” Nelly said and watched as Ruth bowed her head and moved away.
“What else did he say?” Helen slipped out of her dress and pulled off the thin, blood-stained slip she had worn beneath.
“I should have brought you a bucket of water and a cloth,” Nelly said avoiding Helen’s question while noticing the dark patches of dried blood on her pale skin. “It’s no wonder Dugald lusts for you,” she continued looking at Helens fine figure. “You’re a looker.”
“What if Dugald doesn’t know that Helen escaped?” Ruth paced as Nelly helped Helen fit into a woolen garment.
“How do you suppose he won’t know? He’s going to marry her tonight,” Nelly remarked.
“I will take her place,” Ruth, devoid of emotion quietly moved to the base of the stone stairway.
“I may be me simple, and I mean no disrespect, but I think that Dugald will notice the difference.” Nelly chuckled as she pulled down the back of the dress. The two turned and saw Ruth naked. The blood stained tunic and Aberach’s hat lay in a heap on the floor. In her hand she held Helen’s wedding dress.
“Mother…” Helen was stopped by Ruth’s up-turned hand.
“I can give you life again.” Ruth’s head was twitching noticeably, and she seemed to be fighting an unseen enemy within.
“What’s going on?” Nelly looked at Ruth’s skinny scarred body and became nervous.
“She plans to jump,” Helen said.
“Can you tell me that you wouldn’t have had I not stopped you?” Ruth pulled on her daughter’s torn wedding gown and turned to Nelly. “Will you tie it for me?”
Nelly wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t want to be caught up in the middle of this. It was likely that Dugald was getting needed sleep before the wedding, but there was no guarantee. He could walk in and catch her.
Helen said nothing but walked behind her mother and tied the bodice of the gown. Then she picked up Aberach’s hat and her mother’s dress and rolled them together into a small ball.
“I used to watch swallows out of my prison window. They nested in the eves above. I would watch them soar, graceful…free. I longed to be free like the swallows. Will you pin the Gunn broach and Tartan sash?”
Nelly watched in disbelief as Helen, tears running freely down her cheeks, pinned the broach and sash onto her mother. Ruth put a hand to Helen’s cheek.
“I wish it had been different, all of it different. God has given us a chance to make it so.” Ruth suddenly grabbed her head with both hands and spun away from Helen. “Go, go now! Go on both of you get out! Get out now, for the love of God, out!”
Nelly didn’t need any further urging, but grabbed Helen by the hand and ran through the door. Panting in rhythm with her racing heart she took a moment to look at Helen. Still clutching the ball of clothing, she seemed to be in shock. “No offense intended, but your mother is quite mad.” Nelly closed and locked the door.