“That is honestly not a serious matter. Joan and I will speak to my parents and they should help us now,” Aidan said as he pulled Joan back into his lap. “We will find a way to make peace with them. All I know is that Joan will be wed to me and nae one else.”
“If ye say so, then it is all right. I wish the two of you the best of luck in whatever ye have planned and Joan… I apologize. I have never seen Aidan get so attached to a woman the way he got close to ye. I apologize for the way I have treated ye. I do hope that ye can find it in yer heart to forgive me harsh behavior toward ye,” Ian said.
“Please Ian, you have done nothing wrong. You were only looking out for your friend and your town.”
“Thank you. Honestly, I was terrified about being at the battle front. I am so used to staying behind Aidan that I almost fainted from fear. Me? Just charging into a sea of Englishmen just like that without my frien’ felt strange. I kept hoping he would show up,” Ian joked, and they all laughed.
Chapter 29
Lord Tyrill clenched his jaws as both the Earl and the Duke shook hands on the treaty.
This was not supposed to go this way! This war was meant to take place! Joan is not supposed to be here with that savage boy trying to stop anything! Aberdeenshire should be on their knees!
“Lord Tyrill!” the Lord flinched as he turned to the Duke who wore an angry expression on his face. “I am highly disappointed in you! You told me false things about these people, about how they kidnapped your daughter just to get me to wage war against them! Your lies could have cost many lives, but you only seemed interested in fighting the other party as a form of revenge for your daughter, I suppose?”
“Forgive me, Your Grace but I—” the Lord started but the Duke interrupted him.
“Silence!” the Duke snapped. “I ought to lock you up despite your status! Do not think I will not tell the King about your deceit and lies. I will recommend that he strips you of your title. I hereby annul my engagement to your daughter."
The Lord ignored what the Duke was saying and looked around for Aidan. His lips curled up in a snarl as he could not find Aidan nor Joan.
That rat must have taken her away! He stole her away the first time, I will not let him do so again.
“I understand all that will befall me, but with all due respect, that ruffian,”" the Lord spat, “he has taken my daughter away again. This was what started this war!”
“Me son is nae a ruffian! Maybe ye should talk to yer daughter and get her to stop running off with men!” Aidan's father replied in anger. “Ye can nae keep blaming me son for the disappearance of yer daughter!”
“I will not stand here to argue with the likes of you. My daughter is with that boy of yours and I will not stand for it! Sebastian! James! Follow me!” Lord Tyrill turned his back and ran out with Sebastian and Sir James fast behind him.
“My Lord, I suggest that you first take a moment to calm down," Sebastian said as he caught up to Lord Tyrill but he responded with a mean glare. “Perhaps not.”
Sebastian and Sir James followed Lord Tyrill to the stables to collect their horses. Lord Tyrill grabbed the stable boy by his shirt and shoved him vigorously.
“Where are our horses?” Lord Tyrill screamed at him.
The scared stable boy pointed in the direction of their horses and Lord Tyrill let go of him. He hit the ground still looking dazed at the Englishmen. Sebastian approached him and lifted him up, he murmured an apology before running toward Lord Tyrill.
They headed into the streets with no sense of direction. The Lord took the widest road before him and headed for the center of the town with Sebastian and Sir James following him.
Where could they be?
After a few moments of mindless searching for any sight of Joan, Lord Tyrill stopped his horse by a tree on a small hill.
“My Lord! Where do you think they could be?” Sebastian asked as they tore through the streets.
“I do not know, but we will comb this entire town to find them! I do not care what I have to go through, I will find my daughter!”
“Why not ask?” Sebastian suggested.
“Why would I ask for help from these savages? What help could they possible render?” the Lord answered as they got closer to the gates. “If we disperse from here, then…”
“My Lord, please let us ask some townspeople. If we refuse to ask them, we waste more time,” Sebastian interrupted. “Pardon me, My Lord.”
“I agree. He may have taken her away from Aberdeenshire for all we know. The more time we waste, the further they get,” Sir James agreed and Lord Tyrill sighed, knowing they were right.
Lord Tyrill started to feel his hand burn. He raised his sleeve and saw the last scar bleed. The pain was too much as the Lord fell to his knees, unable to hold his wound and unable to soothe it.
It was but a short while that he spotted them riding together all smiles. He saw the last scar bleeding.
Curse! Am I wrong? Joan is still alive and my scar is bleeding. Joan was not the last curse.
“Joan, you will come with me. You are not to marry the Duke, but you will come with me.” Lord Tyrill exhaled.
“Your arrogance has made you blind. You are not in control of anyone rather than your own life, Matthew Hale. You cannot change what has been destined. I want to marry Aidan and I do not need your approval to do so!”
Those words! Those exact words were what she said to me! How can Joan say this? It is almost like she is willing to abandon me.
The air suddenly grew cold as the wind started to blow. They heard the shrill call of a raven as it hovered over them. The wind came together and a gust of cold air morphed into dark smoke. A woman suddenly appeared.
It is her!
“Who are you?” Joan asked hesitantly as the mysterious woman looked around with a satisfied smile on her face. Her smile faltered when she saw Aidan's eye.
“Who I am should be the least of your worries, child. You should be more concerned about what I can do for you,” she said as the raven perched on her shoulder and she turned to Joan's father. “Matthew Hale, I see your scar has started to bleed,” she said as she crouched in front of him and stretched her hand to him. “Let me see.”
“Why did you do this to me?” Joan heard her father croak. “I was not in the right frame of mind when I attacked you. You should have at least considered that.”
“You orchestrated your own downfall,” she said in a calm tone as she snatched Lord Tyrill's hand, but he pulled it back.
“You horrible woman! You killed an innocent woman and took away my arm!” Joan flinched as her father got to his feet.
“Your arrogance and stubbornness has killed many and injured many more. You cursed your own daughter with sadness and when she met someone who could make her happy, you attacked him.”
“None of this would have ever happened if you had not cursed me!” Joan heard her father cry and she grew curious.
Curse? Did this woman know why my father forbade me from leaving the estate?
“What is she talking about? Father?”
“It is none of your concern, Joan,” he said to her but this reply only made her angry.
“No! You have kept me in the dark all my life and I never troubled you, but not today. If this is about me, I deserve to know. What innocent woman died? What curse? Why is your wrist bleeding so much? And who is this woman?” Joan yelled as she stood her ground. “How do you know her? Father, I demand answers!”
“I will give you your answers, child,” the woman said and she turned to Joan. “It happened long before your father even met your mother. After a successful war, the King entertained him and the soldiers. He was drunk and he came into the inn where I was staying that night. Out of pride, he tried to force himself on me. I fought him off, but he persisted until I succeeded in pushing him off me and placed a curse on him.”
Joan reeled back in disgust at what the woman had told her. “Why would you do that, father?”
“He was to face three great despairs in his life before his death and I gave him three scars on his left wrist to mark each curse. The curse claimed the life of his wife and his fighting arm. He locked you up because he was afraid that the last curse would claim your life, but what he did not know was that the last curse was going to cause him to lose everything.”
“Everything?” Joan asked.
"Everything except you. He will lose his title and everything he has worked for. He had brought all the pain and misery upon himself. I made sure that you would not be affected because I could foresee how you will heal the old wounds of the two towns. If my curse had claimed your life, this war would have never ended, and the blood would flow into the next generation. Many would have died, including your lover here,” she said as she slouched down to Aidan's position on the ground.
His eyes had started to bleed again and the blood had been trailing down his cheek. “Poor child! It was either this or you would lose your life,” she said to him and he peered at her for a second.
“It is ye,” he finally said, his voice hoarse. “Ye are the woman from the inn,” he said and she gave him a small smile.
“I once saw ye in me dreams, but I dismissed it. I dinnae believe in witches and I thought it was just a dream. I remember yer prophecy!” Aidan said, his voice a little louder as he shakily raised a bloody hand to Joan. “It was true then! Ye said a pair of yellow-green eyes will save me! It was Joan!”
What?
“What are you saying?” Joan asked as she turned to Aidan. “What prophecy?”
Why are there so many secrets being hidden from me?
“I had a dream about three summers ago. I could nae see her face but I could feel her strong presence. In the dream, a woman asked me if I wanted to know my destiny. I said I did nae believe in destiny but she grabbed my palm anyway.
“My palm glowed in her hands and she drew lines on my hands. She told me a pair of yellow-green eyes will lead me to my happiness. She said when I found her, I should keep her by my side at all costs. Ye Joan, ye were the one she spoke about,” Aidan explained.
“I watched over both of you with my raven. I met you again Aidan, but you did not know who I was. On a starry night in a lonely inn, you were wounded yet you rushed to protect a stranger. I tended to your wounds and saw that your heart was pure. I stayed with you on your journey and I saw your pain. You do not want violence but you have been raised on the battleground. I once told you that you would find your happiness and here she is.” The witch now turned to Joan.
“Oh, Joan the innocent, ye wanted nothing more than to see beyond your prison. I saw your suffering and I knew that you never thought ill of anyone, not even your monster of a father. I never met you in person because ye were closely watched but my raven trailed your journey. I found joy in watching you fight for your freedom. Ye are free now.”
“Thank ye! Thank ye so much! I daenae know how to express me gratitude,” Aidan said, and the witch smiled at him.
The woman turned to Lord Tyrill whose scar had stopped bleeding and she ran her palm over his wrist. Joan saw the scar disappear as she took her hand off the wound.
“It seems my work here is done. I must take my leave now. The Laird of Leitan is on his way with some guards looking for his son,” she said as the raven perched on her shoulder and she turned her back on them and walked off into the forest.
True to her words they heard the sound of hooves hitting the earth and soon the clearing was surrounded with Scottish soldiers and the Laird.
His father stopped in front of them and spoke first.
“I wanted to tender me apologies, Aidan. I just want us to go back to the way we were. We used to be joined at the hip. Now we can nae even see eye to eye.”
“Who pushed ye to come say this? Mother?” Aidan asked as his harsh glare was replaced with a suspicious look. “I knew ye must have had something planned for Joan and her faither.”
“Ye see what I am talking about? We have nae even talked that much and ye are already saying I have an evil plan to hatch,” the Laird said, as Aidan rose. He placed a hand on Aidan's shoulder, but Aidan glared angrily at the hand.
“Daenae touch me,” Aidan shook his father's hand off his shoulder and then moved away from him. “Ye came here to tell me that ye wanted us to go back to the way we were, how can that happen when you daenae want what I want?”
“I know and I am ready to accept Miss Hale in yer life as me daughter.”
Aidan peeked up at his father's words and a smug grin brightened up his face.
He said he would accept Joan! This is such great news. If me father has come to tell me this, that means me mother has spoken to him about it and they had come to a conclusion. Everyone accepts Joan, even Ian.
“If ye see Joan as yer future wife, then I am sure that yer mother and I will see what it is that you love about her as time goes on, but please Aidan, yer rebellion is our only concern.”
Aidan looked away from his father, understanding his own faults. “Yer mother and I, we clearly understand that ye love a Sassenach, but all this is breaking up our family. We just want things to go back to the way it was before ye even went to Haerton on a mission.”
“I apologize too, faither," Aidan said as his father moved closer to him. I was trying to be…”
“Nay Aidan. Ye are a man, ye fought for your love,” the Laird said as he now sat beside his son. “To show ye that yer mother and I mean this, we have decided to step down after ye have gotten married.”
“Ye can nae be serious.” Aidan scoffed but the serious look on his father's face cleared his doubts. “Ye are serious?”
“Aye, Aidan. Being Laird is nae an easy task, adding that to yer work for the Earl, ye will have a lot to do but I trust the son that I raised; ye can handle it. Ye saw something we were all too blind to see, you saw peace where we saw blood, ye can change the lives of our people. I was only three summers older than ye when my father passed the mantle to me. This way, I will still be around to advise you and have some heated arguments with you.”
“Thank ye, faither,” Aidan said. “I willnae disappoint ye.”
Joan turned to her father: “How is your wrist? Let me see it,” she said and he complied, stretching his hand to her and she ran a finger over the faint scar.
“ Joan… I wanted to apologize for my wrong doings. I have taken so much from you. I have taken away your mother, your childhood and I almost took away the man you loved. Can you find it in you to forgive me? I know I have wronged you and I seek your forgiveness.”
She must think me a vile man. I have done many horrible things that disgust me when I think of them. It was my fault that my wife, her mother, died. I denied her the love of a mother and when I thought I was taking care of her, I was taking away more happiness from her. I will make her happy. Even if it is the last thing I do. Even if it means letting her marry into another kingdom, I am content with anything to restore her joy. Lord Tyrill looked at her and suddenly knew what he had to do.
“I do not mind it if you marry him. He is the one for you, I should have seen that before. I fed myself the lies I wanted to believe and I hated him because I thought he was going to cause your death. I cannot change what has been destined and both of you are definitely meant to be. I will give you my blessing only if you allow me to,” Lord Tyrill said and his heart warmed up at the sight of Joan's slight smile.
“You do not object to my staying in Scotland?” she asked as she jumped to her feet. “I can marry him!”
“As long as that is what makes you happy, my child. I have caused you pain in the past, this is might be my only chance to make you happy. I only ask that you forgive me.”
“"Father, I could never hate you even if I tried. No matter what you did, you did it to protect me. What father would not fear for his daughter's life if he thought she was going to die. I acted rashly when I ran away from home with strangers.
“I knew nothing about them and you must have been w
orried sick about me. I should have handled the matter wisely but I acted on impulse like a child would and ran away. Not all my choices were justified as well, but I believe we can both learn our lessons, heal, and continue our life as we see fit.”
“Thank you, Joan. You have given me another chance to be a better person. I will do anything and everything to be the father you wanted.”
Aidan and Joan looked at each other and smiled. They knew with their parents’ blessings everything would be open for a new and great beginning.
Chapter 30
Lord Tyrill looked at the man in front of him and turned to Joan. “I suppose we are to talk about the marriage.”
Highlander's Cursed Bride: A Steamy Scottish Historical Romance Novel Page 25