Claire woke up energized she actually found herself looking forward to the next day. She was eager to speak to Mrs. Graham again and find out how her naked Druid dance had gone.
"And what are you smiling over?" Claire was startled by Frank's gruff question, her hand lifted to her face and it confirmed she was indeed smiling, she hadn't even realized.
"Just lost in thought for a moment, I had a lovely talk with Mrs. Graham the other day."
Frank just grunted but seemed to think it harmless company for Claire to keep while he was busy with the Reverend. He had been considering returning to academia and was delving deep into his ancestral history with the Reverend's help.
It was barely 8am when Claire next saw Mrs. Graham. She was getting breakfast together. Claire made her excuses and left the men to their research claiming she was going to offer Mrs. Graham a hand in the kitchen. Frank of corse made a disparaging comment over her cooking but today she seemed not to mind.
"Mrs. Graham," Claire said announcing herself.
"Oh, ello dear, I troost ye slept weel?"
"Actually I did, I had lovely dreams of some druid dancers up on fairy hill." Claire replied only partially joking.
"Ah, weel it was braw night despite th' weather." Suddenly Mrs. Graham dropped what she was doing and grabbed Claire's hand roughly pulling her into the corner dropping her voice into a whisper,
"If ye plan on leaving' ye need tae be doin' it now."
"I'm sorry?" Claire asked confused.
"If ye meanin' to be gettin awn' from yer husband ye need tae be gonnae now. Th' stones willnae be open fur much longer." She said dead seriously to Claire.
Claire gulped, not fully understanding the change that had occurred in Mrs. Graham.
"Why would you assume I'm wanting to get away from my husband?"
"The eyes," Mrs. Graham replied, "Yer husband's have no love, no kindness, only cold calculation. An' yoors, yesterday ye were lookin' tae those trees out back like ye were hoping' they'd come tae life an' carry ye away."
Claire didn't know how it was possible that Mrs. Graham saw her more clearly in 3 days of knowing each other than others who had been in her life for years. Perhaps there was magic in her after all.
"It's nice you want to help, but I don't know what going to a bunch of stones on a hill is going to do for me."
"If ye go, an truly allow yer slef to be open, the Stones will carry ye how you wished those tree would." Mrs. Graham explained, Claire was about to dismiss her again when Mrs. Graham asked her...
"What de ye really hav' to loose?"
Claire didn't have a response to that... was she really thinking of going, of racing off to some stones in hope they would solve all her problems, give her a second chance? Shockingly she realized she was.
Mrs. Graham saw Claire look towards the back door,
"My car is parked 3 houses down, the keys are in the visor... GO!"
It wasn't anything to do with reason or belief that Claire decided to go, it was pure instinct, the cage door had been unlatched and she was sprinting out purely on instinct.
Mrs. Graham kept puttering about the kitchen, asking Claire questions as tho she was still there, in hope of buying the girl as much time as possible.
Claire ran faster than she ever had, cutting through people's yards she made it the three houses down and jumped in the first car she saw. When she opened the visor, keys and a map fell down onto her lap. She turned the ignition and pulled out onto the road slowly at first, not to grab anyone's attention, and after a few blocks passed she gunned it.
Racing through the Scottish countryside was exhilarating, "was this really it? was she really about to escape Frank's clutches?" She was terrified to get her hopes up but not so scared she was going to let the chance pass her by.
She saw the stones in the distance and pulled the car over under the shade of some trees. Racing up the hill, logic seemed to return to her, how did she really expect this to work? Why had she thought to listen to a old nude dancing druid?
At the stones she saw a pack, as she unrolled it an old costume and a note came tumbling out.
She held the note out and quickly scanned it:
******* Put on the dress and open yer heart, the Stones shall do the rest.
She looked around to see if there was anyone about, she started to believe this was some elaborate prank and soon Frank would jump out of the trees and laugh at her foolish attempt to leave him.
"Your a bloody fool Beauchamp," Claire muttered to herself as she changed clothes, "Listening to that old women, what are you thinking?!" Still she kept dressing herself, once she was done she realized she had no idea what to do next, she bent down to grab the note again and saw through the paper there was something on the other side. Turning it over she saw a little sketch, a woman with her hands on the largest stone.
Claire sucked in a deep breath and approach the stones, "This is ridiculous" she thought to herself and then she remembered Mrs. Grahams words "open yer heart... what do ye have to loose?"
Claire closed her eyes and for the first time truly allowed herself to believe, upon opening her eyes again she heard a humming, or was it a buzzing... it was coming from the larger stone in the center. She started to approach it and as she got closer, it almost sounded like a cacophony of voices crying out, she raised her hands to the stones and suddenly everything went black.