Page 23 of Lost with a Scot
“Cream and red velvet with pearls?” Lydia tapped her chin. “That sounds lovely and rather expensive. You must have been very well off if you had so many fittings for gowns like that.”
“Perhaps I was,” Anna agreed.
She also remembered wearing jewels, extravagant ones that weighed heavily upon her skin, but she hadn’t cared much for them. She didn’t mention them to Lydia. It felt somehow wrong to discuss fine gowns and jewels when she was in a tiny Scottish village where it was apparent that most people struggled hard to earn a living. The last thing she wanted to do was put on airs or seem snobbish in any way. It might put distance between her and Aiden, and that was the very last thing she wanted.
“I’m sure once you spend time with us at Castle Kincade, you’ll regain more of your memories. There is something healing about the Kincade lands. I lived most of my life in London, buthometo me is the castle.” Lydia’s smile softened as she spoke. “You’ll feel as if you belong to it right away, I promise.”
“I should like to see it.” Anna longed for a place to belong the way Lydia seemed to at the castle.
Lydia perused some hair ornaments. There was a lovely band that would wind around one’s hair. It was made of red ribbon and had glittering jeweled stars on it. The jewels were likely paste, but they looked very pretty. Lydia studied the piece, then eyed Anna again. She nodded to herself and added it to the pile of gloves and other accessories she’d already chosen. “If you continue to spend time with Aiden, you’ll have to be a lover of animals.”
“Oh? Does he have pets?” That intrigued Anna. She’d heard of Aiden’s compassion for animals from Molly, but that had been only a brief story about the injured horse in the stables.
“Oh yes,” Lydia chuckled. “He has an affinity with practically all animals. As a result, the castle isfullof creatures. Owls in the library, otters in the lake, hedgehogs in the halls, kestrels in the kitchen, a pine marten who nests in Aiden’s bedchamber, and even a badger named Fiona who insists on sleeping in Brock’s bedroom. Aiden finds injured creatures and brings them home to tend to them. Some of them choose to stay once they are healed. I think it’s because they like being around Aiden. He’s so calm and gentle, and when he sings in that voice of his... it’s almost hypnotic.”
Anna warmed at the thought of so many creatures living with Aiden in his castle and how his musical voice could cast a spell over wounded creatures.
“It sounds magical.” She couldn’t help but wonder if she could get Aiden to sing for her.
“It is, in a way,” Lydia agreed. “Although it can be upsetting to guests who aren’t prepared for hedgehogs trundling along the halls. If you bump into one wearing only slippers, you’ll find it stings a bit. And if you are reading in the library, you’d best remember to check your hair in a mirror before dinner. I once sat through an entire meal while my husband and his brothers giggled like little boys and only later found a number of downy feathers resting on my head. If Joanna, Brock’s wife, hadn’t been in London visiting her family, she would have told me, but as it was, I was at the mercy of Brodie and his brothers. They didn’t bother to tell me about the feathers, of course. They apparently had a wager to see how long it would take me to notice.”
Anna couldn’t help but laugh. “And how long was that?”
“When Brodie and I were in our room later that night, he plucked one out of my hair and gently blew it off his palm in front of me toward my face to tease me.”
“You love him, don’t you?” Anna asked, though she was certain of the answer.
Lydia seemed momentarily lost in thoughts of herself and Brodie. “Madly. Not at first, mind you. But love came when I saw who he really was beneath his rakish exterior.”
Anna had seen hints of charm from Aiden. He was so vastly different from Brodie. There was a sorrow in his eyes that wasn’t found in his brother’s.
“Lydia, may I ask you something about Aiden? I do not wish to pry, but...”
“When it comes to Aiden, you deserve to know whatever you wish.” Lydia came to Anna where she stood on the dais and took her hands. “What’s your question?”
“Aiden told me about his father, and it explains much of his sadness, but then I see Brodie and he seems unburdened by the past, at least compared to Aiden. Why is there such a difference between the two brothers?” Anna relaxed as the dressmaker finished her pinning and measurements and jotted down some notes. Lydia helped her down from the dais, and she went behind the changing screen to remove the ready-made gown. Then Lydia helped Anna put on another one that had already been fitted for her so that she would be able to wear it out of the shop.
“Aiden is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He’s not hard as stone like Brock, nor is he able to distract himself with amusements like Brodie. Rosalind, their sister, once told me that she sees them like this: Brock as the mind, Brodie as the body, and Aiden as the heart. He is different than his brothers. They were more the sons their father expected to have. But Aiden... Aiden was a man all his own in a way their father couldn’t understand. Evil always seeks to destroy something that is entirely good and pure, doesn’t it? I think that’s why their father seemed driven to hurt Aiden far deeper than the others. He wanted to break Aiden in body and spirit. Having a parent neglect you is difficult, but having a parent bent on destroying all that you are... That’s a devastation few people ever know.”
Anna’s heart stopped at the thought of anyone hurting Aiden. He seemed to have an infinite supply of compassion. How could anyone want to hurt someone who only ever helped people?
Lydia cleared her throat and continued. “Hate, especially from a parent, can leave a deep and lasting scar.” Lydia helped Anna fasten the laces of the gown. “But I noticed he smiles when he talks about you. I think you chase his sorrows away.”
“He smiles when he talks about me?” Anna felt silly that such a thing should send her head spinning with girlish joy.
“Yes, at first I was worried that he saw you as simply another creature to care for, but now I don’t think that is the case. His eyes light up when he speaks about you. It’s a side of him I’ve never seen before, nor has Brodie.”
Aiden could have only had a brief discussion with Lydia and Brodie about her earlier in the hallway outside Aiden’s room—there wasn’t time for an in-depth conversation. But Anna still clung to the hope that Lydia’s observations were true. Aiden had said he’d dreamed of her for years, that she was the woman destined to be his. Others might dismiss it as a foolish flight of fancy or a transparent attempt at seduction. But after everything Anna had been through and feeling so deeply connected to Aiden so quickly, she couldn’t deny that what he said might be true.
Last night, she had been trapped in a nightmare. Of endless fire burning all around her and running through the woods toward a wishing well. She’d dreamt of peering down into the well and seeing Aiden’s face. It would have been easy to dismiss that as a dream stemming from meeting him, but sheknewthat she had dreamed of this many times before, at least part of it. They were connected, but neither of them knew how or why. She knew only that she wanted to stay with him.
“There we are.” The modiste packaged a few gowns that needed no further alterations, and Lydia added gloves, stockings, and several chemises to the pile, along with slippers, boots, and a shawl.
“That should be sufficient for now.” Lydia nodded in approval and paid the dressmaker.
Anna was humbled and grateful for the woman’s help, both emotionally and financially. “Thank you, Lydia, I will find a way to repay you.” It was a comfort to have another woman she could talk to.
“Nonsense. It is a gift. Now, let’s get back to the inn and get you bathed and changed. I want to fix your hair for dinner.” Lydia gave her shoulders a sisterly squeeze.
