The Highlander's Runaway Bride (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

H
er life took on a regular pattern now. In spite of her efforts to hide away from the strange, questioning glances or the whispers about what she'd done to their Robbie, Margaret would not allow it.

As she'd told Eva that first morning and any morning when Eva objected to joining her on her visits, every woman should have some skill to live by. And, if Eva planned to follow through on the annulment Brodie promised to arrange, she would, more than most, need a way to make a living.

So each morning and some afternoons as well, Eva carried Margaret's supplies and listened and watched and learned. She could dress a wound now, could stitch the deeper cuts and she could treat a fever. Eva had also helped Margaret when she'd set several broken bones, though she'd lost the small amount of food she'd eaten while watching the procedure.

Four weeks had passed since Rob left Glenlui, and she existed in limbo. Brodie said his legal advisors were searching for a solution and they'd consulted with the bishop. He never mentioned Rob other than his reports on his progress, or lack of it, and she never asked.

It was the worst part of all of this.

To feign disinterest when she wanted to ask many, many questions and know that he was well. She hoped that, in time, he would not hate her for the lies and deceit.

This day had dawned bright and clear and, since it was close to midsummer, it would be a long one. An overturned cart in the fields had caused a number of injuries, forcing Eva to help Margaret for many hours. When they finally arrived back in the village, Magnus told her of Brodie's invitation to sup in the hall.

When she tried to beg off, Magnus told her it was actually an order and, since he must obey it, he would carry her over his shoulder if she would not walk at his side. Though certain he could not be serious, she thought the better of it when Margaret did not tell her otherwise.

Walking between them up the path to the gates, she realised it would be the first time she'd returned to the hall since the night when her betrayal had been exposed to Rob. Nervous about being in the middle of his kith and kin, Eva tried to come up with a way to avoid it. By the time she knew there was no way, they stood at the steps leading into the keep.

‘Eva,' Margaret said. ‘Fear not, Magnus and I will stand at your side. If Brodie has called you here, no one would dare insult or harass you or they face his wrath.'

‘Come, lass,' Magnus said softly. ‘Give me your arm.'

So, with the two people who should be most angry at her side, the three made their way through the door and into the hall. Though some whispers swirled around her, no one said anything aloud. Eva was halfway through the large chamber when she saw him.

She could not do this. Not now. Not yet. He had returned and waited there with Brodie and Arabella...and a young woman stood at his side. Eva stopped suddenly, forcing Magnus and Margaret to do so.

‘I cannot,' she began, shaking her head and trying to back away from them and him. ‘I pray you, do not force me to do this.'

She pulled free then and turned, prepared to run if she had to in order to get away from him. Eva had only taken three steps when his voice called out to her.

‘Running away again, Eva?'

Eva stopped at his words, but she could not face him, not when he'd clearly found another and had brought the woman here to his home.

‘You were the one who left,' she whispered to herself, reminding her of his actions after the terrible disclosures of her sins against him. She clenched her fists and felt the sting of her nails pressing into her palms.

‘Look at me, Eva,' Rob said.

She could not look at him. She must not look at him.

She would not survive it.

She would not...

Her heart pounded and her lungs would not take in a breath at his words, his order. If she looked at him and saw the same disgust and hatred in his gaze, it would destroy what little of herself that still remained.

‘You said you loved me. You said you trusted me. Then turn around and face me, wife.'

A gasp escaped before she could stop it. Surprised that he would speak of love and trust at this moment, she shook her head and tried to make her feet move...away from him. Tears poured down her cheeks and the sobs trying to force free nearly overpowered her.

‘I pray you, Eva, turn around.' His voice was softer then, almost pleading with her to face him.

She wanted to resist these soft words. She wanted to leave here, leave him, and never feel this kind of pain again. But she was the sinner in this, and he was the victim of her wrongdoings. Margaret hovered in the fringes of her sight ready, she knew, to intervene in some way. Eva had no wish to cause more problems between Rob and his sister, so, she turned slowly to face him. Swallowing deeply and blinking against the tears, she stared at the man she loved.

Oh, God, he looked even more handsome than before! It took nothing more than a quick glance to prove how weak she was about him. Most likely, seeing him after such an absence and knowing he would never be hers again had made her want him even more. He stood there in silence and waited until she raised her gaze to his before he spoke.

In that moment, everything and everyone else in the hall disappeared and it seemed to be only the two of them. Eva waited for him to say whatever drove him to have her summoned here, though she suspected it would drive her to her knees. Taking in a breath and trying to let it out, she nodded at him.

‘What do you wish to say?' she asked. His gaze narrowed as he seemed to examine her face. ‘Brodie said...'

‘This is between you and me, Eva.'

She closed her eyes for a moment. This was worse than she could have imagined. Margaret's promise about Brodie's protection clearly did not and would not extend to her estranged husband. Losing him was not enough of a punishment? Now he sought her humiliation before everyone she had called friend?

‘We left Durness and Tongue rather hastily those months ago,' he said, stepping closer. ‘And I discovered that you had left something behind. Something very important.'

She did not understand what he meant and could not remember anything left behind. Then Eva watched as Rob slipped his free hand inside his cloak and lifted it aside. He held a small bundle in the crook of his arm. Eva shook her head, staring at it and trying to ascertain what it was and why it meant anything to her. For a moment, she thought it looked like a... She looked at him and shook her head.

‘So I went back and retrieved it, her, for you, Eva.'

Her?

Her?

Her heart filled with dread and fear at his words. Her whole body trembled as her gaze dropped once more to stare at the bundle he carried.

A bundle? Dear God, was it a baby?

It could not be...

‘She is bigger than the last time you saw her,' he said as he held out the bundle towards her, and Eva realised he did hold a bairn, wrapped snugly and asleep.

She?

It was not possible. Do not hope. Do not think it. The words repeated inside her thoughts, but it was her heart that began to hope for the impossible in that moment. Her hands itched to reach out, but she could not. She could not breathe, and she could not dare to hope against hope that this was... It was his next words though that shattered her world.

‘Mairead,' he whispered to the babe sleeping there, ‘'tis time to wake and meet your mother. She has waited too long to see you again.'

Eva shook her head even as she stepped closer to him, staring in disbelief at what, or rather whom, he carried.

‘It cannot be...it cannot be...my Mairead.' The words came out on gasps as she tried to consider what he was saying.

She'd last seen her daughter on the day of her birth, and this infant was nothing like her. This bairn was so much bigger with a thick thatch of pale straw-coloured hair. Her Mairead had been nearly bald, with eyes that were neither blue nor brown. He held the babe out to her, and Eva could not help but notice the similarity of the shape of her eyes to...Eirik's!

This
was
Mairead!

She reached out to touch the babe when her body began shaking violently. Any thought of taking the bairn in her own arms ended as the world around her first flashed in brightness then sank into darkness.

‘Mairead.'

Eva whispered the name and reached out to touch the babe. In the next moment, her eyes rolled up into her head and she crumpled. Rob barely caught her with his free hand and kept her from hitting the floor. He called out for help.

‘Magnus! Help me with her,' he said. As Magnus lifted Eva in his arms, Margaret moved to take the babe but he shook his head. ‘No one holds her until Eva does.'

Pride, he thought, shone in his sister's gaze then, and she stepped back and let him follow Magnus forward. Brodie pulled the large chair he used from the table and Magnus placed her there.

There was so much to say and so many things done and not done, for which he needed to beg forgiveness. He was not certain she would forgive him, considering the terrible things he'd said to her the last time they'd spoken. Worse, he had, in fact, broken faith with her. He'd demanded that she have trust in him when he had not the same in her. But, he hoped and prayed during his journey that she would forgive him for that lapse.

Only a minute or so passed before her eyes began to flutter open. Rob crouched before her, holding the very well-behaved child there.

‘Eva? Are you well?' he asked. Margaret handed her a cup of wine, which he thought she would refuse. She drank it down before reaching out to touch the baby.

‘Is it truly her?' He nodded. ‘Can it be?' Her voice quivered in fear but with a hint of hope. ‘How did you find her?'

‘I had a...talk with your father and discovered where he'd sent her,' he explained briefly. Eva still had not touched her daughter. Shifting the bairn in his arm, he leaned over and placed Mairead in her mother's arms. He would give her a full explanation later. For now, she needed her bairn.

Eva sat motionless, staring at the child but not saying anything, her hand suspended in the air over the baby's face, as though afraid to even touch her. The expression of shock over the bairn's return was there on her face for all to see. Even Arabella cried softly, and Brodie took her in his arms to comfort her. Margaret just rested her hand on Rob's shoulder, patting it in approval. Then, Mairead, who'd been easier to travel with than most women, decided to wake up. Peering at all the unfamiliar faces, she scrunched up her face and screamed out her displeasure and discomfort.

If he thought Eva would be ill at ease handling her, she proved him wrong in seconds. She brought the babe up and kissed her cheeks, whispering something to her, as she soothed her daughter for the first time since the day of her birth. Rubbing the bairn's head, she rocked to and fro as she spoke little nothings to the babe.

In that moment, Rob regretted leaving Ramsay MacKay alive, but his death truly would have caused more problems. Although he was not unscathed by Rob's fury, he'd learned quickly that brutality was not as pleasurable when one was on the receiving end of it.

When Eva began to sob as she rocked the babe back and forth, Rob knelt closer to her and motioned for the others to back away. There would be time for speaking about all this later. Except for one introduction that must be made now, if he read the signs correctly.

‘Eva, this,' he said, waving the young woman forward, ‘is Gunna, Mairead's nurse. She agreed to move here and see to the bairn's needs.' He motioned Gunna closer. ‘Gunna, this is my wife, Mairead's mother, Eva MacKay.'

Now, Rob moved away to give the woman a few minutes to speak about the bairn. Brodie moved to his side.

‘How long did it take you?' Brodie asked.

‘How long did what take?'

‘To realise you were wrong about everything.' Rob laughed then, not willing to admit it even to his friend. ‘And the MacKay?'

‘He will be pissing blood and drinking his meals for some time,' Rob swore.

‘Not dead?' Though his first impulse was to kill the man, the calm part of him that guided him during battle had prevailed.

‘I thought it might interfere with your agreements if the man was dead.' His words echoed his previous explanation, but Rob knew that the man had hovered near death for several days after Rob had beaten the truth from him. And that pleased him greatly.

The bairn's renewed crying interrupted any other conversations, and Arabella ordered the women to her chamber to see to Mairead's care. When Eva would have stood, he instead lifted her into his arms and carried her up the steps. They would have time enough later to speak more fully on matters between them. For now, it was more important that she become reacquainted with the child torn from her so viciously.

He placed her in one of the chairs there and turned to leave as the women gathered around Eva and the babe, but her voice stopped him.

‘Rob,' she said. He met her gaze and saw the love there. ‘I cannot thank you enough for this, for her.' She stroked his face and smiled.

‘There will be time enough later,' he said. He lifted her hand and kissed her palm before leaving the chamber.

As he walked down to the hall to speak with Brodie, Rob knew it was true—there would be time enough for them now that he accepted that Eva was his and would be his forever.

He might not have been the first man she loved, but he would make certain that he would be the last.

Epilogue

Five months later...

H
e held out his hand and she took it without hesitation. They'd not danced or celebrated really at their own wedding, so they would at his sister's wedding to Magnus.

Mairead was safely in Gunna's care and the young woman had turned out to be a godsend in more ways than the one. For while Arabella glowed and seemed enhanced by carrying a child, Eva suffered through most moments each day.

So, when she looked well, he took advantage of the short time...as he did now.

‘Just do not spin me too much,' she said with a laugh as they took their places with the others. ‘You will not like the results.' He nodded and held on to her hand as they began the pattern in step with the music.

He watched her face and loved the expression of joy that sat there now. No longer in fear of her father. No longer hopeless without her daughter. Her life was now filled with love and laughter and joy and family as she'd not known before he'd been forced to marry her.

Deciding there was a better use of any time when she did not feel ill, he wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her out of the area they were using for the dance and into a nearby alcove. Pulling her into his arms, he held her close and kissed her until she melted against him and was breathless.

‘I hope this sickness passes soon,' he said as he turned her around and slid his hands over her growing belly. ‘I love feeling the way your body is changing.' When she arched back against him, Rob knew she wanted it, too.

‘I love to feel your hands on me,' she whispered back. ‘But 'tis been so long that I do not remember why I should be glad to have you in my bed.'

‘You will pay for that challenge, wife,' he threatened.

Her laughter and her acceptance of his touches and his kisses told him she did not fear such a challenge. And he was glad of it. He took her mouth then and tasted her. She leaned back and smiled.

‘Margaret said to fear not, the sickness should pass long before we should stop...your attentions.'

‘She would know,' he said. One more kiss and he led her out of the alcove and back to the table.

Margaret had been so busy caring for everyone else that she'd missed the fact of her own condition until the day she passed out at Magnus's feet. A miracle, she and the midwife claimed, for Margaret had never become pregnant in her first marriage. Magnus walked about quite ‘insufferably proud,' as Eva called him. Rob was simply happy for them both—for they'd found joy when and where neither of them expected to.

Glancing over at Eva and considering the events of the last year, he realised that was their story, too. When she wrapped his hand around hers and then entwined their fingers, Rob knew he should be insufferable, too.

But first he would prove to Eva once again why she was happy she'd accepted him into her bed...and into her heart. Knowing it might take some time, he stole his wife away and they were not seen again that night, or the next day, either.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
THE SECRETS OF WISCOMBE CHASE
by Christine Merrill.

Get rewarded every time you buy a Harlequin ebook!
Click
here
to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyal
ty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003