Page 92 of Keeping Kate
“Aye? She is a special one, then, for you to bring her here?” Euphemia smiled at Kate, sparkling brown eyes crinkling under a crown of unruly bright orange-red hair barely tamed by a lace cap gone askew. Her smile was equally bright and exuberant as her hair, her eyes, her manner. Kate could not help but smile.
“Oh aye, Aunt Effie. She is quite special,” Alec answered.
“Welcome, Miss Katherine—?” Effie waited expectantly for the name.
“Katherine Fraser, Aunt. Or soon will be,” Alec said quietly.
Euphemia gaped at him. “What! I will hear this news right now, and so you’re your uncle! Wattie!” she hollered toward the house. She turned to Kate. “Good heavens, lassie, you are welcome here! Do come inside. We want to hear this news!”
They were beautiful children,each one, Kate thought, like an assortment of wee fairies. Alec introduced her to each child—Rosie, seven, with straight brown hair and cool blue eyes; Lily, five, with blond locks, big blue eyes, and a dazzling set of dimples; and Daisy, just three, with reddish curls and eyes of violet blue. Greeting the girls, Kate was entranced, seeing immediately that Rosie was a serious, quiet thing, Lily ethereal and shy, and Daisy bouncy and full of charm.
“Such bonny wee lassies,” she said, looking at Alec.
He smiled, nodding. Rosie stood close to her uncle, looking up at him now and then, while shy Lily tucked her hand in his quietly. He readily took the girl’s hand, even as Daisy pulled on his jacket, smiling up with adoration. Kate felt her heart simply melt.
“They have missed their Uncle Alec,” Euphemia said. “Wept every night for you.”
“We did not weep,” Rosie said. “But we so wanted to see you, Uncle.”
“And so I am here,” he said, touching her head.
Kate glanced up to see a surprising flicker of something in his eyes—happiness edged with concern, even uncertainty. Then he smiled, and it vanished.
“Rosie looks so much like her mother now, and Lily looks like her Papa. Daisy has a touch of both parents, I think,” he said. “They have grown so.”
“Then you should see them more often,” his aunt replied with a huff. “Then ‘twouldna be a shock to you that they have grown. Children do that. Come inside now, and we will take some chocolate. We have finished breakfast, but you may both want a bite to eat. And you, too, Jack MacDonald, I will not ignore this lad, come to see Effie Fraser again!” She stretched out a welcoming arm as Jack stooped to kiss her cheek.
“I will take the horses and chaise to stable them down the street and be back, my dear Mrs. Fraser,” Jack said, turning.
She gestured for them to follow, and they headed toward the house. Alec set Daisy down so that she could run toward the house with her sisters, while Effie gently scolded them to slow down and behave like ladies.
“What does she mean, you should come here more often?” Kate asked quietly as they followed. He was silent as the children ran ahead.
“I do not come here as often as I should.”
She looked up as they walked. “Too busy with General Wade and suchlike?”
“A little hesitant, to be honest. Their mother was my fiancée. She married my brother while I was in Leiden. When I came back, she was already with child.”
“You mentioned something about it, aye. But seeing the girls now, I understand. They are beautiful, though it must—be difficult.”
He shrugged. “Amy and Edward were better suited, perhaps, than Amy and I, for he was a wilder sort, and she and I were both a little staid. He needed her calming nature, and she needed...well, perhaps some unpredictability. They had these three lovely lassies,” he said, as Daisy turned and ran back to him, holding up her arms to be lifted again.
Kate knew what the child felt. Both of them had fallen under the spell of Alexander Fraser and could not be apart from him for long. And he did not even realize the charm and the draw he had, more than Kate could ever have.
“They had more babes, more happiness, and I kept away for longer periods,” Alec went on. “But Amy passed away with the birth of this lovely, here.” He touched his head to Daisy’s little brow.
“Oh, no. I am so sorry—for the girls, for all of you.”
He paused by the gate, looking up at the house. “For so long, I dreaded coming here. After Edward died, it only grew worse. Even a few weeks ago, as much as I wanted to see the girls and my aunt and uncle, I still would have dreaded this visit. But today, it feels different.” He glanced down at her.
Kate stopped with him, waiting while Euphemia let the older girls into the house, then turned to beckon to Kate and Alec. “What has changed for you?”
“Need you ask?” He smiled. “I do not feel...the guilt. The regret and sadness as keenly just now.”
“You do not need to feel any of that. It is obvious how much you love them.”
“I do. But the hurt was a powerful thing. And now, it is as if it has lifted like thick smoke. Gone. It has changed. I have changed.”
