Page 24 of Highlander's Captive Bride
Daisy also rose. “I’ll walk with ye,” she offered.
The pair made their way out of the dining hall together, with Jamie strolling not far behind.
“Will ye tell Elodie I’ll be up to see her later, please?” Nadia requested as they went down the hallway.
“Of course. Ye always cheer her up. I’m away to her chambers now, to check on her,” Daisy told her.
They reached the great hall and parted at the bottom of the staircase.
“I’ll see ye later on,” Nadia said with a little wave.
She crossed the hall and disappeared down another hallway Daisy was not familiar with. So occupied with her own thoughts was she that she was halfway up the stairs before something occurred to her.
If Nadia was supposed to be meeting the Beltane committee in the servants’ hall, as she had said, then, Daisy assumed, she must have forgotten. For the girl had not turned to go that way and was, in fact, heading away from the kitchens, where the servants’ hall was located.
But it seemed unimportant, so Daisy dismissed it and carried on upstairs, with Jamie at her heels.
8
On the way back to Elodie’s chambers, discreetly shadowed by Jamie, Daisy pondered what Nadia had told her about the upcoming Beltane celebrations. It was a high point of the year—the official beginning of summer—and a holiday throughout the land. Masses of folk would be attending, and there would be a lot of drinking. It was the perfect cover for her escape.
People would be so merry, they would not notice if she slipped out of the castle. She figured if she took a horse, she could be miles away by the time everyone sobered up enough to realize she was missing. By that time, it would be too late. She would be back at Castle McGunn with Dominic, able to help Violet at last.
Though she intended to take her chance to get away, she felt almost torn in two. The thought of Violet’s condition worsening in her absence tormented her. At the same time, she was wracked with guilt at the prospect of leaving little Elodie to her fate.
* * *
Bellamy had been rushed off his feet for days. On the one hand, the committee handling the arrangements for the Beltane celebrations seemed unable to make the simplest of decisions without consulting him first, taking up a lot of his time.
On the other, the dissatisfaction rife within the council over his unorthodox procurement of the healer was also demanding an inordinate amount of both time and energy. And between times, there was still the usual day-to-day business of the clan to oversee.
When he was not engaged in one or another of those tasks, his mind dwelled either on praying for a cure for Elodie, or on the woman striving so hard to find it.
How unexpected had been the kiss they had shared. And how sweet! Replaying it in his mind, he could almost taste her lips again, and he was freshly amazed at the way she had kissed him back with such fire.
At every turn, Daisy surprised him. Never in his life had he met a woman like her. And deep down, it scared him.
“I think ye’ve bitten off more than ye can chew with that one,” Jamie told him one evening.
They were lounging in a couple of wingback chairs in Bellamy’s study after the day’s business was done, their boots up on the fender in front of the blazing hearth. Each had a dram of whisky in hand.
“Aye, she takes nae prisoners, that one,” Bellamy agreed, shaking his head in genuine wonder. “Ye can tell she’s a laird’s daughter—the way she talks so high and mighty. There’s nae fear in her, nae respect. She may be small, but she has the guts of a man. She yelled at me so loud, I thought me eardrums would burst.”
Jamie cackled with delight. “Och, what I wouldn’t have given to be a fly on the wall.”
“And I’m glad ye weren’t, for I ken I’d never have heard the end of it!”
And that was also the very reason why Bellamy was withholding from his closest friend the effect Daisy had on him.
“So, ye havenae told me, what was this fight about, then? I’ll wager it was something to do with ye taking her to task for letting Elodie outside,” Jamie asked, clearly unable to suppress his amusement.
“Aye, ye’ve hit the nail on the head there,” Bellamy confirmed, his mind flashing back to the argument, to Daisy’s blazing eyes as the accusations of his fatherly inadequacies had poured from her mouth. “She reckons I dinnae spend enough time with the wee lassie, that I dinnae even ken me own daughter. She called me a hypocrite, saying how I’m always going on about how Elodie is the most precious thing in the world to me but I dinnae make an effort to spend time with her. I make the lass miserable by shutting her out, she says.”
He downed his dram in one swallow and looked across at Jamie. His friend’s boyish grin had been replaced by a frown of concern.
“Ach, that’s harsh,” Jamie muttered, knocking back his dram, too.
“And d’ye ken the worst thing about it?” Bellamy continued. “It was that I knew it was all true. She was absolutely right. I found meself tongue-tied, unable to deny it, though I was furious at the time.”
