“Rowan,” the man said as he extended his right arm outward. Rowan took it, grasping his forearm, Rowan pulled him in for an embrace. They patted each other heartily on their backs for a brief moment.
“Caelen, my friend.”
Arline stood back, watching the two men. They were more than just friends, Rowan and this man. They were like brothers.
Rowan broke away. “Where be me daughter?’
“Yer daughter be asleep,” he answered with a nod over his shoulder.
Both Arline and Rowan looked in the direction Caelen had indicated. There, on the other side of the fire, was a large felled tree trunk resting on the ground. A very large man sat with his back against the tree, his legs spread out before him. On his lap, he held Lily, bundled in a fur like a newborn babe. She was fast asleep with her little head resting against the Highlander’s chest. The Highlander looked up at Rowan and smiled.
“She fell asleep not long ago, Rowan.” Caelen told him.
Arline thought she detected a note of relief in the man’s voice.
“Is she well?” Rowan asked quietly. He resisted the urge to rush to his daughter and scoop her up into his arms. There was no doubt that she was exhausted and mayhap more than a bit frightened. Wishing not to disturb her slumber, he left her alone.
Caelen did not answer immediately. Rowan looked away from his daughter and back to Caelen. The man had his eyes focused intently on Lady Arline.
“Caelen McDunnah,” Rowan said. “This be Lady Arline.”
Caelen smiled, at least as much as Caelen McDunnah ever smiled. He was better known for fighting than he was for smiling.
“So ye be the Lady Arline that Lily speaks so highly of.”
Arline gave as much a curtsy as her wobbly and sore legs would allow.
“Lily tells us that ye took verra good care of her,” Caelen said.
“As good as I could under the circumstances,” Arline told him. Caelen seemed satisfied with Arline’s statement. “I am sure Rowan is verra grateful and I ken his people will be grateful fer what ye’ve done as well.”
Arline inclined her head toward him. “’Twas the right thing to do.” She could not have turned Lily away anymore than she could turn anyone in need away. It went against her nature.
“Ye must be tired, me lady,” Caelen said thoughtfully. “We will leave ye to rest a while.”
Frederick and Daniel escorted Arline to the fire. Seeing she was in good hands, Rowan and Caelen walked away from the group so they might speak privately.
Once Caelen found a place where they could talk and keep an eye on Lady Arline, he began to fill Rowan in on all that he had learned from Lily.
“Ye’ve a good daughter, Rowan. She be a verra bright child. She told us much as we travelled here.”
Rowan let out a heavy sigh. “Caelen, I did no’ want ye to interrogate me daughter! I did no’ want to push fer information.” He did not want to injure her further by bombarding her with questions or making her relive those terrifying moments when she was with Garrick Blackthorn.
Caelen threw his head back and laughed. “Rowan,” he said with a smile. “I did no’ interrogate yer daughter. I would have much preferred her to remain quiet on our journey here, but yer daughter had other ideas.”
Rowan quirked an eyebrow at his friend. “What do ye mean?”
Caelen let out a quick breath and folded his arms over his chest. “I mean, yer daughter talked non-stop. ’Twas to the point I would have given me right eye fer a few moments of silence.”
Rowan chuckled at Caelen. Lily was a talker. She was a very inquisitive child and very perceptive. She had no problems with opening up to people, even strangers, if she felt she could trust them. Once trust was earned? Lily could cause even the most stalwart man to lose his mind with all her endless questions and never ending chatter.
“I do apologize fer that, Caelen. Lily only opens up to people she trusts.”
Caelen found that amusing. Not many trusted him. “Trust me? Yer child is tetched.”
Rowan laughed at his friend. “What did ye learn?”
Caelen took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “She hates gruel but loves eggs. She thinks cows have funny tongues and sheep are cuddly.”
Rowan shook his head. “Caelen,” he said firmly.
“She does not remember what happened at yer keep the night she was taken. She only remembers wakin’ up on a horse, thrown over a mean man’s saddle like a sack of flour.”
That fit in with what Rowan was able to learn from his people. Somehow, someone had managed to slip a sleeping draught into Lily’s tea. They’d also managed to spike the keg of ale that had been served after the evening meal. Once his men had fallen asleep, someone took Lily from her bedchamber and away from the keep.
Rowan’s sole focus had been the retrieval of his daughter. Now that he had her back, he could direct his focus on finding out who had helped in her kidnapping
“There be more, Rowan.” Caelen was reluctant to tell Rowan all he knew.
Rowan braced himself. From Caelen’s reticent expression, Rowan knew he was not going to be happy. He nodded his head and bade Caelen to continue.
“Garrick was no’ too kind in his treatment of Lily. When Lily woke, she was afraid and had begun to cry. Apparently, Garrick has no patience fer cryin’ babes.”
Rowan felt a hard jolt in the pit of his stomach. “What did he do?”
“He took a strap to her backside. And when she cried still, he put a gag in her mouth.”
Rowan could not remember ever feeling so angry. Not even when he had learned Lily had been taken. Garrick was a large man, as large as Rowan. Though Garrick Blackthorn oft behaved like a spoiled and petulant child, he was still a man full grown.
“I’ll kill him,” Rowan muttered angrily. “As God is me witness, I will kill that man.”
Rowan began to stomp away toward his horse. Caelen stopped him by grabbing hold of his arm. “Rowan, wait!”
“Wait? Fer what? Fer the bastard to take another child? Someone else’s child and beat her as well?” Rowan seethed. “Nay, I’ll no’ give him that chance.”
Caelen tightened his hold on Rowan’s arm. “Aye, ye’ll wait until the time is right. Ye canna go alone.” Caelen pleaded with him to listen to reason.
“Let go of me arm, Caelen, or yer likely to lose yer hand.”
Caelen was not fazed by Rowan’s threat. He knew it was the threat of a very angry father, one who might also be feeling guilty for not being there to protect his daughter in the first place. “Rowan, if ye wait, wait until we get yer child safely back to Áit na Síochána, I promise, I will help ye get yer revenge. But now, now Rowan, is no’ the time.”
It was not easy for Rowan to listen to reason at the moment. His mind raced with the various ways with which he could kill Garrick Blackthorn. Incensed beyond comprehension, it was all he could do at the moment not to kill Caelen just so he could get to Garrick.
Rowan took a deep breath before turning to look at his daughter. She was still asleep, but she was no longer in Thomas’ lap. Lady Arline was holding her.
The vision of the beautiful woman holding his daughter bothered him. It should be Kate holding her at this moment, not a stranger. And he should not be taking any enjoyment in watching the lovely woman hold his child to her breast with her cheek pressed against the top of his daughter’s head.
They looked as though they belonged together, Lady Arline and Lily. The resemblance between the two was uncanny. If a stranger were to make his way into the camp, he would think that Lily belonged to Arline.
But she didn’t. She belonged to him and to Kate. He should be the one holding his daughter now.
He had let lustful feelings get the better of him earlier. He had enjoyed the way the woman felt sitting on his lap as they rode across the country. He had enjoyed how her face burned red with embarrassment when he called her beautiful. He had even enjoyed how she had grown angry with him.
Bu
t something began to crumble when he saw her holding his daughter, so sweetly, so tenderly. And he damned well didn’t like it.
He knew Caelen was right, that they should wait to launch a well-planned assault on Blackthorn. They needed to get Lily back to the safe confines of Áit na Síochána. But most of all, he needed to get Lady Arline out of his life and for good, for if he didn’t, he feared he and Lily would both become too attached to her for their own good.
He turned back to face Caelen. “Verra well, then, Caelen. We leave now for Áit na Síochána. I will seek me revenge once I learn who amongst my clan betrayed me.”
Caelen breathed a sigh of relief and let go of Rowan. “I promise ye Rowan, I’ll help ye get the bastard.”
Rowan said nothing. He simply nodded his head and walked away. He was too angry with Garrick Blackthorn for taking his daughter and his mistreatment of her. He was also angry with the vision of beauty sitting on the ground next to the fire, fast asleep and cradling his daughter in her arms.
Thomas came to stand next to Rowan. “I do no’ trust that woman,” Thomas whispered harshly.
Rowan turned to face him. Thomas was older than Rowan by ten years. He was one of the few men left who had served under his father. Rowan trusted Thomas’ good judgment and level headedness.
“May I ask why?”
Thomas ran his tongue across his lips and shook his head. “She be Blackthorn’s wife, fer the sake of Christ.”
“I believe that marriage was annulled this day, Thomas.”
Thomas shook his head in disgust again. “How do we ken that, Rowan? Could all be a ruse to get close to ye, to us, to the clan.”
Rowan studied his ginger-haired friend for a moment. Thomas was never one to jump to conclusions or to judge a person harshly. “A ruse?”
“Aye, a ruse. How were ye able to get in and out of the castle so easily? How were we able to get this far without seeing any of Blackthorn’s men?”
The same questions had crossed Rowan’s mind more than once over the past hours. “Ye think Blackthorn allowed us into his keep? And allowed us to escape?”
“’Tis a possibility.”
“But why? Why no’ cut me throat the moment I entered the keep? Why allow me in to take me daughter? And why did he beat Arline?”
Thomas shrugged his shoulders. “I didna say I had all the answers, just me suspicions. There is something about the woman that I do no’ trust or like.”
Daniel and Frederick had come to join the two men and both took offense to Thomas’ words.
“I ken the woman, Thomas,” Daniel told him. “She be the one that helped Angus and Duncan seven years past. She be a good woman.”
“Aye,” Frederick interjected. “I ken her as well. She risked her life for two men she had not even met, because it was the right thing to do.”
“And she took a beatin’ from Garrick because she was tryin’ to protect Lily,” Daniel explained. “We heard Garrick tell her the marriage was annulled and he was castin’ her out. Without escort or means of travel. Lady Arline begged him to allow her to stay to take care of Lily until the ransom was paid. Garrick beat her fer it.”
Thomas had been listening intently. “He beat her?”
“Aye, and we were about to intervene when one of his men pulled him away. We also heard the man say his bride was waitin’ fer him.” Daniel glanced briefly at Lady Arline before turning back to Thomas. “I think that be why we were able to enter and leave so easily. They were all busy with Garrick marryin’ another.”
“He annulled his marriage to Lady Arline so that he could marry another?” Rowan was disgusted with the notion.
“Aye, that is what we heard,” Frederick told him. After a moment of contemplation, Frederick continued. “I think she be barren.”
Rowan’s brow knotted in confusion. “Who? Lady Arline?”
Frederick gave a quick nod of his head. “Aye. She was married to Carlich Lindsay fer three years and they had no bairns. And she was married to Garrick fer a year and no bairns. Mayhap that is why he annulled their marriage. Because she was barren.”
Rowan’s heart sunk. He looked at the woman holding his babe. She had risked her own life for Lily’s. How sad it was to think that such a woman as Lady Arline, one who apparently loved children or at the very least cared about them, could not have one of her own.
He thought back to how hard it had been for Kate to make it through her first trimesters. The poor woman had suffered through five miscarriages before they were blessed with Lily. For Kate to go through all of that, only to die a few short months after Lily was born, seemed inherently unfair.
He was always left with an overwhelming sense of sadness whenever he thought of his Kate and all that she had missed. Lily’s first steps, her first words. The first time she fell and skinned her knee.
Lily was surrounded by people who loved and adored her. But still, something was missing in the child’s life. A mother. There were things a mother could do for a daughter that a father could not. Such as braid her hair or sing her to sleep. Rowan had tried to do those things, but his talents with braids and singing were sorely lacking.
As he stood watching Lady Arline and Lily he could not make up his mind if he was angry at Lady Arline for taking on the role of mother, or at himself. Selfishly, he had kept his heart under lock and key these past years. The only person he allowed in was Lily. He refused all others entry. And it was not as if no one had tried.
He thought of Lady Beatrice of Cill Saidhe. They had met six months ago when the wheel on Lady Beatrice’s wagon had broke. Lady Beatrice and her entourage had sought refuge within Áit na Síochána. They had stayed the night, left at dawn the next morn, and Rowan had thought he would never see her again.
Beatrice was a bonny woman to look at. She was well-educated, graceful, and elegant. She would have made any man a fine wife. But, she was not his Kate. He had turned down her offer that night to warm his bed. He found himself regretting it the next morning.
However, a few months ago he had received a letter from Beatrice, asking if she could take refuge in his home again, but this time, for a more extended stay. Apparently there was a man who very much wanted to make her his wife but Beatrice did not have the same feelings toward the man. She wanted away from Inverness and from the man. Thinking he might be ready to open his heart to another, he agreed to open his home to Beatrice.
She had arrived two weeks before he left for the hunting trip. Aye, she was still as beautiful as he remembered, still as graceful and elegant. But, there was something missing and he had not been able to figure out what that something was, until now.
Warmth.
Aye, she had warmed up to Rowan quite nicely. But Lily was another matter. Beatrice rarely spent any time with Lily. And in those rare moments that she did, there was no outward affection on her part toward his daughter. She had never held his daughter while she slept. She had never played with Lily nor taken her for walks. Those things bothered him.
Thomas’ voice broke through Rowan’s quiet contemplation. “How soon do ye wish to leave?”
Rowan had no way of knowing yet if Garrick Blackthorn and his men were following. Deciding it best not to wait and see, Rowan gave the order for them to leave immediately. He also decided it might be best if Lady Arline rode with someone else to which she did not argue. Daniel pulled her up to sit behind him while Thomas lifted Lily up into Rowan’s anxious arms. He held her tightly in one arm, tucked the fur all around her. She was clinging to the doll Lady Arline had made for her.
Lily stirred, lifted her head and smiled up at Rowan. “Da!”
Rowan returned her smile as he tapped the flanks of his horse. He kissed the top of her head and held her closely.
“Are we goin’ home now?” Lily asked sleepily.
“Aye, we are, lassie.”
Lily yawned and fought to keep her eyes open. “Good. I missed ye.”
“And I missed ye,” Rowan told her. “Verra much.”
Apparently, Lady Arline had made a long lasting impression on Lily. He did not want Lily growing too attached to the woman for he hadn’t decided yet what he was going to do with her once they reached his keep.
“Nay, Caelen will no’ be doin’ that, lass, fer we already found Lady Arline. She be ridin’ with Daniel.”
Lily bolted upright, her bright blue eyes searching for the topic of their conversation. She squealed with delight once she saw her.
“Lady Arline!” Lily shouted as she struggled to get out of the furs.
“Wheesht, lass!” Rowan admonished her. “Sit still.”
“But I want Lady Arline,” Lily cried.
Rowan let out a frustrated sigh. “Lily, ye need to sit still. Ye can see Lady Arline when we stop.”
“But I want her now, da!”
Back and forth the two of them went. Under different circumstances, Rowan would have sent her to her room until she decided to listen. His daughter had been through one hellish ordeal over the past weeks. Even after he tried to use his sternest voice, Lily continued to cry and plead with him to allow Lady Arline to ride with them.
In the end, it was Lady Arline who settled the matter.
“Lily Graham,” Arline said as Daniel pulled their mount next to Rowan and Lily. “Have ye no’ missed yer da?”
Lily sniffled and nodded her head.
“And is that how ye show him ye missed him?”
Lily suddenly grew quiet and looked quite ashamed. She remained silent, shook her head no and stuck her thumb in her mouth.
“I did no’ think so,” Arline told her then clicked her tongue and shook her head, looking very displeased with the child.
“I believe yer da has been missin’ ye as well, haven’t ye?” Arline cast Rowan a faint smile, encouraging him to say something.
Rowan had been staring at Lady Arline, stunned at how easily she had gotten Lily to settle down. Lady Arline raised an eyebrow and tilted her head toward Lily. Rowan cleared his throat. “Aye, Lily, I have missed ye verra much.”
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