Page 51 of Claimed By the Heartless Highlander
Ailis wished she could fall asleep as well, but she was too nervous and still too awake and alert. Her wrists ached from the rope that had bound her, and her shoulders were sore from the tension of being so long on guard.
The miles rolled past, and Ailis contented herself with watching the landscape pass by, veiled under the deepening shadows of dusk. She was nearly lulled to sleep when a quiet, childish voice startled her back into full awareness.
“Faither?”
Her heart leaped as Lily looked up, her young face filled with confusion and sadness as she voiced the one question Ailis had hoped she wouldn’t think to ask.
“Is it true? Ye’re nae really me faither?”
* * *
For one brief second after Lily spoke, Duncan was tempted to lie. To tell her that everything Scott Ferguson had said had been a falsehood, or even tell her she’d heard wrong.
The next second, he dismissed the idea. He’d hidden the truth for long enough. Even if the events of the day hadn’t happened, Lily was getting to that age where she’d started to wonder about her mother. To lie now would be to pile falsehood on falsehood, and create a tower of lies that would eventually come crashing down and destroy them all.
Besides, Ailis had heard everything. She would know if he lied to the child, and any trust or respect she might still harbor for him would vanish. A lie, tempting as it was after so long hiding the truth, would only lose him both his betrothed and his child in the end.
He sighed. “’Tis partially true.”
He gathered Lily into his lap and held her close as he spoke. “In the most basic sense of the word, and by blood, I’m nae yer faither. Yer maither was me younger sister, Daisy, and yer sire by blood was a member of Clan Fraser, our enemies, and the men who took ye today.”
He took another breath and cupped her chin. “That bein’ said, little love, yer maither’s last action was to give ye to me, to get ye safe out of the fire that claimed her life. And the last wish she had was for me to raise ye well and make sure ye were safe and happy. And in askin’ that of me, she made me yer faither in every way that counts.”
“Really?”
“Aye, for bein’ a faither or havin’ a child is about more than blood, or so it ought to be, as far as I’m concerned. From the day ye were placed in me arms and I carried ye out of our burning home, ye were me daughter, heart and soul. And until death takes me, that’ll be true.”
“Oh.” Lily thought about it. “Is it like when Donnie the guard married a lass who’d been married afore? I heard the cooks talkin’ about it once.”
“Somethin’ like that, aye.”
“All right.”
Duncan hesitated, but now that Lily’s fears were addressed, he needed to ask some questions of his own. He hadn’t seen any injuries on her when he arrived, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been hurt or frightened.
“Lily, did the man who took ye hurt ye in any way? Or scare ye badly?”
“Nae really.” Lily scrunched up her nose. “I was a little scared when they brought me to the strange place and threw me into that little room. But then Ailis came!” Her whole face lit up. “Ailis took good care of me! She gave me hugs and made me feel better. She sat with me, and we talked about nice things, like games and sweets, and puppy names… Oh, and, Ailis!”
Duncan watched, bemused, as his now wide-awake daughter bounced up in his arms and wiggled around to look at the third passenger in the carriage.
“Ailis, when ye told me to think of nice things… I thought and thought, and I did it!”
“Did what, ye little rascal?”
“I came up with names for all the puppies! Three girl names and two boy names!”
“Ye did? Well done!” Ailis smiled warmly.
“Aye! And I want to call me favorite puppy Moonspot, ‘cause she’s got a white ear!”
“Ye’ll have to ask yer faither about that, love.”
Duncan was about to tell Lily about his earlier plans to give her a puppy of her own, which she could certainly name Moonspot if she wanted, when the carriage rolled through the gates of Castle Muir.
They’d scarcely cleared the walls before a tall, feminine figure raced over and all but dragged Ailis out of the carriage. “Och, lass, ye’re all right! Thank God. I was fairly worried, and havin’ to leave yer safety to that brute of a laird who had the audacity to claim ye were his betrothed didnae help at all.”
He’d spent the whole trip wondering how he was going to broach the subject, once they were in the privacy of his study, or somewhere similarly quiet.
