The Highlander’s Promise (The Highlands Warring Scottish Romance) (A Medieval Historical Romance Book)

by Anne Morrison

  There was some movement under the cot that had been pushed to the rear of the nook. Ava caught a flash of golden hair, a soft whimper, and she almost collapsed in relief.

  “Oh, Catherine, thank Heaven,” Nicholas said, and before Ava could stop him, he stepped forward, reaching under the bed.

  The wail that came from under the bed was thin and piteous. Nicholas stopped immediately, looking stricken. He turned to Ava and the panic and sorrow in his eyes was evident.

  “Please,” he said. “Please. Help her. Get her out of here.”

  Ava hesitated. She knew where her place was in all of this. She needed to be with the other MacTaggarts, to fight with them and for them. That she had run off to help Nicholas was something that she barely understood.

  “Go find Meggie. Go help her. She will need every able-bodied fighter she can get.”

  “Done.”

  To her surprise, Nicholas whirled and moved toward the gates, where they could hear more fighting. It struck her to her core that once she had agreed to help the most important person in the world to him... he trusted her to do so.

  It was too much to think about right now. She needed to focus on the task in front of her.

  “Maisie? Maisie, darling, it's me. Come out, we need to leave right now...”

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  chapter 44

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  Nicholas felt the cold mantle of battle fall over him. He had heard of some knights who were taken over by a fiery passion to deal out death. He didn't understand it. When a battle came underway, he knew that he had only one goal. He had to destroy his foes’ ability to do harm, and he had to do it as quickly as possible.

  That left no room for rage or for fire, or indeed anything that was not the shining arc of his sword and the men who fled in front of it.

  Something had changed now, however. The battle for Doone Castle put a pit of terror in his belly. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had made the right decision to let Ava get Maisie to safety. He knew she would do it.

  Now though, he was struck with a horror that Maisie's last memory of him might be him frightening her, that this attack was terrifying her. There had already been so much pain her short life. How could he call himself a knight if he added to it?

  He flinched when he thought of Ava. They had left things unsettled between them. If he died in this mess, the last words they would have passed would be angry ones, ones where she knew he wasn't really understanding her. He had understood her, but he hadn't been able to tell her. At least, he hadn't told her until it was too late.

  So live and tell them both.

  Just then, he came out to the courtyard, where Margaret MacTaggart was rallying the household's defense against the brigands. The scene was lit up with torches and also because someone had lit the small garden inside the wall and the shed on fire. Margaret had gotten an iron-headed hoe in her hands, laying around her with it in a frenzy. Some MacTaggart men were defending her, but it was too little, far too little

  Live and tell them both...

  Nicholas stepped into the fray with a snarl, catching one man unawares and striking him down to the ground. There was nothing in his mind in that fight. There couldn't be. All that mattered was getting back to his niece and to the woman he loved more than anything else in the world.

  He struck at the men attacking Margaret's small band of fighters. They were far from trained, likely just criminals taking advantage of the war that walked the land. Even so, there were more than he cared for, and when one dealt him a stunning blow to the side from a cudgel, Nicholas staggered. He went down on one knee, barely turning aside the blow that fell toward his head.

  I have gotten out of worse.. not in recent memory, but I have...

  Even that shaky certainty was gone when another man, ragged and with a look of pure fury on his face, came up to join the other. There was a sword in his hand. As Nicholas struggled to gain his feet, he had to block another and another. He couldn't get up. He would die if he stayed down. These were two facts that he could not change. Everything felt so clear in that moment, almost stunningly so.

  He saw with a kind of shock that the man running up with the sword got a stunned look on his face. One moment, there was a battle fury that Nicholas recognized very well, and then there was a blank look of surprise. He toppled down to his knees, and then to his belly.

  The man who had been attacking Nicholas turned to see what had happened to his companion. He and Nicholas saw Ava at the same time, pulling her sword from the fallen man with a vicious yank. Her eyes were as dark as the pits of the underworld. Her face was calm, but there was a rage there that threatened to set the world on fire.

  Nicholas rose up, his eyes meeting hers. In that moment, he knew that wherever she went, he would go. He could not bear to be parted from her again. He knew her as well as he knew himself, and that was never, ever something that he could walk away from.

  Together, they turned toward the remains of the brigands, their swords swinging and their hearts completely merciless.

  It was over in a matter of minutes. Margaret and her men had put up a valiant defense, but Nicholas and Ava had been trained to fight, made to do it. The brigands who didn't end up stretched out on the courtyard flagstones were sent howling into the night. A calm fell over the scene. For a moment, everyone stood still. Some were unable to believe that it was over, some had scarcely understood that it had begun.

  Nicholas spun to Ava.

  “Maisie, where is—?”

  “I found Mairi, who was taking the other children to the cellar. There is a door, a thick one, that they could bar behind them. It was the safest place for them in a day's ride. I escorted them there, saw the door barred, and then...”

  Ava hesitated. How in the world could she look so oddly vulnerable when her sword was still drawn? The only thing that kept him from reaching for her and taking her into his arms was the fact that he could see Margaret over her shoulder, giving them a quick and speculative glance while bandaging a man's arm.

  “And then?” Nicholas asked, keeping his voice as steady as he could.

  “And then I realized I had to come and... and find you. Not go to help Meggie, not defend Doone Castle, but to find you. Because you did not know the castle, and you might have gotten blind-sided or you might have taken on the fever again or...”

  Ava stuttered, and this time, it wouldn't have mattered if the King of England himself had been watching. Nicholas took her into his arms, letting his sword clatter to one side. Ava hung on to hers, its point on the ground, but she pressed her head against his chest.

  “I won't go to England,” she said, half-desperately.

  “I am not going to ask you to.”

  “I won't put away my clothing to wear dresses all the time.”

  “I know.”

  “I... I can't be what you want.”

  “Yes, you can. You are.”

  Nicholas pulled back just enough so he could touch her chin, making her look up at him. In her beautiful eyes, he could see everyone who had ever told her she was wrong, wasn't enough, wasn't what she should be. It would have hurt immensely to see it, but he knew that it was something that he could soothe.

  “Ava. I was wrong to say what I did before. I'll spend the rest of our lives together apologizing for it, if you want me to. But I was wrong, and I'm sorry.”

  “Nicholas...”

  “I don't want some imaginary version of you, someone who was exciting for a moment but now is only acceptable if she does as I say. I want you. I want all of you, whether you decide to wear trews or skirts, whether you want to stay on MacTaggart lands or return to the Paper Mountains or go sailing on the Western Sea. It doesn't matter. I need you. I want to stay with you. I love you.”

  He hesitated.

  “The only thing that could push me away, Ava, as if you didn't—”

  “I love you.”

  The words were so sof
t that both Ava and Nicholas looked shocked. Ava repeated it again, and then, a wide smile split her face.

  “I love you, Nicholas. I love you. I love you...”

  Nicholas would have let her go on for even longer, but then he couldn't keep himself from kissing her. It was long and deep and perfect, and even when he pulled back, he knew that it would go on forever.

  He cradled her face in his hands, wanting to memorize this moment even as he knew that it was impossible. It was fine. There would be so many more moments together. So much more time to spend with her, to love her, to make her smile.

  “I love you, Ava Fitzpatrick,” Nicholas whispered.

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  chapter 45

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  “I can't take her from here, can I?” Nicholas said.

  Ava looked up from sharpening her favorite dagger to see Nicholas's eyes fixed on Maisie. To their relief, the little girl had recovered from the terror of the attack. She was running and playing with the other children now, her hair turning flaxen in the growing spring light, her laugh delighted and once such a rarity that it still startled Margaret and Ava sometimes.

  “Children are resilient,” Ava said cautiously. “If she was cared for, if she was loved... I think Maisie would be happy anywhere.”

  “Cared for and loved like she is here. I can see how much Aidan and Margaret care for her. How much the whole clan does.”

  “That does not make your love any less.”

  “I know.”

  They were silent for a moment, both of them watching as Aidan emerged from the keep. He was a tall man with a serious expression. Ava thought he would be grimmer yet before this war was over. He had come home from Aberdeen enraged that his home had been attacked. It was just as well, Ava thought, because otherwise, he would have been much more displeased to find Nicholas there.

  By the end of that particular discussion and some spirited defense from Margaret, he had come to grudgingly accept Nicholas's presence at Doone Castle. There was still something between them Ava didn't understand, possibly from their encounter in the South months ago, but she was confident she would get that story sooner or later.

  The children spotted Laird MacTaggart, and as one, they charged him, shouting with glee and begging to be picked up. Ava grinned as he tussled with them briefly. He gentled when he came to Maisie, so shy but at once so brave with the man.

  Ava knew that it gave Nicholas a pang when he saw Maisie's obvious love for the man who had rescued her, but he was healing, slowly but surely.

  “I can't take her away from here,” Nicholas said softly, watching the pair.

  Ava put down her sword to take his hand.

  “They would never keep you from her. They know you love her well. In time, she will come to know you and love you, maybe not as she loves Aidan, but... “

  “But it will still be real and good. I know.”

  Aidan sent the children off, probably to some chores beyond the wall, and he came to sit next to Ava and Nicholas. He gave Nicholas a cool nod but embraced Ava. It occurred to her that he had warmed up since he had married Margaret. It was a good change.

  “Well?” he asked.

  Ava made a face at him.

  “Well what, Aidan?”

  “What are you two going to do? If you've plans to stay at Doone Castle, a place should be made for you. If you are going to go south and go looking for Whitfield's title, we can supply you. Ava, if you want our cows, I can get started on dunking you into the river.”

  “So tired of us already?” asked Nicholas. They weren't easy with each other yet, but things like that gave Ava hope.

  “More like I know that the two of you are not the type to stay idle for long. And about Maisie...”

  Nicholas shook his head.

  “Her place is here. With you. I will not take her, not when I haven't even a title or a house to my name. That... might change. It might not. But you are her family. It is a plain thing to see.”

  “So are you, and that makes you my family as well, whether I like it or not.” Aidan hesitated. “You are welcome here.”

  “My goodness, you can almost hear Margaret's voice when he opens his mouth,” teased Ava, but Aidan's look was serious.

  “It is the truth, and it is not only Margaret who thinks so. We talked about you as well, Ava. If you want a place to stop roaming... if you want to stop raiding, and you think Clan Blair won't accept you, you have a home here or with Reade and Elizabeth at Leister Castle.”

  Ava had no idea how she would have reacted to Aidan's offer a few years ago. Would she have been offended? Would she have leaped at the chance to have a home with people who understood her?

  Now she only smiled, squeezing Nicholas's hand.

  “I don't know what's happening next, but we'll let you know as soon as we do.”

  Aidan didn't look convinced, but he nodded gamely, walking away to see to his duties as the laird of the keep. Ava briefly wondered what Clan Blair might be like under his leadership, how it would thrive. The thought made her unexpectedly wistful.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Some very strange things,” she said with a slight smile. “The future, I suppose.”

  Nicholas cocked his head at her. She had seen so many moods from him as she was getting to know him. She had seen him happy and plunged to the depths of misery. She had seen him furious, and she had seen him joyful and full of passion. It was strange but perfectly Nicholas that one of the things that she loved most about him was how he looked when he was curious.

  “There was a time when you told me that you had no future.”

  Ava remembered saying that. For a moment, she only marveled at how so much had changed, and in such a short expanse of time.

  “I remember that, too. But it's strange. I remember feeling that and thinking it so very clearly. I remember how angry I was about it when you would have said anything otherwise.”

  “I do remember that as well.”

  “What a good man you are then, for not bringing it up again. But I think that part of having a future might be that you cannot have one on your own. You can't do it, and it looks like I can't do it either. A future is something that I can only think of with you. I only want a future with you.”

  Nicholas smiled at her, something almost achingly sweet in his expression. “I don't know what will come. I have no idea where our wanderings might take us. I realized that there is a chance that I may never return to England. Surely, Edward would see most of what I have done here as tantamount to treason.”

  Ava's jaw tightened. “He will not get his hands on you. You are not going to be bait for the gallows crows.”

  Nicholas shrugged. “I don't want to be, either. But I am who I am, and I have done what I have done. I wouldn't even take it back if I could because it would mean that I might not be sitting here with you. That is a treason of a kind, I suppose, loving a woman better than you love your country or your title.”

  Ava shivered. There was something dark in Nicholas's words. She knew that he only spoke the truth. Life offered none of them any promises. She would never have imagined she could be sitting in the spring sunlight, completely in love with an English knight.

  “The future is coming for us, darling,” Nicholas said at last. “I am not afraid to face it with you at my side.”

  “I think,” Ava said slowly, “it is time we went looking for the future.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Nothing right now, I don't think. I want you to have some time with Maisie. I know that Aidan and Margaret would like to have us both here as extra security in case brigands attack again. I also want you to rest. I was worried that last fight might send your sickness to you again.”

  Nicholas snorted. “It's quite gone. I'm as fit as I ever was.”

  “That sounds like something you might say right before you collapse again. I don't trust it. But let's stay here a while
. There has been precious enough peace in our lives of late. Perhaps we can find it here when we could not run it down on the road.”

  “And then?”

  Ava shrugged, but even as she did, she could feel the beginning of an idea spark to life in her heart. It was just a tiny glimmer, but small sparks could light bonfires when the conditions were right.

  “I suppose that is when we'll find out...”

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  epilogue

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  Four Months Later

  Saying goodbye to the MacTaggarts had been surprisingly heartbreaking. Nicholas had known that it would be difficult to say goodbye to Maisie, especially when they had grown to care for her so deeply.

  “But you'll be back soon?' she had asked, a tiny furrow between her brows. “You are not going to leave forever?”

  “Never,” Nicholas had said, squeezing her hand tight. She was willing to hug him cautiously, but apparently, he could hold her hand as much as he liked. After months of working up to it, Nicholas felt proud of the accomplishment.

  “I'll never leave you forever. I am your uncle, and I will always, always be a part of your life. I love you very much, Maisie.”

  He was startled by how quickly he had given up Catherine, both the name and the image in his head. Catherine was a perfect little English girl, afraid and desperate for a rescue. She was completely imaginary in light of Maisie, who was a bright and vital girl, as much a part of Doone Castle and Clan MacTaggart as Aidan or Margaret or their new baby was.

  Maisie nodded a grave acknowledgment of his words, seeming to think over them deeply. He had come to love this about her, how she thought so hard about the world around her and what others said and did. He had told her that someday, if he ever got his lands back, he would take her to England and let her see where he and her parents had come from. She was cautiously curious about the idea but said she would rather wait for the fighting to be over.