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

by Anne Morrison

  “Be serious. If you find Catherine... then what?”

  Nicholas felt a strange sense of shock come over him. Surely, he had considered the idea before? He realized that if he had, it was only in the most absent of ways. He had been a wreck since he had left France, driven from pillar to post and maddened with grief. After being wounded, some of that madness was due to a fever.

  “I suppose that I have not considered it as much as I might have.”

  “Well, no better time than the present. What are you going to tell her if she asks you where you are going and what you are doing?”

  “Well, there is still property in my name in London. Not much, but it is a place to stay. Once there, I could start the process to regain my lands. They should never have been taken from me in the first place. I assume that in war time, some bursar got over-ambitious about what he might be able to return to the war chests.”

  It occurred to Nicholas as he worked on building the fire that London felt very far away. There was a time when he would have said that it was unquestionably home. Now he wondered. It was weeks of travel to get back to the capitol, but it was more than that.

  The Highlands feel more real. In the clear air of Scotland, the mountains against the horizon looked as pure as Paradise. The rugged dales and townships already lived inside him in a way he didn't understand.

  “We should return to London,” he said finally. “It is the only course that makes sense, isn't it?”

  “Why in the world are you asking me?” retorted Ava. He wondered if there was a tautness to her voice that hadn't been there before.

  “Catherine and I could not stay in Scotland. The fighting here—”

  “—is something that only barbaric little Scottish children should be exposed to?”

  Nicholas glanced at Ava, more curious than angry with her words.

  “You know I do not think that. If you had a child of your own, you would understand.”

  “If I had a child of my own, they would be Scottish, and I would not send them elsewhere to live, not apart from me and not apart from the land that bore us both.”

  “I understand.”

  Nicholas stepped back from the blazing fire and went to sit next to Ava. He put his arm around her shoulders, slightly surprised when she allowed it.

  “I do not know what is going to happen next. All I can do is to take what happens as it happens. And to be with you as long as I can.”

  He thought that she would balk at that, but her hand only came up to take his.

  “I know.”

  Then, his hand still in hers, she got up and led him to the pallet that they had prepared.

  ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

  chapter 39

  ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

  Doone Castle reared up like a hulking giant of stone and timber. It was an ancient thing, designed to protect the people within from the winds of war and fire. Ava knew that it was older by far than Clan MacTaggart itself.

  “We used to make up all kinds of stories about this place,” Ava said, gazing up at the sheer stone walls. “About the monsters who must have attacked it and the men and women who defended it. I lived here for two years, but I never got over how grand it was.”

  “It's beautiful, in a grim kind of way,” Nicholas agreed, but she could tell that he was nervous about approaching it. Given his reception from most of the Highland clans they had encountered, she didn't blame him.

  The Riordans and the Crawfords had fended him off with wariness, but the MacTaggarts were different. Their fury at the English and their long and vocal support of Robert the Bruce made them far less likely to accept Nicholas and his quest.

  It wasn't all hopeless, or at least so Ava told herself. Reade MacTaggart, the laird's younger brother, had somehow married an actual English noblewoman just a year before. And Aidan, the laird himself... Well, the Highlands were still buzzing about that one. For the Laird MacTaggart to marry a half-English girl that he had actually ventured into England to retrieve, it was the stuff of fairy tales. There were some people who still assumed that he had borne her off like a prize of war.

  That idea probably only lasted as long as it took to actually meet Margaret MacTaggart herself, something that Ava had had the privilege of doing a few times.

  “Ah, here comes the lady herself,” Ava said, sliding down from Cobie's back and nudging Nicholas so he did the same.

  “Didn't you tell me once to stay on horseback so we could make an escape if we needed to?”

  “Oh, Nicholas. This deep into MacTaggart lands, we're only going to leave if they let us.”

  Nicholas scowled, but Ava turned toward the open gates of the castle, where a tall and willowy woman with her dark red hair in long plaits was walking toward them, her expression cautious, and one hand hovering over her round belly.

  “Lady MacTaggart,” said Ava, bowing slightly.

  Margaret snorted.

  “What in the world would Aidan think if he heard you call me that?”

  “Probably laugh himself sick, honestly, just like he would if he heard you call me Mistress Fitzpatrick.”

  Margaret opened her arms, and Ava hugged her tightly. She had known from the wedding that she would like Margaret, and in so many ways, it was like having the sister she had never known she wanted. She was more similar to Reade's wife Elizabeth, but Margaret was wonderful as well.

  “And how's the babe doing?” she asked, pointing at Margaret's belly.

  Margaret shook her head.

  “I think the little one will be appearing in June, right at the height of summer. The waiting's terrible. But have you come to stay, Ava? You and...”

  Margaret's words dropped off, and she stared at Nicholas, who Ava realized was staring at her in return.

  “Nicholas Bluett?” Margaret asked in surprise.

  Nicholas nodded, a slightly incredulous expression on his face.

  “Well, Meggie, it certainly is good to see you again.”

  * * *

  After the first confused tumble of words, Ava demanded food and a sheltered place to eat while they worked out who was who.

  “Bluett?” she asked.

  Nicholas shook his head.

  “I was wearing a blue cloak. Not my finest moment. I had been attacked by brigands, crawled off under a bush to die, and then Meggie and her husband Aidan found me.”

  “It was when Aidan was bringing me north, when we were on the run from my father's heir,” Margaret said. There was a slight tightness around her mouth that told Ava she had few good memories of that time. “We found him, and we treated him for his wounds before bringing him to a monastery in the north of England.”

  Nicholas snorted.

  “You mean you treated me of my wounds. Aidan would have just let me die in the bushes. I still cannot thank you enough for that, Meggie.”

  Ava felt a trickle of jealousy when Nicholas smiled so very kindly at the lady of Doone Castle, an emotion that she quashed down hard. She knew that Margaret was utterly devoted to Aidan, and that Nicholas... Well, Nicholas loved her.

  She was so stunned by the realization that the conversation carried on without her for a short while. It was the truth. Nicholas was not a man who lied or dissembled. He was honest, brave, and kind. The things he said when they were in the throes of passion were part of it, but there was more. He had defied Clan Blair to get her away, he had protected her, taken care of her, respected her. That was love, and that was what she felt for him as well.

  Ava swallowed hard. Love. She had never imagined such a thing was possible. Of course, she had never imagined it with an Englishman.

  There's no one else for me. I could never imagine it before because I had never known Nicholas before. To think of things like love, like this kind of happiness, I needed him. It could have been no one else.

  The realization of her feelings sent her reeling, and she didn't come back to the conversation at hand until Margaret stood up.

 
“We don't have many fosterlings at Clan Blair right now. Some of the older boys went off with Aidan when Robert called, and there were never many girls... except...”

  Ava realized what, or rather, who Margaret was thinking about, and she narrowed her eyes.

  “Margaret... a while ago, before Aidan went down to England to fetch you back, I ran across a man who had some strange questions about Maisie. Nicholas, I think that must have been after you set out the reward for information leading to Catherine's return...”

  Nicholas looked surprised.

  “Who's Maisie?”

  Margaret started to answer, and then she inclined her head toward the door.

  “Well, she's over there.”

  Lurking in the doorway was a slight girl of no more than eight. She was as slender as a willow twig. Her cautious expression gave her the appearance of some shy woodland animal, and as she always did, Ava felt a twinge of affection for the child.

  “Hullo, darling Maisie,” Ava said. “Don't you want to come and say hello to me?”

  “Do you have more stories about pirates?” the little girl asked, her eyes brightening a little.

  Ava laughed.

  “I may. Come here. I'll give it to you if you let me see your foot.”

  Maisie was too young to wonder too much about Ava's odd request. Ava noted with some wryness that it was one of the lucky things about being such a strange thing herself. When she asked for strange things, no one noticed it very much.

  Nicholas was as still as a stone as Maisie made her way to them. The little girl made a wide circle around him to get to Ava. Ava wanted to reassure him that it was far from personal, and that Maisie was notorious at Doone Castle for her mistrust of men she didn't know.

  Ava hauled Maisie onto her lap, unable to resist giving her a hug. She wondered if part of her affection for the little girl came from having been a fosterling of irregular origins at Castle Doone herself once upon a time.

  “All right, little one. Now I have a wonderful story about a pirate queen and her pet seal to tell you, but first, I need to take a look at your feet.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to make sure that you haven't turned into a little goat. Have to check you for hooves, I'm afraid. Is that all right?”

  Maisie nodded as if this was a perfectly normal request. She tugged off her shoes, laying them neatly on the floor, and Ava inspected her foot gravely.

  The adults all saw the mark at the same time. It was the size of a small coin, a pale raspberry red, located at the very center of Maisie's right foot. It had distorted slightly, likely as she had grown, but it was unmistakable.

  “Well,” Ava started to say, but Nicholas moved like lightning.

  In a heartbeat, he had swept Maisie into his arms, hugging her close. The sound he made was almost more a sob than words.

  “Catherine,” he murmured.

  ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

  chapter 40

  ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

  Nicholas realized that at some point, he’d had no real belief that he was ever going to find his niece. Early on in his quest, he certainly thought he would do so, but as time went on and disappointment came after disappointment, it had started to feel hopeless. At some point, this quest became something that he simply did because he did not know how to stop.

  When he saw the mark on the little girl's foot, when it came to him that it was not hopeless after all, he acted without thinking.

  He was vaguely aware of Margaret and Ava standing up in alarm, but it didn't matter. Somehow, against all the odds, against everything in the world that was ranged against it, he had found Catherine. Catherine, his last link with his family and the life he had had before. Catherine, his sister's child, his own blood.

  For a moment, Nicholas thought that he was going to weep, but then a small sharp fist came up and slammed hard into his cheek, right under his eye. Nicholas yelped in surprise, loosening his grip. It was apparently just enough clearance to allow Catherine to plant a hard knee right into his belly, landing a blow that doubled him over.

  He dropped her, and the little girl hit the ground running. He heard the slap of her bare feet against the stone as she ran away.

  “Well, that was a disaster,” Ava said calmly.

  “That was her; that was Catherine,” Nicholas said, fighting down the urge to dash after her. He had no idea what reaction a stranger would receive running after one of Doone Castle's fosterlings, but he was willing to bet that it wouldn't be good.

  “Perhaps,” said Margaret. “But she's been Maisie for years now. Aidan found her when she was barely half this size, riding a long patrol south.”

  Nicholas swallowed hard, sitting down at the table again.

  “How did—?”

  “She was covered in blood, terrified out of her wits, and barely able to speak. Aidan was the one who coaxed her into coming with him, and ever since, she has lived at Doone Castle, with the MacTaggarts.”

  “Her name is Catherine Heatherton. She's the daughter of my sister Catherine and her husband William Heatherton. She is the only family I have left.”

  Margaret's eyes went hard.

  “And so far as she has been able to tell us, we are the only family that she has ever known. She came to us nearly mute, nearly broken by what she had seen. We were the only family she has had for years.”

  Nicholas scowled.

  “You are not going to keep me away from her.”

  Ava stood up between them, her face set.

  “Nicholas.”

  Nicholas turned toward her, his wildly swirling emotions threatening to turn into some terrible combination of rage and grief.

  “Are you going to stop me right now? You know how long I have been looking. You know what I have suffered and what I have gone through...”

  “True. Do you know what Maisie has gone through?”

  “That's not her name,” Nicholas said, but he took a deep breath. “I don't.”

  “And honestly, neither do we. She has suffered. In her short life, she has gone through so much. She has found a safe harbor here.”

  Ava's words penetrated through Nicholas's haze of anger and grief and confusion. He passed a hand over his eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted.

  “And I terrified her. I made her think I was going to take it away from her.”

  Ava nodded.

  “She has been cared for here, Nicholas. Strangers took everything away from her once, and that's what you are now. You are a stranger to her, and you must work to get past that.”

  * * *

  Though Margaret was obviously displeased by the panic and upset that Maisie had suffered, she allowed Nicholas to stay at Doone Castle and to get to know his niece.

  “It's not my place to say whether she should go with you,” she said. “Aidan's more a parent to her than I have been, and they love each other well. But Aidan is off with most of the fighting force of Clan MacTaggart for at least a few more weeks. When he comes home, you can speak with him about it.”

  “If he will speak with me at all,” Nicholas said with a flinch. “He was not altogether happy with me when we met last year anyway.”

  To his surprise, Margaret smiled a little at that.

  “I think you will find him a little more easygoing than he was when you last saw him. Circumstances were very different then.”

  Ava snorted.

  “You mean, he finally realized that you were mad about him, and that he didn't need to threaten every man who came within ten yards of you?”

  Margaret laughed, and Nicholas was startled all over again that his fate had brought him here, to the home of the man and woman who had saved his life on the road.

  “You may stay, and you may try to get to know Maisie, but you must remember that she is very well-loved here at Doone Castle. No one will take kindly to you offering her the least kind of fright, myself included. Ava, can you keep an eye on them both?”

  Ava threw
her hands up in mock exasperation, but she looked pleased.

  “I suppose I might as well! There's nothing else that I'm after right now.”

  Nicholas blinked. Ava hadn't told Margaret about why she was there, hadn't mentioned her own family at all. She had talked, not often about the MacTaggarts, but she had mentioned them enough that Nicholas had always imagined that her relationship with them was better than with her own family. Now he realized that that relationship being better still did not mean that it was good, or close.

  The thought made him ache, even under the stress of discovering Catherine again. He had to sit on the urge to reach over and touch her hand.

  Margaret sighed.

  “I cannot wait until Aidan returns and finds a notorious cattle raider and an Englishman trying to get to know his ward. The two of you, please. Be careful and be kind. Maisie has had a very hard life in the few years she has lived. I do not want you two to make it harder.”

  With plenty of responsibilities to see to, Margaret left, leaving Ava and Nicholas seated together in the empty great hall.

  “Are you all right?”

  Nicholas looked up, startled at the concern in Ava's voice.

  “This is amazing news. Why wouldn't I be all right?”

  “Because in all honesty, you look like someone who planted barley and started growing stones instead. I cannot imagine that this was the greeting that you were anticipating when you came to find your niece.”

  “It is difficult,” Nicholas had to admit. “I suppose at some point, I just assumed that I would never find her. That I was just searching so that I was not completely lost any longer.”

  Ava's smile was as brilliant as the dawn.

  “And yet here you are. You have found her. The rest should be easy.”

  Nicholas's doubt must have appeared on his face because she laughed at him.

  “Take some heart, Englishman,” she said. “So, she kicked you and hit you. At least she didn't stab you.”

  Nicholas made a face.

  “Given the greetings that I have received in the Highlands, I suppose I should be more grateful, yes.”