by Dare, Lydia
He couldn't resist winking at the lass. "Pretty
and
smart, Sorcha."
"Come along," Elspeth said, draping her plaid around her shoulders and towing her friend toward the door. "I
do
need yer help with somethin'."
As soon as the women were gone, Ben noticed the look of dismay on his brother's face. "What have you gotten yourself into, Benjamin? I admit when mother and Prisca were worried about you, I thought this was a fool's errand. But now—"
"But now?" Ben asked, sinking onto the old settee.
"Are you honestly married to that girl?"
Ben felt anger roil inside him. He didn't like the arrogant tone of Will's voice. "Yes, she's wonderful," he snarled.
"She's lovely," Will agreed, taking a seat opposite him. "But, Ben, MacQuarrie says you bought property here. You're talking to John Burton about building a house?"
"Elspeth wants to stay here. It's all she knows." And with everything he'd done to her, giving her that happiness was the least he could do.
Will shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you're serious. At least the two of you would get a fresh start in London, where no one knows the circumstances of her birth."
He was going to kill Alec MacQuarrie at the first available opportunity. "Her father was a Lycan, Will. It's not Ellie's fault he abandoned her mother before she was born."
"A Lycan?" Will echoed. "Are you certain?"
"She has the mark."
Will seemed to think about that and rubbed his brow. "Who was he?"
Ben shrugged. "She's not sure. But we intend to find out."
"So, then, she knows about you? About us?"
More than Ben liked. She knew all about what Lycan men were capable of. Yet she
loved
him anyway. The idea warmed him from the inside out. "Yes, she knows everything."
"Well, you're more fortunate than Simon, then."
"Simon?"
Will took a sip of tea. "Blueberry?"
"Don't ask. What about Simon?"
"I left his wedding breakfast to seek you out."
Ben sat up quickly. Wedding breakfast? Simon? He didn't believe it. Not for a minute. "You're joking."
Will shrugged. "Heard the vows myself."
"Simon?" Ben repeated, dumbfounded. "Our brother who keeps respectable women at arm's length? Our brother who would never let a woman near him during a full moon?
That
Simon?"
Will chuckled. "He didn't plan it. He sort of got tangled up in one of Prissy's machinations."
"Not Prisca?" Ben couldn't think of two people less suited than his oldest brother and their pretty young neighbor.
Will scowled at him. "Lily Rutledge. Now, Benjamin, I am waiting for you to tell me the nature of your letters to Prisca."
Which he wouldn't get from Ben. He was not about to admit to keeping the girl appraised of Will's exploits. His brother would kill him on the spot. "You can bare your teeth at me all you want. I won't break her confidence. If she wants you to know, she'll tell you herself."
Will's frown darkened. "Does your wife know the nature of your relationship with Prisca?"
His brother was definitely reaching. "The only woman in my life is Elspeth."
"I have half a mind to tear your head off, you disloyal mutt."
He might welcome the punishment at the moment. "If you spent half of that energy talking to Prissy, you might be a whole lot happier, Will."
"Go to hell."
"You first, brother." Ben rose from his seat and started toward the stove. He looked in the abandoned pot. It
was
porridge. Yuck.
"So what is your plan, Ben?" Will called from his seat. "You just going to stay in Edinburgh and play house? Forget you have family and a life in England?"
He didn't have anything to return home to. "When I want your advice, William, I will ask you for it."
Will scoffed. "As well thought out as always, I see." He rose from his seat. "I'll be at Alec's if you decide your older and wiser brother may actually be of help."
Elspeth groaned and stuck her fingers in her ears as she walked down the lane beside Sorcha. She said loudly, "I'll no' hear another word about Lord William, Sorcha. No' one more word." Then she hummed a tune to block the rest of her friend's gushing.
Sorcha finally tugged violently on her arm. She removed her fingers from her ears and said, "Aye, Sorcha?"
"Nothin'," the youngest witch sighed. "I'll find out for myself." Her eyes lit with mischief.
Elspeth shook a finger at the girl. "Ye'll no' find out anythin' about that man. Ye're much too young for him." The girl just skipped along. "Keep it up and I'll tell yer papa that ye've set yer sights on him."
That finally got the young witch's attention. "Ye wouldna dare!" she gasped.
"Aye, I would."
"Marriage doesna set well with ye, Elspeth. It makes
ye grumpy," the girl muttered. "What did ye want with me this mornin'? I'm sure ye dinna need me for a walk in the woods."
Elspeth reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of foolscap. Inside lay several small seeds. "I need ye ta make these grow for me. Right away."
Sorcha shook the seeds into her hand and brought them to her nose to smell them. "Hyssop?" she asked. When Elspeth just nodded, she continued. "What need do ye have for hyssop? Ye have nothin' ta be sorry for."
"It's no' for me, Sorcha. It's for someone else."
"It's pretty powerful," Sorcha hedged.
"I ken that it's powerful. That's why I need it."
"What does Ben have ta be sorry for?" Her gaze rose sharply. "He dinna hurt ye, did he?" She clutched Elspeth's arm, her nails digging into the skin.
Elspeth winced. "No, he dinna hurt me," she groaned. "I wish I could say the same for ye."
"Sorry," the girl mumbled.
"So can ye grow the flowers?"
"Aye, the seeds are alive. Did ye get these from yer mum's collection?"
She simply nodded. "How quickly can ye do it?"
"Today," Sorcha said, shrugging her shoulders. "Why the rush?"
"They're the flower of forgiveness. And I may need forgiveness for what I plan ta do."
"Elspeth Campbell, ye
will
tell me what ye're speakin' of. And stop the riddles."
Elspeth closed her eyes tightly and spit it all out in one breath. "I'm going ta London ta find my father. I'm leavin' Edinburgh."
The girl blew out a relieved breath. "Is that all?
Havers
, I thought ye were goin' ta kill someone or do somethin' despicable."
"Ye doona think leavin' the coven is despicable?"
"No. Because I ken ye'll be back."
But Elspeth wasn't so sure.
Thirty-six
Ben huffed past Alec MacQuarrie's harried butler and called up the stairs, "Will, where the devil are you?"
Alec's head popped out of the study doorway, one eyebrow arched. "For God's sake, Ben, have you suddenly lost all your manners? You don't walk into a gentleman's house and bellow."
The butler sniffed loudly from behind Ben as though to say,
Next time, remember that.
"Alec, I don't have time for manners. Where's Will?"
"Your lovely wife came for him awhile ago." Alec shrugged. "She said something about blueberry pie."
"It's a wonder I don't bleed blueberry juice," Ben muttered as he dashed back toward the door.
He didn't even stop when Alec called, "Nice to see you, too, Ben. Do come again when you can stay longer. And have better manners!"
Over his shoulder, Ben made an obscene gesture in response. He heard Alec chuckle as he closed the door behind himself.
Ben jogged back to the cottage he shared with Elspeth. As he neared the house, he slowed and finally came to a stop outside the door, where he could listen to the voices of his wife and brother.
> "I'm quite glad ye've come, William," Elspeth said softly. "I've been worried about him."
Of course she'd been worried. He'd nearly mauled her like the wild animal he was right before the moonful.
"Understandable," Will replied. "Ben has always been a bit odd."
Odd?
What a nice way to speak of one's brother. He snorted.
"Elspeth, what are you doing with him? You could do so much better."
"Better?" she echoed.
"Hmm. Me, for example. I'd love to get you naked," Will said huskily.
Elspeth gasped as Ben flung the door open.
He had Will pushed up against the wall within seconds. "How dare you speak to my wife that way?" he growled.
Will smiled, a sparkle in his blue eyes. Elspeth giggled from behind him. She patted his shoulder. "He was but teasin' ye, Ben. He heard ye as ye came down the walk."
"I believe you forget that I have the same senses you do. And you shouldn't eavesdrop, little brother. It's ill-mannered."
First Alec and now Will. Ben was in no mood for a reprimand about his manners. He grunted and removed his arm from beneath Will's throat. He turned and kissed Elspeth quickly. "I missed you," he said as he tucked a loose curl behind her ear.
"I have good things in store for ye later," she said quietly. "After ye tell me about the land ye purchased." She raised one eyebrow and he nodded.
"I look forward to it."
Elspeth began to set the table and smiled at his brother. "Will ye join us for dinner, Lord William?"
"I would love to, but I have an appointment in town with a lovely young woman I met at the Thistle and Thorn."
"An appointment?" Elspeth asked innocently as she sat down beside Ben. "At the inn? But I thought ye were stayin' with Mr. MacQuarrie."
"Love, I don't think you want to know the nature of Will's
appointment
." She colored prettily as Ben caressed her knee beneath the table.
"Oh," she replied quietly, realization dawning in her eyes.
Will laughed. "Well, I can't stay around you two for long anyway, or I'll get singed by the sparks." He bowed slightly toward Elspeth then glanced toward Ben. "See you tomorrow. We've some things to discuss."
Ben nodded, avoiding his gaze.
After finishing their cock-a-leekie soup, Elspeth cut a slice of blueberry pie and placed it in front of Ben. Dinner had been a rather muted affair, as her husband seemed consumed in his own thoughts. "What's it like havin' brothers?" she wondered aloud. All her life she'd wanted siblings, and though Ben and William had done nothing but bicker since Will had arrived, there was a comfort in their exchanges.
"Irritating," he growled.
She reached out her hand to him. "Ye doona mean that."
He nodded. "I do, but I suppose it's nice, too. They do come in handy at times. Like when you're in the middle of a brawl in a rowdy pub." He chuckled at her expression and chucked her chin. "Don't worry, love. No more rowdy pubs for me."
"Tell me about the land ye purchased. What's yer intention with it?"
"I thought you might want to stay here." He looked everywhere but at her.
Had he really planned to stay in Edinburgh? "But what about London? Ye promised ye'd take me."
"Oh, I will. I want to take you to meet my mother, though she's not in London this time of year. She resides at her family's ancestral home, Hampton Meadows, in Surrey; but it's not far. I know she'll love you."
"But my father. The Society," she prompted.
"Oh, we'll see Major Forster and have him search the records for any clues to your father. But after all that you'll want to come back here. And I want nothing more than to make you happy, Ellie."
Though he hadn't spoken of his own happiness. "And what about what
ye
want? It's no' all about me, ye ken."
"I bought the land so that we could build a home and start a family. And my thought at the time was that it's fairly secluded, so I would have the privacy I'd need when the moon is full. But I'm no longer Lycan. So it's not a problem anymore."
"No longer Lycan?" She stood up swiftly. "What do ye mean no longer Lycan?"
"I mean I didn't change. So the moon means very little to me now." He tried to hide it, though there was pain in his eyes when they met hers. "But I have you, so it's all right."
"It most definitely is no' all right." She pushed the blueberry pie toward him. "Eat up, because I will find the Lycan in ye if it's the last thing I ever do."
"Maybe it's better this way. You won't have to worry about my hurting you again."
Elspeth's heart ached as he said the words; his weeklong isolation had left her worried and fractured while he was away. It hurt all the more knowing how he must have blamed himself. She knew the loss of his confidence wasn't good for him. "Benjamin, ye dinna mean ta hurt me, I ken that. And truly, if I'd known what ta expect, I doona think I'd have reacted the way I did. I'll be better prepared for next time."
"There won't be a next time, Ellie. I'd rather cut off my own arm than ever hurt you again."
She rose from her seat and brushed the hair from his brow. "Please doona say such things. Seeing ye miserable is more painful ta me than a few bruises."
He looked so forlorn, it nearly broke her heart.
"Will ye do anythin' I ask of ye?"
"You know I will."
She kissed his brow. "Eat yer pie, Ben."
He groaned, but picked up his fork.
Ben nuzzled against Elspeth's neck. She slept so soundly, and her rhythmic breathing calmed him in a way he hadn't felt for days. There was something about the woman in his arms. She brought him such peace and harmony. All he'd given her in return was scaring the hell out of her and turning her life upside down.
If he had it to do over, he never would have tangled her life with his. She was kindness, compassion, and purity all rolled into one, and she deserved so much better than him. But the die was cast. He was her husband in every sense, and nothing anyone could do would change that.
So he'd have to make it up to her. If she wanted the moon, he'd find a way to catch it in a net and offer it to her. If she wanted jewels or silks, he'd keep her supplied in them for life. If she wanted to go to London… well, he supposed, they'd leave as soon as possible.
Elspeth rolled in her sleep and pressed a kiss to his chest. "I love ye, Ben," she whispered against his skin, and he felt the words deep in his soul.
He caressed her back and tangled his hands in her fiery hair. "Rest well, Ellie."
Thirty-seven
Elspeth grinned when Sorcha entered the cottage carrying a full-grown hyssop plant. "Sorry I dinna make it back yesterday, El. I got a bit caught up," her friend explained as she put the potted plant on the kitchen table.
