Page 25 of Highlander's Captive Bride
He sighed and stared into the fire reflectively. “No one has ever dared say such things to me before, except ye,” he added, feeling suddenly stricken by sadness and an unfamiliar feeling of inadequacy unbecoming of a laird. “But she was just speaking the truth.”
“All right. I can see that was upsetting for ye, but if ye admit to yerself that she was only telling ye the truth, or what she sees as the truth, then what d’ye intend to do about it?” Jamie asked, leaning forward, turning his glass in his hands.
“Things have to change,” Bellamy told him unequivocally. “Ye ken better than anyone what that wee lassie means to me. I’d rip out me heart to save her if I have to. When she was a baby, it was nae trouble to play with her…”
Once again, he paused for thought before continuing. “But the truth of it is that the bigger she grows, the more she resembles me sister, and it hurts me heart to even look at her sometimes. It’s gotten worse and worse. Now, sick though she is and desperate as I am to have her healed, I cannae deny that I find it almost impossible to spend time with her. Daisy was right. I have shut me daughter out.”
“I guessed it might be something like that,” Jamie told him with compassion in his voice. “I ken it must be very hard for ye to admit that to yerself, let alone to me. But Elodie is just a wee lassie. She loves ye with all her heart, and even I can see it hurts her sometimes when ye go in to see her and then leave five minutes later.”
“Aye, and that’s what’s got to change. I see now that I’ve been weak,” Bellamy mumbled.
“Weak? How d’ye mean?” Jamie asked, his face a picture of puzzlement.
“Aye. Weak. Selfish,” Bellamy answered with a scowl. “I say I love her, and I do, but I’ve been putting me own pain first instead of her feelings. I havenae been the faither she deserves. I couldnae face up to seeing Bridie in her face, so I’ve deliberately shut her out, and I’ve hurt her in the process.”
“Well, I must say, I’ve never seen ye like this before, Bel, not since Bridie died,” Jamie said after a few moments of deafening silence.
Bellamy got up and went to get the whisky flagon, bringing it back with him. He topped up their glasses before sitting down again.
“So, what d’ye plan to do about it?” Jamie asked.
“Buck me bloody ideas up!” Bellamy exclaimed with grit in his voice. “Make time for the lass every day. Read to her. Play with her. Take her out with me. From now on, I’m goin’ to do all the things a good faither should do.”
* * *
One evening, Daisy was on her way to check on Elodie with a new concoction she hoped would help settle the obvious inflammation in her stomach. It was a variation of the original one containing powdered chalk that had seemed to provide the child with some relief, and Daisy was eager to try it out and see the results.
She figured that even if she had failed to find the cause of the illness so far, she could at least provide the girl with some respite from the pain as well as a good night’s sleep.
Just as she opened the door to Elodie’s chambers, she heard a giggle. She smiled, for it was encouraging to hear the little girl laughing in the circumstances. Then, she heard a deep baritone voice talking in low tones. It sounded remarkably like the Laird’s.
Surely not, she thought, entering the room. But she stopped in her tracks, gaping in shock to see that it was, indeed, him. She blinked to make sure she was not imagining it.
No, it was him all right, large as life, sitting on the bed next to Elodie, with a book in his hands, reading a traditional Scottish fairytale to her. Some of his long, dark locks, which were tied atop his head, had escaped and flopped over his forehead.
There was something arrestingly boyish about the gentle expression on his usually grim features that made Daisy’s heart clench, giving way to a strange fluttering sensation in her chest.
Elodie was sitting up in bed, her face alight with pleasure as she gazed adoringly at her father, clearly hanging on his every word. The fluttering in Daisy’s heart increased, and the resentment she had been harboring for the Laird since their argument turned into a warm glow in her chest.
He actually listened to what I told him!
When they heard her come in, the Laird broke off his narration, and father and child turned to look at her. She could not help smiling at them both. But when Bellamy’s eyes met hers, he did not return her smile. His gentle expression changed instantly to one of almost brooding intensity.
His eyes darkened suddenly, and his gaze flickered up and down her body before seeming to settle on her lips. The fluttering in Daisy’s heart intensified under his inspection, and only when he gave her the briefest of nods and looked back at his daughter did the strange feeling begin to abate a little.
“Daisy!” Elodie squealed, beaming at her. “Da’s reading me a bedtime story. Is that nae grand?”
Fighting to maintain her self-control, Daisy somehow managed to make it to the other side of the bed and sat in Poppy’s chair. She tried to rein in her smile a little and appear somewhat professional. Despite the fluttering sensation in her chest, she did not want Bellamy Kane to see how touched she was by his action.
One story changes naething.
“Well, well, that is certainly a nice surprise, hinny,” she told the little girl sweetly, casting a pointed look across the bed. “How kind of him to find time in his busy day to come and read to ye.”
“He is very busy, Daisy,” Elodie argued. “Are ye nae, Da?”
Bellamy pinned Daisy with a penetrating glare, tilting his head questioningly as if to say, “What are ye at, woman?”
However, what he actually said was, “A clan disnae run itself, ye ken? There’s much to do and only one Laird.”
