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

by Anne Morrison

“That's the spirit!”

  Ava offered him a hand to haul him up.

  “Let's go find little Maisie. She might have calmed down by now, and perhaps she will listen to you now.”

  “Thank you,” Nicholas said. “I mean it. You have... You didn't need to do any of this.”

  Something dark flickered across Ava's face for a moment, but a bright smile smoothed it away.

  “Come on,” she repeated. “Day's wasting.

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  chapter 41

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  Finding Maisie was easier said than done, as Ava and Nicholas discovered over the next few days. She was small and clever, capable of finding the narrowest hiding places in the castle.

  “I don't know how she does it. I swear she's finding places that I don't even remember.”

  “She must have had some use for learning where and how to hide,” Nicholas said, his voice so level that Ava knew that it must be costing him a great deal.

  “Don't worry,” Ava said. “We'll find a way to tease her out.”

  They were sleeping separately. There were plenty of rooms in Doone Castle. There was no reason to double up, but Ava felt strange about it. Ordinarily, she would not have cared who knew what she was doing, but the MacTaggarts were different. They were almost more her family than the Blairs were.

  And it won't hurt to have some time away from Nicholas. I can't think about what we have done or what might come next.

  She resolved to make Nicholas's reunion with Maisie her top priority. After that... well, she would figure that out then.

  At the moment, it was slow going with Maisie. They learned early on not to call her Catherine, because it seemed to frighten her. It could send her into hiding for hours. Talking to her didn't seem to do any good, and the moment it looked like they might force her to stay and listen, she would squirm away, running to hide or even escaping into the countryside around the castle.

  “This is getting us nowhere,” Nicholas said, watching her rabbit up the stairs to the battlements yet again. “Do I simply shout at her and hope she understands that I mean her no harm?”

  “I don't think that shouting at anyone helps them figure that out,” Ava mused. “But...”

  “But what?”

  “What if we could bring her to us?”

  “She's already shown that she would rather miss dinner and breakfast that come near me.”

  “No. She likes her food well enough, but I know what she likes better than she likes sausage rolls.”

  “Oh? What's that?”

  Ava grinned.

  “Stories.”

  * * *

  Ava and Nicholas sat under a tree close to Doone Castle's curtain wall. Anything large enough to help the enemy scale the wall was cut down, but this was barely large enough to supply shade. It would never have supported a full-grown adult in its thin and whippy branches.

  That was why it was one of Maisie's preferred haunts, Ava guessed.

  When Ava and Nicholas settled under her perch, Maisie stirred restlessly, but she didn't leap down and run away. Ava decided to take it as a good sign.

  “All right, Nicholas,” Ava said. “You promised me. Tell me the story that you were talking about.”

  Nicholas cleared his throat. He did not look up in the tree, though Ava could see that he clearly wanted to.

  “Well, let's see. In the legends of Arthur and his mighty knights, Gawain was the most beautiful and skilled of all the men who sat at the Round Table. He was there the day that an evil fairy came in and cursed Arthur, telling him that if the answer to her riddle could not be found, he would die in one year's time...”

  Ava sat and listened to Nicholas tell the old story, captivated despite herself. He had a fine deep voice, one that lulled her into another time and place. Above them, she could sense that Maisie was listening as well, stirring a little when Nicholas finished his story a little later.

  “Oh, that's a good one. I suppose in return, I should tell you about the young miller's daughter who was so skilled at her spinning that they thought she could spin straw into gold. She couldn't, of course, but trouble came when the English king heard it and wanted to see her skill for himself...”

  They traded stories back and forth as if there was no greater pleasure in life, and sooner than Ava would have thought, Maisie had come down from her perch until she sat on the lowest branch of the tree, hidden from Ava and Nicholas's view by the bulk of the trunk. Out of the corner of her eye, Ava could see Maisie peeking around the edge of the trunk, and she knew she was listening.

  She glanced at Nicholas, who nodded slightly.

  “Well, I have one more story, I suppose. Just a few years ago, I was a knight who fought for my king and thought all my family was safe at home where I left them. I was called away to fight, and I was captured for a long time, locked away without the ability to hear of my home or my loved ones.”

  Nicholas's voice shook slightly as he told this story, and even though Ava knew its turns, she ached with the pain in Nicholas's voice. She could feel Maisie on the other side of the tree as well, listening intently. She wanted to reach for the little girl. She wanted to reach for Nicholas.

  Instead, Ava could only wait as Nicholas told his story, bringing it to a close.

  “And I do not know what will happen next,” he said finally. “I hope that... my niece is happy, no matter who is caring for her. I hope that I will be given a chance to know her and to love her as her uncle. I hope... I hope she will someday find a way to forgive me for not being there for her and her mother.”

  Nicholas looked up, startled, and Ava felt a slight weight pressed against her shoulder. Maisie leaned against her, her eyes on her uncle. She was still wary. She kept Ava between the two of them, but she was watching him instead of running away. Nicholas went as still as a statue. She was half-certain he had stopped breathing.

  “I ran,” Maisie said, her voice as soft as a kitten's mew. “So many men. Mama pushed me out to the field, and she told me to run, no matter what. To keep on running. Some man caught me. He carried me for a long way.”

  “Did he hurt you, love?” Ava asked gently.

  Maisie lifted her shoulders up once, a short and jerking gesture.

  “He said he was going to give me to his wife. She lost her baby.”

  It was common enough. Ava flinched a little at the matter-of-fact tone in Ava's voice.

  “Someone shot him. With arrows. I fell off the horse.”

  Maisie uttered a deep sigh, slumping into Ava's lap as if she were far younger. She sounded exhausted, and Ava didn't blame her. She stroked Maisie's hair gently.

  “Thank you for telling us a story, darling,” Ava said. “I know that your uncle is very grateful as well.”

  Hesitantly, Nicholas reached out a hand. He did not try to touch Maisie, instead holding still and waiting. Carefully, she reached out and touched his hand with hers. She held on for a moment, and then she pulled back and walked away.

  Ava bit her lip.

  “I know you were hoping for more.”

  Nicholas turned to her, and the glowing excitement on his face made her shut her mouth.

  “I didn't think she would tell me so much. I didn't think she would want to touch me at all.”

  “Why wouldn't she?” Ava said with a grin. “You'd do anything for her.”

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  chapter 42

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  That night, Nicholas found his steps taking him down the hall to Ava's bedroom. It was long past the time when everyone else was asleep. He hesitated, but when he heard her light step beyond the door, he knocked lightly.

  She appeared almost at once, wearing a long white shift, her feet bare underneath.

  “What are you—?'

  Her words cut off as Nicholas pulled her into his arms, sealing his mouth over hers in a deep and wild kiss. It felt as if it had bee
n months since they had last touched, years since he had held her. Having her with him was like being able to breathe again. For several long seconds, they merely kissed in the doorway.

  Ava finally broke away, looking at him with tolerant amusement.

  “Get in here before we scandalize the good MacTaggarts.”

  “I actually met Aidan MacTaggart,” Nicholas said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. “I do not think that he was a tremendously easy man to scandalize.”

  “He was always a little over-serious, really...”

  She reached for the hem of her shift, obviously ready to pull it up over her head, but Nicholas stilled her hands.

  “What? Do you not want to?”

  “You know what the answer to that always seems to be, Ava. Of course, I want you. But... I wanted to speak with you.”

  “It is not my fault that I opened the door to that and then immediately assumed that you wanted something besides talking.”

  Nicholas smiled at that.

  “I can give you that. But it is time we spoke.”

  Ava went to sit on the bed, giving him a sweet smile.

  “All right. Talk if you want.”

  “Today was... incredible. I was beginning to lose hope that Maisie was going to open up to me, to allow me to speak with her. Today, I think she really understood. And there is still a long way to go, many things that we must understand about each other before we can move forward. But I think it's going to be all right.”

  “I'm very happy for you...”

  “And it is so clear to me that she loves you.”

  “She thinks I tell good stories—”

  “It's more than that. She trusts you. Even if she is my niece, she has known you a great deal longer than she has known me. That is why I want you to marry me. To come to England with us.”

  Ava's smile faded from her face.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When I take Maisie home to England, I want her to be happy and to have people she knows and trusts around her. It cannot be Meggie or anyone else at Doone Castle, but it can be you. If we marry, you can stay with us, take care of Maisie. I will work to get my family's lands back. I can...”

  He paused.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  Ava was scowling, standing up and drawing herself to her full height.

  “How dare you.”

  “Ava?”

  “Did you learn nothing of me while we were traveling together? Have you not been listening to a single thing that poor little girl has said? What makes you think that I would even think of going to England with you? What makes you think that you get to take Maisie away from the only home she has ever known?”

  “You ran away from Clan Blair,” said Nicholas with a frown. “And Maisie is my blood. She belongs with me. She's not some Highland girl who can go running all over the mountains—”

  “You mean, she's not meant to grow up as a crude and rough as I am.”

  Nicholas flinched at the anger in her voice, but he stood his ground.

  “You did not have a particularly easy childhood. I want better for Maisie. I want her to grow up to be a lady, to be safe every day of her life. I want her to have every advantage that I can give her. She's English, not Scottish. She doesn't belong here.”

  “Then what makes you think that I belong anywhere in England? Or am I just so very outcast that you think that I must, of course, be happier in England?”

  Nicholas scowled at her.

  “You must know that England is not the wasteland you are making it out to be.”

  “And what will they do when I want to dress as I do now, if I want to go raiding?”

  “Of course, you wouldn't,” Nicholas said uneasily. “You were pleased enough to wear a dress before...”

  “I do not mind it, but Heaven above, I am happy to be doing what I was before! And just because you have not seen me going to steal cows every night I am with you does not mean that is something I have given up.”

  “But why—”

  “Because my family is still in the North, Nicholas! You came into enemy territory to save your own blood. Is it so very terrible to think that I might want to stay close to mine?”

  “When they speak to you the way your kin does? Yes!” Nicholas exclaimed. “I was there, Ava, I saw what your father wanted for you—”

  “So, tell me, Sir Nicholas Whitfield, how is it any different than what you want for me?”

  Nicholas stared at her, and it felt as if all of his blood had run cold. Was that what he was saying? Was that what he was offering her?

  Ava shook her head.

  “Englishman... Nicholas. I believe you mean well. I truly do. But I also believe that you want more than anything else to go back to your normal life in England. That is what you have always wanted, and there's no place there for me.”

  The silence between them stretched out long and tense. Nicholas felt as if he were falling from a great height, but that he had not quite hit the ground yet.

  “You can't—”

  “I can. You have no rule over me. Not in all of Scotland, and especially not here.”

  For a moment, it looked as if Ava were utterly heartbroken, but that couldn't have been right, could it? He could never imagine hurting her, or even being able to hurt her. It was absurd.

  She sighed, shaking her head.

  “This was all a mistake, wasn't it?”

  “No. It could never be a mistake. Ava, I—”

  In a flash, she was out of her bed and crossing the floor to him. Instead of pulling him into a kiss, however, she pressed her fingers against his mouth, stopping him from saying what he had been going to say.

  “No.”

  “Ava...”

  “Don't say it. Not when you think that you could take me to England in a dress and with my head covered until my hair grew in. Don't say it after you have gotten done showing me so thoroughly that you have no idea who I am or where I came from.”

  He wanted to tell her that it was unfair, but was it? He saw with a sickening twist in his stomach what he had done and how she must have taken it.

  “I think you should leave,” she said.

  “All right. But I will be back, and we will speak on this more.”

  “Not tired of humiliating yourself yet? All right.”

  She laughed a little, but she walked him to the door with her chin up and her shoulders squared.

  That's who she is. That pride. That refusal to bend. If I love her, I must love her as she is or not at all.

  It was on the tip of his mouth to tell her that he understood that now, but then she opened the door.

  When Nicholas had knocked on Ava's door, the halls had been silent, with every person on the hall asleep or on watch on the walls. Now though, they could both hear the distant rustling of boots on flagstones. A cry rent the night.

  They looked at each other in shock.

  Doone Castle was under attack.

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  chapter 43

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  Ava started to run down the hall, but Nicholas stopped her.

  “Trews and shoes at least,” he said tersely. “If you need to run outside, you'll at least have some protection.”

  Ava bared her teeth at him but did as he said, taking her sword and unsheathing it as well. It felt good in her hand, but that clashed with the feeling of wrongness that came from hearing the sounds of battle in a place that was meant to be designed for peace and only peace.

  “I need to get to Maisie. She must be frightened out of her mind.”

  Ava nodded.

  “I'll go with you, and we can sound the alarm as we go.”

  Maisie had her own tiny room away from the wing of Doone Castle where everyone else slept. Ava remembered that Aidan had told her that Maisie wouldn't settle when she first came to live with Clan MacTaggart. She had cried and run until Aidan and
the former chatelaine, old Mairi, had set a tiny room aside for her. It was in an odd nook of the castle. There was no telling what it had been before, but it had become Maisie's safe space.

  Ava certainly didn't begrudge the little girl her comforts, but the truth was that right now, as the pair of them raced through the castle, she wished that Maisie was content to stay a little closer to the rest of the castle's inhabitants.

  They crossed the great hall, and that was where they found a knot of fighting. Ava recognized some of the older men who had the task of defending Doone Castle while the fighting force was away. They were stalwart, but they were old, and their enemies were wild.

  Brigands. They'll have come to see if the MacTaggarts are easy pickings when the men gone...

  She resolved that they would find no such thing. With a hoarse war cry, she threw herself into the fray. She was aware of a shadow at her side, one that echoed her shout. As she cut one man down, she turned to see Nicholas cut down another, swinging his sword as if it weighed nothing.

  Heaven above, but he is beautiful when he fights. Ava turned to her own business of cutting down the next man who attacked her.

  It had been a long time since she had been in combat like this, where the aim was to kill her opponent and not simply put them on the run. It felt as if time slowed down, but of course, it hadn't. In what was likely just a few seconds, she watched Nicholas do what he had been trained most of his life to do, and it made her heart beat fiercely.

  They drove off the last man together, and then as one, they turned toward Maisie's little room. They were almost in step, and in some absent corner of her brain, Ava realized that she had never felt this before. It was as if they were one person in two different bodies. The only thing that mattered was getting to Maisie and getting rid of anyone who stood in their way or tried to stop them.

  There was a tapestry hung over the nook that Maisie made into her little den, and Ava's heart was in her mouth when she saw that it had been torn away. Next to her, Nicholas growled at the sight, but she put her hand on his arm.

  “Just a moment, let us see. Maisie? Maisie, darling?”