Page 47 of Lost with a Scot
“We married by the fairy pools.” Aiden’s voice was clear yet soft as Anna listened to him speaking nearby. She had the sense he was sitting close beside her, and the hand that was holding one of hers, gently caressing it, felt warm and large and likely was his.
“Fairy pools?” Lydia asked.
“Ye made a blood vow?” Brock’s tone was solemn.
“Aye. And ye ken as well as I do that it is a binding marriage.” Aiden’s tone was hard and defensive now, as if he expected everyone to disagree.
“That may be,” Ashton began, “but she has been betrothed since birth to marry one of the nephews of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. They haven’t married yet, of course, but it is expected that when she is twenty-one she will marry him. It’s a very critical political marriage that will give Ruritania a strong ally should the need arise.”
“Oh dear,” Rosalind murmured.
Anna finally found the strength to open her eyes. Her head throbbed, and she couldn’t stop a groan of pain as she tried to sit up. Aiden helped her. She looked between him and Ashton, sharp flashes of memory stirring in her mind.
“Irememberyou,” she said to Ashton. “At the Summer Palace... You came to see my parents. We danced...” Memories of a grand palace with a royal court swirled around inside her head in a brilliant wash of colors. She remembered...Oh God.The memories were too much. A lifetime,herlifetime, was pulled sharply back into the light. And with all the beautiful memories came the bloody end of everything she held dear.
“Aiden,” she gasped. “He killed them... My uncle killed my parents. Alexei stayed behind. He made me leave. I didn’t want to. I didn’t—” A flood of emotions overwhelmed her, and she wept, great sobs that tore through her so that she could barely breathe. Through the storm of her tears, Aiden held her, keeping her together when she might have fallen apart.
She was unaware of the time passing until she cried herself out. At some point, she grew too tired to do anything but lie in Aiden’s arms and draw in shaky breaths. She felt empty, numb, and so verycold. Her parents were dead. TheRuritanian Starwas lost at sea, and her only friend left, Pilar, was—
She suddenly tensed. “Aiden, Dr. MacDonald’s note said he had rescued a woman from a lifeboat?”
“Aye, she told him she knew ye, that ye were her lady.”
Anna nearly cried all over again, this time from relief. “It’s Pilar, my lady’s maid. Thank heavens she’s alive.” Her dearest friend wasalive.
Anna gently pushed herself up so she was no longer leaning against Aiden, but he kept one arm around her shoulders.
“Do ye remember everything?” he asked.
She nodded shakily. “Everything.” She swallowed hard. It was strange that seeing Ashton had brought everything back, but perhaps it was because he was from her past and that was all she’d needed, a reminder of who she was. And now that meant she had to face the consequences of being Princess Anna Maria Zelensky of Ruritania, and not Anna the foundling.
“Lord Lennox is right—I was betrothed to marry someone.” She reached for Aiden’s other hand and clasped it in her own. “But the vow I made to you at the fairy pools isbindingto me.”
His eyes were full of sorrow. “It doesna have to be. Ye were a different person then. Now ye ken who ye are, I won’t hold ye to something ye did when ye were not yourself.”
She let go of his hand and cupped his cheek, turning his face her way when he tried to look away from her.
“I wasalwaysmyself with you. That didn’t change. Having my memories back only makes me more certain of my heart.” She swallowed thickly at the words that held her heart. “That belongs to you, Aiden Kincade, master of fairy pools and keeper of wee beasties. My old life burned down with my home. The life I would have had is gone. I choose a new path now. I chooseyou. I know it’s selfish of me to want you, now that I know the danger that awaits me back in Ruritania,” she said. “But if you still want me, I’m yours. I will make that vow again with you here and now, if you wish.”
Aiden’s stormy eyes cleared, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “Then ye’re mine, lass, and I am with ye, whatever comes next.”
She pressed her lips to his, a bittersweet ache in her chest as she knew what she had to say next.
“I have to convince your king to send soldiers to help my brother. He’s fighting my uncle with only a few loyal guards. Our country is a peaceful one. We have no great armies to call upon to stop my uncle. Alexei sent me to England to find a way to save our people. I can’t let him down.”
“And ye won’t,” Aiden promised. “If there is one thing a Scot can do, it’s fight, and if there’s one thing an Englishman like Lennox can do, it’s raise an army.”
“You think so?” she asked, too afraid to hope it might be so easily achieved.
“I know so. Lennox and his League of Rogues will help us.”
She adored the way he saidusbut tripped up on the phraseLeague of Rogues.
“League of Rogues?” She tilted her head as she gazed up at him. “What is that?”
Aiden chuckled, his eyes lighting up with mischief. “It’s not awhat, but awho.”
CHAPTER12
