Page 74 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
Keira shook her head. “Please. Ye can call me Keira.”
Shona shifted in her seat, and Keira could see the unease that had crept onto her face.
“So what did he do?” Keira prompted, deciding to not let her linger too long on the subject. “Did he stop fighting after ye found out ye were with child?”
A bitter laugh escaped Shona’s lips. “I wish it were that simple. Ye see, he was going to. We talked about it at length the instant I learned I was with child. I told him it was different when it was just me and him. Now, one more person had a lot to lose when he was gone. Did ye conceive before yer husband died?”
Keira swallowed. That question came almost out of nowhere and practically destabilized her. She sat up straighter anyway and gently cleared her throat.
“Nay, I didnae,” she responded.
She wondered if she should tell Shona that she had not even consummated her marriage with Fletcher. But before she could ponder the question further, Shona helped her answer it by continuing her story.
“Ye see, me husband has always been a warrior even before I married him. We were together for three years before we decided to have a bairn. Part of that was also because he was rarely home and always on the battlefield, swinging and tearing at his enemy clans.
“What they dinnae tell ye is that when ye’re married to a soldier, ye get apprehensive every time he goes to fight. At least for the first few times. During the first few battles, I would stay up late at night and pray to God to bring him back safe and sound. I would try to busy meself with something, anything, to ensure that I didnae kill meself with a lot of worries, ye see. Then, after a while, the worry, while still there, lessened. Ye want to ken why?”
Keira nodded gently.
“Because healwaysreturned. Every time he went out to fight, he would always return. And he never lost a battle. Not once. I suppose some part of me must have relaxed into that cycle of his endless victories. Sometimes I wake up to find him gone and then go about me day because I kenned he would return to me in one piece. Because healwaysreturned.”
Something about the way Shona emphasized some of her words made a wave of pity crash over Keira. Lady Kincaid didn’t just love her husband. She loved himdearly.
“The worry only increased when I found out that I was with child, of course,” Shona continued. “I informed him, and he made me a promise. He told me, ‘After this war, I shall retire. Ye and our son deserve the best of me, and I am prepared to provide that for ye.’Then, we bantered about the sex of the bairn.”
Keira laughed again.
“It was supposed to be the last war, ye ken. And according to him, it was supposed to be a rather short one. One year, at most. But then one year turned into two, then three, then seven.”
“Seven?”
“Aye.” Shona nodded, sighing. “At first, he would come home at the end of every week and talk to the bairn in me belly. Then, later, he would only come home every other month. As Tommy started to grow, he stopped coming home. For almost three years, we heard nothing about him. I prayed, cried, and pleaded with God to protect him. Tommy, on the other hand, was growing quite quickly.
“Then, he returned again. Tommy was six, at that time. He had spent a week with us, and in that week, Tommy never left his side. They went everywhere together. They rode into the villages, chased game in the woods. He was with our son throughout. Then, he told me he had to leave again. He said the war was almost over, and he would return to me soon. And then we could both properly raise our son together, the way we have always intended.”
Keira stiffened in her seat, already knowing how this story would end. And it didn’t sit well with her.
“But he never returned. We waited a whole year, and again, I assumed he would return because nay matter how long, nay matter how far, healwaysreturned.”
Keira swallowed, the food in her mouth tasting like ash.
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“But we waited for a year and three months, and only after then did he return—or at least his body. He was killed by one of the men he was fighting in the middle of the rainy battlefield.”
Keira shook her head, watching Shona’s eyes slowly fill with tears. She reached for a clean napkin on the table and handed it to her.
“Oh, ye ken how it is, do ye nae?” Shona asked. “Losing a husband.”
Keira nodded, watching the poor woman dab her eyes with the napkin.
Not once had Keira ever felt like a widow, despite being one. Perhaps it was because her husbanddied way too early in their marriage, or because she had never loved him in the first placeand everything she did was out of duty. But she felt it was an insult to other widows to regard herself as one.
However, instead of making these grievances known, she only nodded and gave Shona a reassuring smile.
“And Evander has been the Laird ever since,” Shona continued. “He loves Tommy like his very own. The day our castle was set on fire, me boy was inside. The fire was at its peak, rising to the afternoon sky, but Evander disregarded the danger and ran into the castle to save him.”
Keira felt her stomach twist.
