Page 78 of Highlander's Captive Bride
He laid her note down on the desk. “I’m just holding up me part of the deal, like ye said before,” he said.
He seemed so distant, with no warmth in his expression, that her heart felt as if it was breaking in two.
But is this nae what ye wanted all along? Now, ye can leave without having to steal away in the night…
Now, she was not sure it was what she wanted at all.
“Is that all it was between us, then? A deal?” Daisy asked, struggling to keep her heartbreak in check.
Before Bellamy could answer, the door burst open, startling them both. Daisy looked around and saw Elodie running towards her. The child threw herself at her and hugged her waist tightly.
When Daisy looked down at Elodie’s face, she saw she was crying.
“Dinnae go, Daisy, please! I dinnae want ye to go. Stay, please!” Elodie pleaded through the sobs that were wracking her small body.
Daisy’s heart ached even more at seeing the child’s distress.
Close to tears herself, Daisy reached down and held Elodie, stroking her hair. “I—” she began, with no idea what she was about to say.
“Daisy has to leave, lass. She has stayed too long already, and her family wants her back. I’m sorry, but ye must say goodbye,” Bellamy said, his voice softer as he addressed his daughter but with an edge of hardness that stood out to Daisy.
Confused, her emotions in turmoil, Daisy crouched down and hugged Elodie with all her might. “I’m sorry, hinny, but yer faither’s right. Me family needs me now. I dinnae want to leave ye, but I must go,” she whispered, feeling tears gathering in her eyes.
“Nay! Stay with us. Yer family can come and visit ye here. Ye dinnae have to go,” Elodie cried, clearly as heartbroken as Daisy felt.
“I cannae, me darling,” Daisy managed to say. “Me braither is already waiting for me outside. I have to go.”
Elodie cried even harder while Daisy held her. Daisy looked at Bellamy over the child’s shoulder, but his expression was hard. It was the final nail in her heart.
“I must go and get ready,” she told Elodie, brushing her tears away gently with her hand as she gazed up at her imploringly. Leaving the child felt like the hardest thing she had ever done. “Will ye come and say goodbye to me at the gate?”
After some moments, still clinging to Daisy’s waist, Elodie nodded. “But will ye come to see me sometimes?” she asked, sniveling into Daisy’s skirt.
Daisy did not know how to answer. She looked again at Bellamy, praying he would say yes. Or anything at all. But he said nothing, his face stony.
“I-I’ll try,” she said finally, hoping to mollify the child. “Now, I must go and bid everyone goodbye. Let’s go up and see Poppy, shall we?”
So, with a last glance at Bellamy but without another word being exchanged between them, Daisy took Elodie’s hand and led her out of the room.
A while later, having bid farewell to Jamie and then Poppy, to whose caring hands she delivered the miserable child, she visited her new friends in the healing room and said goodbye to Drew, Daphne, and Maria, apologizing to the young healer for leaving before she could teach her what she wanted to learn. She gave them her address in case they needed her in the future, and they all embraced her and wished her well.
Then, Daisy retreated to her room for a good cry. Leaving in secret had felt bad enough, but this! This coldness from Bellamy was almost unbearably painful. She vividly recalled their passionate encounters, knowing she would never feel for another man what she felt for him.
In despair, she tried to understand her feelings of heartbreak, but questions she could not answer only crowded her mind.
Does he nae know or care how terrified I was to lose him during the attack? Nor how filled with joy I was to see him safe?
With a deep sense of sorrow, she told herself she had to accept that he did not. To him, everything that had passed between them had just been either a mistake or part of the deal. She forced herself to harden her heart and compose herself.
However, when she was finally ready and had arranged for her bag and medicine box to be deposited by the gates for her to collect on her way out, she went to fetch Elodie. She had promised the child they would walk down to the castle gates together for a final goodbye. But to her consternation, Elodie insisted on going to Bellamy’s study first and making him come with them.
Daisy was somewhat surprised when he agreed without any argument, but it was a long and awkward walk to the guardhouse, the silence hanging heavily between them. With every step, Daisy felt herself getting more and more overwhelmed.
When they arrived, she could see Dominic waiting for her. When he saw her, he dismounted and stood waiting.
Daisy picked up her things and ran to him, throwing down her bag and box on the ground before his arms wrapped around her and the tears burst from her eyes. He drew her in a big, warm hug and rocked her comfortingly as she wetted his plaid with her tears. He stroked her hair.
“Are ye all right, Sister?!” Dominic asked gently. “Ye havenae been harmed, have ye?”
