Page 9 of When a Highlander Vows
“Lucas!” she called, and even though he was feeling rather irritated in that moment, he was always glad to have someone to come home to.
Someone who cared.
“Grandmaither,” he said when she reached up to embrace him.
“Ye’ve returned! I was gettin’ worried, Lad.” She patted his cheek, and he smiled down into her brown eyes.
“Just a little delay, but we’ve returned safe and sound.”
“What is this?” she frowned, wrinkles gathering at the corners of her mouth as she touched a dark spot on his shirt. “Blood? What in God’s name—?”
“Let us go inside, Nan. Our guest is here now.”
“Right, of course!” His grandmother quickly left his side when reminded of Caitlin’s arrival. “Me dear! Ye look positively exhausted. Come with me!”
Lucas watched as his grandmother took Caitlin’s arm and walked with her up to the castle while servants dealt with the horses and Caitlin’s bags.
Archie strode next to him, hands behind his back. “Could be a rival clan,” he said without preamble.
“Perhaps. But we havenae had much trouble since the death of me faither. Perhaps some enemy of me faither’s he neglected to tell me about. However, we will have to think about it. Go, see yer wife.” He looked behind him at the darkness of the fields outside the castle, wondering who on Earth would wish to kill him and in such a quiet, secretive way. “We will be safe enough here for the night.”
Inside, Archie left him, and Lucas nearly sighed with delight as a servant brought him a mug of wine, and he sat himself down in front of the roaring hearth in the main hall.
He ached as he kicked up his legs, and he touched his face, feeling the dried blood there. Staring into the flames, he took his first sip.
The vow has been fulfilled. I can finally rest easy for the first time since Seamus’ death.
And yet, something niggled at him. The vow might have been fulfilled, but the fulfilling of it had only just begun. With someone new in the castle, that meant that someone new had entered the sphere of his isolated world. It would change everything, he feared.
“Why are ye sittin’ on yer own, Lad, when ye should be dressin’ for dinner?”
“Dinner? Nan, I am certain Miss Caitlin is exhausted from the journey. It was…lengthy.” He did not need his grandmother worrying about cloaked fighters waiting for him in the dusk.
“She has already agreed. The poor young woman needs a proper introduction to our home. And a proper meal.” She sat across from him, laying her hands atop her voluminous woolen skirts. “She has just lost her brother, Lucas, and now she has to come and live with us, in a strange home with strange people and with that poor eyesight of hers. Come. Dinner will be served soon, so ye should go and wash the blood from yer face and put on new clothes. I’ve invited others to dine as well.”
“Ye’ve what?” he asked, sitting up from where he’d been slumped.
His grandmother beamed. “Just a couple of people. Daenae worry. Now,” she narrowed her gaze at him, “did ye notice how bonnie she is? Me goodness, I thought that faeries had brought her in. ‘Tis a shame about her eyesight.”
Lucas’ mood was now getting worse. He stood up, angry that his wine was empty.
“Of course I bloody noticed, Grandmaither. What of it? There are plenty of bonnie lasses about.” And he would have to find one soon if he was going to survive seeing Caitlin every day. He put the mug down, and she took his arm as if he wasn’t bristling and still covered in blood.
“Nae like this, Lucas.” She shook her head with a breathy chuckle, and Lucas groaned. “It will be nice to have such a bonnie young one around, will it nae?”
He knew what she was thinking. Well, it wasn’t bloody going to happen. He had a vow to fulfill. Two in fact. And none of them involved thinking about a bonnie lass.
“I’ll be down soon.” He let go of her arm and went upstairs to his chamber, eager to be out of her company before she kept talking on about him marrying Caitlin MacLennan.
Not in a thousand years.
Caitlin was waiting on the bed in her chamber. She’d spent the last few minutes wandering about, feeling her way through the space to familiarize herself with its contents. She didn’t want to start this new adventure stumbling about, and now that she knew where she was, and had done her best in washing up, she waited for someone the grandmother had said would come to collect her.
“We’ll set ye to a proper bath after dinner, Lass, but first we must fill ye with a proper meal. The McDougalls are an angry lot, but we are hospitable,” she’d told her.
The old woman had made Caitlin smile as she walked her upstairs to her chamber. It would be no trial to act as her companion. Her kind brown eyes and easy smile had made Caitlin feel comfortable immediately. And yet Caitlin found herself, despite all the luxury that surrounded her, aching for her home. It was the one place she knew better than anywhere else. It was the place where she’d grown comfortable and felt safe. After her eyesight had begun to fade, she’d taken pains to create a life that suited her. Now it was all gone, and Rachel and Mary with it. Even though she’d paid them, they’d been very kind to her. They’d been her friends. Not to mention the rest of her friends in the village.
However, those had begun to fall away, and perhaps at the castle, she wouldn’t hear people whispering under their breath about her lack of eyesight. The children would often laugh abouther if she tripped or couldn’t find something, and over the years, it had grown tiresome.
