Interview with Grainne in the World of Loci on the Isle of Mull
Grainne: I’m still not certain what help I can be to you Ms. LeMoyne. My lass Briallen and the Mackenzie clan are more important to the story than I am.
KH: But you found Briallen after she came through the portal into Loci. You’ve brought her home and treated her with kindness for the last nine years. Why would you do that for a total stranger?
Grainne: She was but a child. With the rain and lightening that night…she was just this slender lost thing in the middle of the standing stones. There was naught else to do but take her home with us.
KH: She was a little older than a child.
Grainne nodded, her fingers twining in her lap, then shrugged and offered me a raised chin and bold look.
Grainne: Aye. She was about the age I was when my bonny Nolan first brought me and my brother, Hefin, to the Isle of Mull. Ten and eight, I was. And now so many years later with my wonderful Nolan now gone these last twelve years I still know how it feels to be in a strange place and strange land. Taking the girl home wasn’t a burden. Briallen was a comfort. She filled my life and even Hefin has a tender spot for the lass.
KH: How did you handle having a stranger in your home for nine years? Surely that must have caused questions with the clansmen around you?
Grainne: T’was but a small tale we told. Nolan traveled far to bring me to my new home. He’d wed me sight unseen as a promise to the Laird. Hefin and I told others she was a relative who had found her way to us after her family’s death.
KH: So you basically claimed her as family? But certainly Briallen wanted to go home?
Grainne: Such a fierce will that one. Hefin took her to every standing stone on the island and every fair and traveling market after that. The poor girl tried every small bit of magic she possessed to get home to her family. And as the years passed, she never gave up searching for some sign of those brothers of hers.
KH: You’re very attached to her?
Grainne: She’s the child I never had. Nolan would have loved her dearly. Full of determination, but tempered with a kind heart she is. She doesn’t have my gift for the healing ways, but she let me pass on what I know just the same. With Hefin as well, though he balked at training the lass to fight.
KH: And when Logan and his cousin showed up, what did you think of two more strangers? Did you consider they might be her brothers.
Grainne: The way the man’s look followed her, there was no way he was her kin. But since he’d shown up bringing that ill child I knew he carried no malice in his heart.
KH: You trusted him because he brought you a sick child?
Grainne: A stranger to him, she was. It was the honorable thing to do and many of the clan would have done the same. But Logan wouldn’t leave that wee girl until she was safe, until he gained her protection. Not many would do that. He took to my Briallen the same way, though his interest was a man’s care for a woman.
KH: What did Briallen think of the two men’s sudden appearance?
Grainne: She took it as if a sign had finally been sent to end her suffering. In truth, she was right on that score. But life doesn’t always bring what we expect. She only expected them to provide her a door home. For her sake, I was glad they delivered more.
KH: If you loved her so much, why did you let her leave with them?
The gray head bowed and I waited, feeling badly to have caused the woman pain with my question. But when she lifted her head and looked at me it was with a bright smile, if a bit watery in the eyes.
Grainne: She was a great gift to me and she will be a great gift to those who need her desperately now. My love for her said to let her go and I followed my heart as I told her to follow hers.
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