His foot was on the first stair when the poorly muffled sobs of a child found his ears. He stopped and stepped back down, following the sound of weeping until he found its source.
Just around the corner from the stairs, on the floor, huddled up against the wall, he found her, the little red-haired kitchen lass, Anna. She turned her face up to him as he approached, her eyes large, her dirty little face wet with tears.
A desperate glance around the room quickly confirmed there were no women about to assist him. He’d have to deal with the crying child on his own. He couldn’t very well walk away from her. Besides, how hard could it be?
“What ails you, lass?” he asked, using his best no-nonsense voice and feeling entirely out of his element.
“I…I think I’ve done something verra bad, Master Caden,” the child sobbed, and dropped her forehead to her knees, hiding her face from him.
Perhaps gruff didn’t work as well with the wee lassies as it did with his shepherds.
He squatted down next to her and awkwardly patted her little shoulder. “You dinna ken whether or no yer actions were bad? Then what’s yer reason for all this bubbling you do?”
Anna looked up and launched her body into his, almost toppling them both to the floor. Her little arms clutched around his neck as she buried her grimy face in his shoulder.
“I’ve lost my best friend, that’s my reason.”
“Ah, so that’s it, is it?” Nothing more than a disagreement among children. That he could handle. “When I was lad, my mother always told me I should take responsibility for settling arguments with my friends. She taught me to go to them and shake their hand, no matter that I thought I was right, because their friendship was worth much more than my pride. Aye?”
Anna shook her head, grinding her nose into his shoulder. “You dinna ken at all.” The muffled words ended another sob. “It’s no a fight. It’s Ellie.”
“What did you say?” Caden grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from him so that he could look into her eyes. He must have misunderstood her words because there was only one Ellie in the whole of Dun Ard. “How is Ellie involved in this?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. She’s left to go home. I’ll no see her ever again and it’s all my fault.”
“That’s impossible. The guards knew better than to let her out the gates.” He said the words as much to reassure himself as the child.
Anna hung her head, her whole body reflecting her misery. “It’s my fault, I tell you. I showed her a way out and told her how to reach the auld pool so she could use the magic.”
No. He wouldn’t believe it. The child was mistaken. Ellie was still here. In the bathhouse. He’d seen her beasts waiting for her.
All the same, he couldn’t discount what the lass said. If she was right, he had to act quickly. Just the thought of Ellie outside the gates of Dun Ard after dark, unprotected, tightened his chest so that he could hardly catch his breath.
“Show me,” he ordered, giving the girl a little shake to stop the infernal weeping. “Take me to the place you say she went out.”
She clasped her little hand around his fingers and pulled him along, down the hall past the now closed door of Blane’s solar, out through the kitchen, into the garden and beyond.
His stomach tightened as they neared the bathhouse. The sight of the waiting dogs, which before had appeared so reassuring to him, now took on an ominous cast.
They waited for a mistress who would not return.
“There.” Anna pointed to a spot under the building before getting to her knees and slipping inside the hole.
He squatted down to inspect the pathway. It was too small for his shoulders to manage, but the child moved through easily. And it was no stretch of his imagination to see Ellie being able to make her way through as well.
“To the auld pool, did you say?”
He waited only long enough for her affirmative reply before running toward the stables. If he took his fastest horse, he might reach her before it was too late.
Thirty-three
Even if the magic didn’t work, it certainly was pretty here.
Ellie looked around the pool she’d finally reached. The little stream she’d followed spread out and the water slowed before it hit the rocks and picked up speed again, crashing its way down the mountainside. A small forest of trees grew up around the pool, sheltering the area and filtering the last rays of sunlight as they danced on the water, casting a last pinkish golden glow over the ripples.
This had to be the place.
She dropped to a flat, mossy spot along the bank and eased the wet slipper off her foot, wincing at the blister she’d developed on her hike. This little trip had certainly been another example of the “act first, think later” policy she was getting so good at.
When her foot first slid into the water, she should have realized right then a walk of any length would be a problem. In fact, now that she took the time to think about it, there were several things she might have considered a little more thoroughly before she’d scampered off down the mountain.
She should have thought to bring her knives along, just in case. Hadn’t she listened to Caden and the others discussing the possibility that Catriona’s brother might come after them? As she waited for the moon to rise in the sky, a tendril of panic swirled in her stomach, building, sparking every concern her mind could dredge up, her thoughts randomly hopping from one problem to the next.
She hoped Anna wouldn’t get in trouble for having shown her the way out of Dun Ard.
Perhaps she should have said something to Rosalyn about leaving. After all, the woman had gone out of her way to make Ellie feel welcome, as if she were actually part of the family. What kind of a guest just took off?
And what about Baby and Missy? Would anyone think to take care of her poor dogs when she was gone?
What if the whole magic-at-the-river thing didn’t even work?
It will work.
It had to. Because if it didn’t, it would only confirm her worst fears. That Caden was The One. The same Caden who thought her a poster child for improper, inappropriate women. The same Caden who was so anxious to be rid of her, he thought to pass her off to his younger brother.
She wouldn’t stand for being treated like some handme-down to be discarded when he’d grown tired of her.
The magic will work.
Anna had said the magic was strongest near water when the moon rose. That had to explain it.
This would work.
But when it did, would any of the people she’d come to care for worry about what had happened to her?
Would Caden?
“Stop it!” she ordered herself aloud. This was getting her nowhere. “Shoulda, coulda, woulda. I got to let it go.” She shook her head in irritation.
She was not going to talk herself out of this. Going home was exactly what she needed to do.
Be sensible!
Caden wouldn’t worry about her being gone. He’d be relieved. He wouldn’t have to deal with her grossly inappropriate behavior anymore. And think of the trouble she’d be saving his poor brother, the one Caden had tried to dump her on.
No, working herself up into a fine lather over what she couldn’t change was pointless. She needed to put her energies into figuring out what she would do once she got home. Worrying about “what if” did nothing to help.
In fact, all it did was upset her more.
The longer she sat, the harder she found it to fend off her growing unease. She’d made herself so anxious, her imagination was even doing a number on her now, making her feel as if someone watched her from the cover of the surrounding trees.
What had looked sheltering and idyllic barely an hour past now appeared menacing as she peered into the great pockets of dark in their depths, trying to rid herself of the feeling.
Fear shot through her at a sound of crackling underbrush. It might be only an animal, but then again…
She left the thought unfinish
ed, fear whipping the adrenaline to flood her system as she rose to her feet, faced the water and looked up at the sliver of a moon rising in the inky sky.
Caden’s face filled her mind but she pushed it away, fighting the sense of loss that remained when it was gone. The fear must be responsible for her thinking of him. It was only comfort and safety she sought. Nothing more. Once she got back to her own time, she’d never think of him again.
She wouldn’t. Not ever.
Her hands shook and she clasped them to her breast to still their trembling.
Please let those damn Faeries be listening just this once.
“Take me home. Take me where I need to be, where I belong.”
Caden followed Ellie’s tracks down the side of the mountain until he could be sure she had indeed stuck to Anna’s advice to stay by the stream the whole way. Once he eliminated all doubt, he’d be free to take a faster way to the auld pool and could save time.
That was increasingly important to him now that the sun had set.
He had just made his decision to turn away and head straight for her destination when he spotted something unusual. Something that made him climb down from his mount to investigate more closely.
Fresh horse tracks. One clearly on top of the small print Ellie had left behind.
Someone followed her. Someone on horseback.
In his haste Caden had almost missed it. Another ten minutes and there wouldn’t have been enough light to have seen the tracks.
He was torn now. If he left the trail to save time, what else might he miss?
He couldn’t take that chance. Not with Ellie’s safety hanging in the balance. He kicked his horse, urging it to move faster, the familiar old guilt threatening to drown him once again.
If his brothers were right—if she’d left because of him and anything were to happen to her—it would be his fault.
He couldn’t live with that.
The fear curdled his blood, eating at him, forcing him to drive his animal harder, faster.
He’d sooner see the Fae take her home than have anyone here bring her to harm.
His need to see her, to know for sure she was unharmed overrode everything else. It was more important even than finding out if she cared for him as his family seemed to think.
That idea was still too large for him to accept.
If she did, why had she denied it? Could it be as Blane had said, only her pride that forced those words from her lips? Pride such as that which drove her need to seek revenge on the man who had stolen her home?
If only he’d opened his eyes to the possibility earlier, perhaps he could have changed this. If only he hadn’t been so desperate to avoid her, he would have been there today to prevent her running away.
If only, if only, if only.
The litany beat in his head in time to the pounding of his horse’s hooves as the copse of trees surrounding the auld pool came into sight, the forest a darker black against the night sky.
He slowed his horse, preferring to arrive unnoticed by whoever it was following Ellie.
Ahead, at the edge of the little forest, he could just distinguish the outline of a mounted figure, waiting, watching.
Too late for surprise, he moved slowly toward the man, pulling his sword as he did so. When he neared, the figure moved forward into the moonlight, showing himself.
“MacDowell?” His hold on his sword slackened. What was Simeon doing here?
“It’s about time you showed up, MacAlister. I’ve better things to do with my time than nursemaid yer woman.”
“She’s no my…” Caden clamped his teeth together on the denial. His relationship with Ellie was none of MacDowell’s business. “What are you doing out here, following her?”
The warrior stared at him hard. “What would you have me do? I saw a lone figure scrambling down the mountainside as I returned to Dun Ard. I followed. When I realized it was a woman, I could no turn away and leave her unattended. And once I got close enough to see which woman it was, I dinna doubt you’d be along eventually.”
“She’s unharmed?” Caden had to force himself to ask the question at the front of his thoughts.
“I would have allowed nothing else.” Simeon sounded almost offended at the question. “Through the trees, she sits at the edge of the water, talking to herself.” Simeon shook his head. “Daft female.”
Caden’s irritation at MacDowell’s being there warred with his relief that it wasn’t someone else who had followed Ellie.
“You can go. I have this well in hand now.” Thanks to his tangled emotions, he couldn’t help the gruff dismissal.
The knight snorted his response. “And welcome to it, you are.” With a tug of his reins, he and his mount disappeared into the night, following the path Caden had just traveled.
At the tree line, Caden dismounted and led his horse through the forest on foot, looping his reins over a low branch once he caught sight of Ellie by the water.
She turned to stare his direction and for an instant the moonlight glinted off her long black hair, giving her a glow that reminded him of what she was and who had sent her here.
The Fae.
For the first time, it didn’t matter in the least.
And just like that, he knew. Knew in the depths of his soul.
Drew had been right about one thing, Ellie was nothing like Alycie.
As of this moment, he didn’t care who had sent her or why. She was here. With a Faerie heritage to match his own.
To hell with what his brothers needed. To hell with what he owed them or anyone else. Right or wrong, he wanted Ellie for his very own. And he would do whatever it took to have her.
As he watched, she rose to her feet and clasped her hands to her breast, her voice broken as if she fought tears when she uttered the words that struck fear to his heart, words that drew him forward to the spot where she stood.
“Take me home. Take me where I need to be, where I belong.”
Thirty-four
“Are you so sure this isna exactly where you need to be?”
Startled, Ellie whipped around to face the one who spoke. With the movement, her bare foot slipped on the damp, mossy bank and she lost her balance, falling backward toward the water.
In the space of a breath, she found herself captured, snug up against Caden’s chest, the irresistible scent of him filling her nostrils.
Her heart pounded, beating so loudly it resonated in her ears, but she refused to believe it did so for any reason other than her near fall. All the same, for that one moment, she relaxed in his hold and allowed herself to consider whether or not this might be where she belonged. Right here, in Caden’s arms.
But it couldn’t be. No green lightning sparked around her this time. Either the Faeries had completely abandoned her, or Caden wasn’t The One.
She steeled her raging emotions and pushed away from him, refusing to meet his eyes. His gaze, which she remembered could feel hotter than melted chocolate, would immobilize her, robbing her of the ability to speak, and she couldn’t afford that.
Or worse, she feared she might find disdain in his look, accusation painted there on his face. The last thing she could handle right now would be another of his “come home and marry my brother” lectures.
So she stared at her feet and then off to the opposite bank of the pool, desperately searching the shadows for a spot to focus. Anywhere but on him.
When she felt she could speak without her voice giving her away, she held up a hand, hoping to forestall anything he might say.
“Let’s get this straight between us right now, Caden. I’m well aware of how you feel about me.” She swallowed hard, forcing back the tears that would only make her look stupid and needy.
“I dinna believe you are, lass.” His voice was soft, closer to her now than a moment before.
How was she to get through this with him so close? She backed away a step, giving herself room to think, to breathe. “I already know you think my behavior is immod
est and inappropriate. You said so yourself. And I know I only reinforced your opinion with what happened between us that night.”
“Ellie…” He reached out a hand, one finger stroking her hair, and she swatted him away.
“Let me finish. I didn’t expect any commitment from you that night and I still don’t. What happened…happened.” She shrugged her shoulders, searching for words to explain without making an even bigger fool of herself.
There was no way she’d admit that she couldn’t have stopped herself from making love to him if she’d wanted to. And she hadn’t wanted to.
“If this magic thing doesn’t work and I’m stuck here, I want you to know I don’t expect anything from you so don’t worry about that. I understand that you want to be rid of me and I’m doing my best to get away from here.”
His hand shot out, snaking around the back of her neck and pulling her to him, so close she could feel his breath feather over her face.
“Yer wrong, woman. I’ve only one thought about you, and it’s no to be rid of you.”
He bent his head, crushing his lips to hers.
Only one large hand held her to him. She could easily pull away, but somehow she couldn’t make herself take the one small step needed to break the physical contact.
Nor could she stop herself from returning his kiss any more than she could stop the need for him that seemed to hum in her blood in response to his touch.
She leaned into him, reaching for him, twining her fingers in his hair. Her body pressed into his, and she let the want wash over her, through her, until it filled her completely, leaving every tiny part of her aching for more of him.
As if in answer to her need, he kissed her lips, her cheeks, her chin, nibbling his way to her ear.
“Stay with me, Elliedenton. Dinna leave me now. No now that I’ve found you.”
His words whispered their way into her heart, into her very soul, as his fingers worked frantically at the laces of her overdress. To her surprise, she found her own trembling fingers doing an equally frantic job of loosening the belt that held his plaid.
A Highlander of Her Own Page 24
