12Iona was worried. She sensed that something was wrong, but she was not yet certain what it was or whether it concerned herself.
She had wakened early in the morning, feeling unusually happy. For a moment her happiness had been vague, like the lingering memory of some exquisite dream when the sleeper has been transported into a sunlit world and while the details are forgotten, the effect remains clear. But as full consciousness returned and her senses became more alert, Iona knew one reason for happiness.
Hector was safe! She need no longer be distraught neither with anxiety nor with the terror that had pursued her all the day before – a terror that Lord Niall’s men might recapture their prisoner. But night had come and with it the news that the chase had been abandoned. Hector appeared
