Page 2 of Highland Jewel
Caroline could say what she might. She could fight her with words, with her pleas. But the invisible chains she’d had been bound with for her entire life rattled and bit into her flesh. Her shoulders sagged. She knew what her mother was capable of.
“My son will live. You said he’lllive,” she repeated, weighed down with defeat. “Youmustassure me he’ll be safe.”
Her mother said nothing for a moment. Caroline forced herself to wait. Fighting her only made the older woman lash out more. Her disobedience would only result in more suffering for her sweet child. Finally, the duchess broke the silence.
“I’ll regret these maternal feelings of mine. But I came up here to give you the chance to say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” She followed the duchess’s gaze to the door into the adjoining room.
The cold panic of understanding washed through her. She knew this time would eventually come. The day when they would be separated. But this was too soon.
Caroline felt the air being squeezed from her body. “Where? Where are you sending him?”
“Scotland.”
Scotland.The land of his father. Caroline moved as if in a dream to the door. Her heart ached so badly that she feared it would stop beating.
In the next room, she found her beloved boy standing beside Anne Mackintosh. They were both wearing traveling cloaks. Anne was a spinster, a friend, a woman of integrity who’d joined her entourage in the days when Caroline was with child, after she’d been torn from her husband’s arms and dragged back to Brunswick Palace.
Anne knew the truth. She knew who’d fathered Cinaed. At least, she was the one taking him away.
Small hands tugged at Caroline’s skirts. “Are you sending me away?”
She crouched and pulled Cinaed into her arms. She couldn’t find the words to explain the curse of her life to her son.
“We both must go.”
“You’ll come with me?”
His large blue eyes were fixed on her face. Tears Caroline would not allow to fall in her mother’s presence now ran freely down her cheeks. Sharp claws clutched at her throat.
She kissed her son’s face, speaking only to him. “No, but I’ll come and see you. I’ll come for you.”
“I don’t want to go.” Arms clung to her neck. The child buried his face against her breast. “Please, Mama. Keep me with you. I love you. Keep me. Please!”
Tears turned to sobs. Caroline searched for words. “We don’t have a choice, my love.”
“I want to go withyou.” The arms tightened more, the young voice growing louder. “I’ll be good!”
She motioned to Anne, and the Scotswoman pried the child from her arms. Cinaed screamed, fought to get back to her, but Anne handed him to an attendant at the door who quickly left with him.
“I’ll come for you,” Caroline repeated again and again. Hearing her son’s cries move down the hallway, she felt something die inside her. It wasn’t her heart, for that had already been torn from her chest. But she felt something else shrivel and wither away to nothing.
“I have to leave. He’ll be better once we’re on the road.” Anne touched Caroline’s shoulder and moved toward the door.
“Wait!”
From inside her dress, Caroline drew out a chain and ripped it from her neck. A ring dangled from it, and she thrust it into Anne’s hands.
“Keep this for him, please,” she gasped. “Keep him safe. And tell him… tell him I’ll come for him.”
CHAPTER1
Dalmigavie Castle, the Highlands
August 1820
Far above jagged crags and worn peaks, a hawk soared free, floating on the breeze beneath the pale azure sky. Below, a glistening stream snaked through steep-sided glens, protected by thick stands of tall pine. Above the flowing waters, an impregnable stone fortress sat high on a rocky brae.
