Page 46 of Her Scot of Yesteryear
When Broderick and I frowned in confusion, Chara urged us to sit by the fire with her, Broderick’s father, Marek, as well as Lucas, and little Flame, who seemed right at home at MacLeod Castle, curled up in front of the hearth.
“Sit so we might catch you up on everything.” Chara eyed me with motherly concern. “How do you feel, Aspen?”
“Good.” Knowing she referred not just to my near-death experience but to my inability to have children, I swallowed hardand embraced her. “Better.” I held on tight. “I can’t thank you and Flame enough for saving me. For giving Broderick and me the chance to have a life together.”
“’Twas our pleasure, lass.” She held me at arm’s length. “Might I soon call you daughter?”
Though it was odd being a daughter to someone other than my birth mother, I couldn’t ask for anyone better to fill her shoes, and I knew my mother would feel the same. “I would like nothing more.”
“Aye?” She smiled from Broderick to me. “Should I assume you finally agreed to marry my son?”
“You should,” I confirmed, to heartfelt congratulations all around, before we circled back to why Kenneth didn’t seem to know me.
“’Tis the oddest thing,” Marek said. “When Kenneth arrived yesterday, we expected him to tell us what we already knew about the events at Sutherland Castle, but instead, he seemed to have no idea what we were talking about and said he had never met Aspen.”
A strange little shiver went through me, and I shook my head in confusion. How could that be? Yet it was clear by his reaction Kenneth truly believed he had never laid eyes on me.
“What do you mean, you had no idea?” Broderick exclaimed, rightfully troubled when he looked at Kenneth. “You were here the whole time, then left to keep an eye on Aspen.” His eyes rounded, and his brogue thickened. “Hell, ye even found her at the aspen tree and carried her to MacLeod Castle.”
“Nay, my friend.” He shook his head, clearly just as baffled. “I came straight from MacLomain Castle when Adlin said I might be needed.”
“Adlin MacLomain?” I exclaimed, alarmed when I looked at the others. “I thought he was in the twenty-first century with my sisters?”
“He is,” Kenneth assured. “’Twas a brief visit to let us and the Hamiltons know we might be needed in the coming days, and ‘twould be good if we checked in on our allies, the MacLeods.”
“If not Kenneth, then whowasthat?” I asked, looking at Broderick’s parents, hoping they had some idea. “Who was it that they even fooled all ofyou?” I eyed Kenneth and shook my head. “Who could possibly bethatconvincing?”
“Someone verra powerful.” Chara gave Broderick and me a reassuring look. “And someone I would say has your best interests at heart, Aspen.”
Not following her meaning, I kept shaking my head.
“Are you absolutely positive your father passed recently?” Chara asked tentatively, seeming to understand how shocked I would be by her question. “As crass as it may sound, did you actuallyseehis body?”
“Of course,” I began before it occurred to me I hadn’t because he had been in a closed casket. “Well, not technically, but it had to have been him. Who else would it have been?”
Yet the more her question sank in, the more I thought about things. Namely, my father's request to wear a red dress to his funeral. As it turned out, one that matched the color Broderick had seen me wear in our last life. Then, there was the appearance of my aspen tree outside the funeral home and Storm’s note about me moving to New Hampshire. Then, on top of all that, I found out my father was from this era.
“Mayhap nobody was in your father’s casket,” Marek said, eyeing me curiously. “If you dinnae mind me asking, how did your father die?”
“A car accident,” I replied. “The car caught on fire, and he was burned too badly for an open casket.”
Even as I said it, it sounded far-fetched now I knew dragons really did exist, and he undoubtedly was one. Assuming we were somehow immune to fire in human form.
“Which we’re generally not,” Broderick said, following my thoughts. “Yet if your father is powerful enough to fool all of us into thinking he was Kenneth, then ‘tis verra likely he was capable of escaping those flames.”
“Assuming ‘twas not a set up from the start,” Chara added, “to bring you and your sisters together dressed a certain way so he might aid you with what you shall all face.” She looked from Broderick to me. “Did he not deliver you to your fated mate when you could have ended up with Dugal Sutherland first?”
The idea the man I had thought was Kenneth was my father blew my mind. Noway. Yet a little voice in my head wondered.
“He flirted with me,” I pointed out, shaking my head. Shooting Kenneth an apologetic look, I shrugged. “Sorry, but you were…I mean he, it, whoever he was, flirted.”
“Then it seems he knows me well.” He winked at Broderick. “’Tis true enough that I would have, aye, if she wasnae taken yet?”
“’Tis,” Broderick confirmed. “Whoever it was, he was verra convincing. So convincing our dragons didnae even sense it, and my dragon alone would have been acutely aware of anyone who meant my fated mate harm.”
“This leads me to believe he was protecting her.” Chara’s gaze settled on me and Broderick. “Which leads to our next discussion and how ‘tis clear safeguards were put in place to protect you and your sisters, Aspen.”
“Howso?” Broderick asked.
