Page 11 of When a Highlander Vows
She will have nothing to worry about from me. And she is welcome to the man. Handsome he may be, but uncouth also.
Lottie, thankfully, jumped in to explain. “Dear Miss MacLennan has recently lost her brother, Seamus, on the high seas, Paige. Since Lucas was such a good friend to Seamus, we both thought it appropriate that Caitlin should come and live with us as there is nay other family to take her in.”
Nay other family to take me in.The words echoed sadly in Caitlin’s mind.
Paige looked surprised, and her cheeks colored a bit, and Lottie looked pleased. She gave Caitlin a warm smile, and Caitlin could feel her nerves diminishing a bit. She nodded at Paige and continued to eat, hoping no one else would ask her anything.
“And how long will ye stay?” Paige asked, her clear voice ringing through the other conversations so that everyone went silent again.
This time, Caitlin really did not know what to say, but she looked Paige straight in the eye.
“I am nae certain, although I think me brother had thought I might come to stay for as long as was necessary. It was a surprise to me as much as it seems to be to ye that I have been asked to come here.”
She looked down at her plate again, grabbing her glass of wine and bringing it to her lips. After she took a sip, she calmed a little while the laird spoke.
“Aye, she will be stayin’ for the foreseeable future, Paige. So, ye will see her around the Castle,” the laird said firmly.
Caitlin looked up and at him, but he was watching Paige with frustration.
Paige looked appropriately chastened while Archie said, “Tell us, Caitlin, will ye miss the village? It seems a lovely place every time we go there.”
Even though her heart hurt for the home she had lost, Caitlin was grateful for the distraction.
“Aye, it is a wonderful place. Me parents loved it there, and we never traveled anywhere else before they died. It was Seamus, then, who enjoyed his travels once he became a traveling merchant. He would come home speaking of his adventures, although I pestered him many times to tell me more. But he said they wouldnae be right for a woman’s ears.” She shook her head, remembering how frustrated she would get when he’d say that.
“But I am nae a woman. I am yer sister!” she’d complain, and he’d laugh and laugh and tell her that maybe one day, she could hear about them.
Now I willnae get that chance.
Caitlin was saved from another wave of grief by a soft touch on her arm. “I am certain ye will get to visit as much as ye like,” Sarah said. “Perhaps ye have friends who would like to visit ye here as well.”
“Och, perhaps,” Caitlin said in agreement, not looking the laird’s way.
Considering their first impressions of one another, Caitlin wasn’t sure how the laird would be treating her now that she was under his roof. Her grip on her wine glass grew tighter, and she took another sip, hoping it would calm her. Everything in her life had now changed, and she had no idea how to put her next foot forward.
“Miss Caitlin, do ye like flowers?” Colin asked suddenly, and Caitlin turned to face the eager young child who had just slid into his mother’s lap.
“Aye, Lad, I like flowers very much. Especially roses.”
She turned when she heard the laird clear his throat, and when their eyes met, his widened as if surprised she’d looked his way.
“Why do ye ask?” she asked the boy.
“Well, because young Colin enjoys coming to see me healin’ garden,” Paige said, smiling at Colin before her smile froze when she looked at Caitlin. “I grow flowers as well, for baths and remedies but also because I love them.”
“I go there all the time, Miss Caitlin, and Paige lets me pick as many flowers as I like to bring to Maither.” Colin’s eyes were wide as he told his tale, and Caitlin’s heart warmed.
“How sweet. I ken me maither would have loved to receive flowers from her son,” Caitlin said.
“Or a grandmaither,” Lottie said with a smirk.
“Quite right, Caitlin,” Sarah said. “I love the flowers I get, dae I nae, Colin?”
“Aye, she always makes a big fash about them, Caitlin.”
Sarah patted his hand. “Ye must say ‘Miss’, Colin.”
“Och, nay, daenae trouble yerself. Colin,” she said, leaning forward, and now she could see that Sarah was pregnant, “Ye may call me Caitlin, if ye will let me call ye Colin. We are to be friends, I think, if we are to live in the same place.”
