Page 14 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
“Where’s Jane?” Ava asked, looking around to see if Sarah brought her daughter along with her.
“Playin’,” Sarah responded, her voice curt.
Ava nodded and watched them both sit in the chairs across from her.
“Ye are both here,” she noted.
These were some of the people she trusted the most in the world. Now was not the time to hide anything from them. So she spoke. She told them everything, and they listened with rapt attention.
Sarah paused only twice to ask questions like, “Are we certain the Highlander is Margaret’s father?” and “Are we certain he is goin’ to return tomorrow as he promised?” Both of which Ava had no definite answers to.
After she finished recounting everything that had happened, a tense silence swept over the room, interrupted only by the slight scratching noise from under Elizabeth’s bed—a sound that continued to disturb Ava, even if mildly.
“I suppose the only question left to ask is, if the Highlander does come tomorrow as he promised, are ye completely fine with lettin’ him go with Margaret?” Elizabeth asked.
“No.” Ava did not think too long about her response. “The girl cannot even speak.”
“Didn’t ye just say she spoke earlier?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, but she immediately clammed up. I feel I have made certain progress with her, and this journey might just destroy everything.”
“Only if ye’re not with her tomorrow,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Ava narrowed her eyes, and Sarah reached for her hands and gently squeezed them. “Ye have to go with her, Ava. Don’t worry about the orphanage. Elizabeth and I will hold down the fort.”
Ava’s eyes darted between Elizabeth and Sarah, the look of uncertainty still lingering on her face.
“Sarah is right,” Elizabeth muttered. “If ye let Margaret go alone with the Highlander, ye won’t sleep well at night. I ken that, and I ken ye. Ye have to leave with her tomorrow. And I’ll pray to the Lord for ye.”
Ava nodded, taking in their concerned faces one more time.
They were both right. She had found Margaret. She had decided to take care of her for the past two weeks. She deserved to see this through, to make certain the girl no longer had to worry about anything—even if it meant spending a day or two on the road just to go to some laird’s castle.
“It will be fine,” Elizabeth reassured, her words sweeping over Ava’s frayed nerves like a soothing balm. “I give ye my word.”
* * *
As the sun rose the next day, so did Ava’s fears. She lay tense on her bed, feeling her heart pound so hard it could shatter her ribs. Her hands rested on her stomach, and she watched them rise and fall with every breath she took.
This was it.
This was the moment she had been dreading since yesterday. Any minute, a bloodied Highlander could break through the gates of the cottage on a horse and ask that she take Margaret and follow him. Her mind tried to dull the image of the Highlander, the one she had memorized ever since she saw him in the kitchen.
His glistening skin and the way it shone in the sunlight. His white shirt torn and bloodied from what Ava didn’t want to think about. His kilt and the way his belt held it up. She couldn’t get him out of her head.
And the fact that she anticipated his entrance any moment from now did not exactly sit well with her. Maybe he wouldn’t come. Maybe the previous afternoon in the kitchen had been a hoax. Maybe he had finally found his child and had decided he did not need Margaret—or her—anymore.
Maybe—
A knock pulled her out of her thoughts, and the last tendrils of sleep. The knock came again, louder this time.
Ava rose from the bed, her white silk gown catching the early sunrise. She walked to the door, a yawn escaping her lips as she pulled it open.
Elizabeth stood on the other side, wide-eyed and more excited than usual—which was saying a lot.
Ava rubbed her eyes, wondering if her mind playing tricks on her. It wasn’t.
“Elizabeth?”
