Only the sound of Blaire’s angry voice behind him pulled him from his trance.
“Baodan McMillan, if ye doona get yer arse off that wall and go after that lass, I shall kick ye off the edge and watch ye fall to the bottom.”
“What are ye talking about, Blaire?” He spun and dropped himself back onto the walkway where Blaire stood.
“Doona do that. Ye know what I’m talking about. Ye are a fool. Ye care about her, doona ye?”
He couldn’t lie to Blaire, not about this. She would never believe him even if he tried. “Aye, I do, but I doona know how to love someone anymore. I told ye that when I asked ye to marry me. I doona want it, and she deserves to spend her life with someone who can love her. That isna me.”
“Are ye saying that I dinna deserve more than that?”
Ach, he didn’t know how to speak to women. He only knew how to upset them. “No, o’course ye did. ’Tis only that I believed ye dinna want love either. Mitsy does, and she should have it.”
Blaire shocked him by moving toward him and slapping him hard across the face. “Ye do want love, ye silly fool! I am going to say something to ye that I heard Adelle say once. It isna verra nice, and ye willna have heard it before, but I expect ye will understand the meaning well enough. Besides, I doona think kindness is what ye need right now.”
His head spun from the impact of her hit. He had a hard head, but she had a strong hand. “Aye, say it. It canna be worse than ye knocking me upside me head.”
“Doona be such a chicken shit! Ye say that ye doona know how to love so that ye doona ever have to hurt. ’Tis true that ye may be out of practice, but ye can learn, and she’d give ye the chance to do so.”
He reached up to run his hands over his face. “I’m frightened that I willna be enough for her.”
Blaire softened and reach out a hand to him. “Do ye remember what I told ye the day I ended our engagement?”
He shook his head. “Perhaps. Remind me.”
“I told ye that one day ye’d find the person ye were meant to be with. Although ye told me ye dinna think it would happen, ’twas what ye said last that was important. Ye said that if such a love came, ye would welcome it.”
Surely not; he couldn’t imagine himself saying such a thing, but then again, Blaire always had a way of making him tell the truth. “And ye think that Mitsy is that love?”
“Aye, I do. I know that ye havena known her long, but she was meant to come to ye. I saw it.”
He glanced suspiciously down at her. “What do ye mean by that? Have ye joined the lady Morna and taken up witchcraft?”
She elbowed him playfully in the side. “No, o’course I dinna, but I do believe that Morna showed me something. Do ye remember when Arran and I came to stay at McMillan Castle after leaving the castle formerly known as Kinnaird?”
He nodded. “Aye, I do. What of it?”
“As we left and rode by yer pond, I saw a red-head swimming in the water. I knew the lass looked just like Mitsy, but I thought at the time that I’d imagined it. I dinna make sense of the vision until ye both arrived here this afternoon. She was meant for ye, Baodan. Now, go and get her before she does something foolish.”
* * *
He found her on the beach, staring into the ocean with enough sadness in her eyes to break his heart. Her hair blew around her face so wildly he knew she couldn’t see him. He paused to watch her before approaching.
He watched as she glanced down at a small object she held in the palm of her hand. He couldn’t make out what it was, but as she lifted her head and reared her arm back, he knew what she meant to do. His heart stopped.
He ran as fast as he could, diving into the water after the small rock she sent sailing into the air.
Chapter 21
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was doing. He floundered around in the water like a crazy man, and the shock of watching him do so made me stop crying.
I looked down at the pile of pebbles I held in my hand and realized. He thought I’d thrown Morna’s rock. My heart started beating rapidly, and it frightened me just how quickly my mood shifted. I went from heartache to hope in the flick of an eye. I hadn’t been wrong after all.
I shouted after him, but the waves were coming in so strong that he couldn’t hear me. Reluctantly, I slipped off my leather footings and started to step into the water. I would get his attention no other way. There was no point in hiking up my dress, I would get soaked through anyway. Instead I just walked straight in, grabbing onto his arm as I reached him.
“Baodan.” He didn’t seem to feel me, his arms swinging wildy, his eyes wet. “Baodan, stop. What are you doing?” I knew, but wanted him to say.
When he finally registered that I stood next to him, he latched onto me, crushing me against him as he wrapped his arms around me. “Ach, Mitsy. How are ye here, lass?”
“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I be here?”
“The rock. I saw ye throw it, and ye just told me that ye were leaving.” He carefully kissed the top of my head and stroked my hair, now frizzy and damp from the spray of the ocean.
“No, you didn’t. I didn’t throw Morna’s rock. I just chunked a bunch of pebbles into the ocean.”
“What?” He leaned back and grabbed both sides of my face, turning my head upward so that I looked straight at him.
“You heard me. I didn’t throw it, but what do you care anyhow? You didn’t seem to mind that I planned to leave.”
He kissed me then. A soft and short touch, but my heart danced in response to it.
“Ach, lass, I did care. ’Twas for that reason that I found meself too frightened to tell ye. I have been a fool.”
I shivered uncontrollably. The water was freezing, and the windy night made it even cooler. “Can we get out of the water? Then you can tell me what a complete and total moron you’ve been.”
I don’t think the chill of the water bothered him at all. He looked surprised when I said it and then noticed my trembling arms. Before I could protest, he bent down and lifted me, carrying me like a babe out of the roaring ocean.
Once on shore, he carried me up to a nook in the high towering rocks that blocked the wind quite well. We didn’t have anything dry, but he rubbed his hands up and down my arms to warm me and pulled me close to him once again.
I wouldn’t be warm until I got into some dry clothes, but I wanted to finish our conversation before going back inside the castle. “Ok, you can continue now. You were telling me what a fool you are.”
He chuckled and I delighted at the rise and fall of his chest as he did so. He was so sturdy, so beautiful.
“Aye, I was. I canna tell ye how sorry I am, lass. I know that I doona know ye well, but I doona believe I’ve ever cared for someone the way I do ye. ’Tis a different feeling, an unusual one, and I doona know what to do with it.”
He was right. It was different, the feeling that spanned between us whenever we were near one another. “What do you mean you don’t know what to do? You don’t do anything, just let it come naturally.”
“Aye, I wish it came so easily for me. I still doona know if I am capable of allowing someone into me life, but I would like to try. Please, doona leave.”
I was so thrilled at his openness, I beamed all over. I knew what a step it was for him. “I’m not going to leave. Not yet, anyway. I never planned on it. I heard you outside Bri’s door and I said it to get a reaction. When you gave me none, I became so angry I could have spit fire.”
He surprised me by pinching me hard on the rear. A step for him as well. “’Twas a dirty trick. It broke me own heart to hear ye say that ye wished to leave with no a thought of me.”
“Will we stay here a while?” I knew he wouldn’t feel like he could.
“I canna do so. There are things at home that need me attention. Will ye come with me and stay at the castle? I know ’tis verra much of me to ask ye to return to the castle while Niall is there, but ye will be safe as long as I’m
with ye. He willna be allowed in the castle any longer after I arrive.” He shifted nervously. “’Tis no verra customary, but I doona care, and ye doona seem to me as the sort of lass who would mind it.”
I would have loved to stay with Bri longer but she would understand. I couldn’t pass up the chance of seeing where this led. “Yes, I’ll come, and you’re right. I don’t give two squats about what’s customary.”
Chapter 22
Approaching Cameron Castle
The goodbyes were hard but not nearly as difficult as they would have been if I’d been going back to my own time to return to Texas. At least now, I knew I would see Bri and Adelle again. Even if I did eventually decide to leave here, I would make sure to see them before I left.
Baodan decided that we should stop at Cameron Castle to check in on his mother on our way back to McMillan Castle. I tried to gently persuade him otherwise, but he’d not relented. I didn’t blame him, of course. Naturally, he worried after she’d been so ill very recently.
Still, it didn’t make the thought of meeting her any more appealing. He could sense my nervousness and leaned forward to nibble at the base of my neck, but ended up with a mouthful of hair.
“Ye have lovely hair, lass, but how do ye have so much of it? I doona even think Artair here has as much as ye do. Did yer parents have locks such as that?”
How little we truly knew about one another. He didn’t know anything about who I’d been before I came here, not that I’d been orphaned, or that I’d been married. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t very important. Those were all things he could learn in time and, while they played a part in making me who I was, he didn’t need to know them to see the person I was now.
He could see what lay inside me without knowing anything and, as long as he accepted that, I supposed it didn’t matter how long we’d known one another. After all, I’d known Brian for years, and I would bet money that he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone my favorite color, movie, or even birthday. Time meant little if the person you spent it with was a total numb nut.
“No.” I leaned into him, relaxing my head against his chest. “Well, I actually don’t know. I never knew either of my parents.”
“Ach, lass, I’m verra sorry. What happened to them?”
“I don’t know. They may still be alive actually, but part of me likes to hope not. I know that sounds horrible, but if they died, it means they didn’t want to give me up.”
He reached up to brush my hair so that it draped over one shoulder as he rested his chin on the other, his face pressed gently against mine. “Give ye up?”
“Yeah, it happens sometimes, if the parents feel they can’t care for the child. I was bounced around from home to home until I was fourteen.”
He dragged his hands up and down my thigh, rubbing them in comfort. “And what happened to ye then?”
“I was placed in the home of an old woman named Lilly, the only home that ever stuck. She was the closest thing I ever had to a mom, and I loved her very much. She passed away a few years ago, right after I graduated college.”
“Ye know we took in Eoghanan much the same way ye speak of. All suspect it, but few know the truth of it. ’Tis no always blood that makes someone kin, aye?”
“Yes.” It pleased me to hear him say such a thing about Eoghanan. Perhaps his guilt of assumption as to who assaulted me would soften him toward E-o and help him realize that no fault lay with Eoghanan.
He squeezed me tight and let out a soft sigh of sympathy, but I could tell he wanted to ask something.
“What?” I turned my head to kiss his cheek, and he grinned against my lips.
“What is college?”
I looked up to see several riders coming toward us. I tapped his knee to get his attention. “I’ll tell you later, looks like we have visitors.”
He smiled again as he spurred the horse on. “Indeed we do, lass. It seems that we are to cross paths with me mother.”
* * *
She travelled in a small group. Two men, one of them Baodan’s cousin, the laird of McMillan Castle, Griogair Cameron. The other a trusted friend called Henson.
As soon as we reached them and hellos were said all around, everyone dismounted. His mother surprised me by bypassing Baodan and coming straight over to me to greet me properly.
“I’m Kenna. Ye must be, Mitsy. I was right about ye, aye? Ye fell prey to one of Morna’s spells?”
“Um…yes and, yes I did.” Baodan glanced over at me before whisking the two men a little farther away. I supposed he didn’t want to have to explain what his mother meant.
“And ye did find yer friend, aye? Did ye no wish to remain with the Conalls?”
I warmed suddenly. What should I say to her? Yes, I did find her, but now I’m going to live with your son a while. Just so we can, ya know, see where it goes. I did not want to be the one to explain anything to her, that was Baodan’s job. “I did see them, yes, but Bri is very busy with her baby and I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Ah, so ye thought ye would play upon me son’s sympathies and rely on his charity, aye?”
I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with his mother, but her assumption seemed uncalled for, and I wasn’t one to stifle what I thought just to make a good impression. “Excuse me? That’s not what this is at all. Perhaps, you should talk to your son about it.”
She smiled and laughed softly before moving to lace her arm with mine. “I like ye, lass, and so does Baodan. Just look at the way he keeps glancing over here at ye. I haven’t seen him look that way in a verra long time. I only spoke in jest. I’m pleased to know that ye are no a lass to be ruled over.”
I laughed shakily and smiled down at her, now much more at ease. “Where are you going? We were headed to Cameron Castle to see you.”
“I am headed in the direction ye came from, toward Conall Castle. I have yet to see me niece and am anxious to love on the sweet babe.”
I grinned thinking of the fat-cheeked, blue-eyed baby girl. “Well, she’s sure a cutie.”
“Aye, I’m sure she is. Let’s go meet up with the lads so that each of us can be on our way. Griogair will be headed back to Cameron Castle now. He only means to escort me to the edge of his territory. Henson shall accompany me the rest of the way. I’d like us to make it much further before nightfall.”
* * *
“Was she as frightening as ye imagined, lass?” He whispered as we watched his mom and Henson ride in the direction of Conall Castle.
“No. She’s great. Much like you. Although, it’s hard to believe she fell as sick as you said. She seemed totally fine.”
We re-mounted Artair and set out on our way before he spoke. “Aye, if I had no watched her wither away in her own bed for so many moons, I wouldna be able to believe it meself. I’m verra glad to see her doing so well, but something told to me before, haunts me now.”
Worry and confusion echoed in his voice. I twisted around to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“’Twas Eoghanan who convinced her to leave when she was ill. I dinna understand why he would wish it. When I spoke to him about it, he told me to wait and see how much better she would feel once she was away from the castle. He was verra right.”
“How could he have known that?”
He shrugged behind me. “I doona know, but ’tis certain I intend to find out as soon as we arrive.”
I allowed the evening to pass by silently. Each time I glanced back at him, I could tell that his thoughts were very far away.
Chapter 23
As we approached McMillan Castle, I saw nothing of either brother. I couldn’t have been more relieved. The closer we got to Baodan’s home, the more I sensed that Baodan readied himself to pounce on Niall for what he had done to me. I didn’t want to be anywhere around when he found him.
The entire situation with his mother also did nothing to help his mood. I had my own suspicions as to why Eoghanan believed his mother would be safer elsewhere,
but while Baodan stewed, it was not the time for me to express them.
Eoghanan had been right to try and protect me from Niall and, after the little time I’d spent with the creep, I would put nothing past him. I couldn’t imagine what would make any man, even one as disgusting as Niall, want to poison his own mother, but if someone inside the castle meant Kenna harm, my bet was on him.
The stables were empty as well, and I couldn’t bear the stress in Baodan’s face as he put Artair away in the stall. I walked around the horse and put my arms around him, reaching my hands up to kiss him thoroughly. Baodan’s mood needed a lift.
It seemed to help a little. When we were both breathless, he grinned down at me, his previous worries gone if only for a second. “What was that for, lass?”
“Does it matter?”
“No. Are ye ready to go inside? I’ll see ye settled so that ye may rest while I find me brother.”
I sighed, disappointed. I hoped to distract him for a little longer, but clearly he would find no peace until he had dealt with Niall. “Yes, I’m ready.”
He grabbed my hand and walked quickly. It pleased me to know that he thought enough not to bring me to the same room he’d placed me in before. He seemed to read my thoughts and looked sideways at me as we continued down a long hallway in the opposite wing from where I’d stayed before. “I will no ask ye to stay in the room ye were in before. I shall place ye in me own room, and I shall find rest elsewhere.”
I looked up at him and frowned but said nothing. Why would he plan on sleeping somewhere else? I certainly didn’t want him to.
He opened the door but didn’t step inside. He merely motioned for me to enter. “Go ahead, lass. I shall have a warm bath brought up for ye and a clean dress. I shall join ye later, for I doona want ye to be in me home with me brother about. I willna be able to breathe freely with ye here until I see Niall gone from me home forever.”
Morna's Legacy: Box Set #1 Page 60
