Alec kept telling himself he wasn’t worried, but he found himself pacing in front of the hearth after dinner was finished and his wife still wasn’t home. No, he wasn’t worried. Marcus and Gavin would keep her safe. She’d be home any minute now. When the sun was completely gone, then he’d worry, he told himself for the tenth time.
He had used the time of separation well. As soon as Jamie left, he had called for his mount and gone directly to Helena’s clan. He’d spent several hours talking with the cousins who remembered Helena, and had learned some rather interesting facts about the woman who’d found marriage to him so foul she’d ended her life in desperation.
He found Father Murdock as soon as he returned and spent a good long while listening to his opinions. The priest was clearly amazed that his laird was now speaking of his dead wife. He hadn’t even mentioned Helena’s name since the day of the burial. The laird’s questions were perplexing to him, but he knew better than to try to find out exactly what Alec was looking for. It wasn’t his place to question.
Now Alec paced a path in the great hall while he sorted through the information.
Jamie, having just returned to the castle, stood at the top of the steps, waiting for Alec to notice her. She was just about to call out to him when he suddenly turned around.
He was so relieved to see her that he gave her a good frown.
She retaliated by smiling.
He noticed her skirt was swaying back and forth, then saw the dusty little face peeking out at him.
Gavin and Marcus flanked Jamie. They were both staring down at the child.
Jamie took a deep breath and reached for Mary Kathleen’s hand. “Come and meet your father,” she whispered to the little girl.
Mary Kathleen didn’t want to cooperate. Alec’s size obviously intimidated her. Her golden brown eyes were as wide as round trenchers. “He’s going to love you with all his heart,” she promised.
Before the little girl could shake her head, Jamie clasped her hand and led her down the steps.
Alec didn’t have any idea what was going on. The barefoot cherub was wearing his plaid, though, indicating she belonged to a Kincaid. The ill-fitted piece of blanket was wrapped around her and tied in a knot below her chin. Alec couldn’t remember ever having seen her before.
She was an appealing little girl with a mop of honey-colored curls that hung lower on one side of her face than on the other.
“Who is this?” Alec asked.
“Your daughter.”
“My what?”
Jamie ignored her husband’s astonishment. “Well, actually she’s our daughter now,” she explained. “Say hello to your papa, Mary Kathleen.”
The little girl was still frightened. She continued to stare up at Alec while she twisted a lock of her hair into a knot on top of her head.
Jamie leaned down and whispered to the child. She was trying to soothe the little girl and also trying to give Alec a little more time to get used to the idea.
When Jamie straightened up again, she could tell from her husband’s expression that he was going to need a lot more time.
“She’s Helena’s daughter,” Gavin called out just to break the staring contest.
“She’s my daughter now,” Jamie countered. She let Mary Kathleen hide behind her back again. “It’s really quite simple to understand, Alec. When you married Helena, you became Mary’s papa. You were going to bring her here to live with you, weren’t you? And when I wed you,” she continued before Alec could answer her, “well, I then became Mary’s new mother. We have both been errant in our duties to this child, husband.”
“The Kincaid provided well for Helena’s child,” Marcus interjected.
“Her grandmother died three months past. Did you know Mary was given over to a distant relation who wanted only your grain? It pains me to admit the woman was English, Alec. And do you know there are bruises up and down your daughter’s back and on her legs, too? She would have been dead in another month’s time if I’d left her in such care.”
He hadn’t known. He looked furious, too. Jamie nodded. Then everyone started talking at once. Alec just stood there, his hands clasped behind his back, staring down at the little innocent peeking out at him from behind Jamie’s skirts.
“Come here, Mary,” he ordered the child.
She shook her head at him while she tried to put a good portion of Jamie’s gown into her mouth.
Alec started laughing. “God help me, she’s been with you less than a day and she’s already taking on your stubbornness,” he told Jamie.
He scooped the little girl up into his arms and held her so that they were face to face.
“Be careful of her back, Alec. She’s tender.”
Alec whispered something to the child, then smiled when she nodded.
“Can you get her to speak to you? She hasn’t said a word to me,” Jamie whispered. “You don’t think something’s wrong with her voice, do you?”
“Quit your worrying,” Alec ordered. “She’ll talk when she wants to. Won’t you, Mary?”
The little girl nodded again. “She was wearing Kevin’s colors,” Gavin stated. “He’d roll in his grave if he could see how filthy the garment was.”
“Who changed her clothes?” Alec asked.
“I did,” Jamie answered. “That’s when I saw all the bruises. I knew I had to bring her to you then,” she added.
“Nay, wife. You’d already made that decision when you put my plaid on her.”
The man was too cunning for her. “Yes, Alec,” she admitted.
“You knew you were going to bring her back when you left today,” he continued. “That’s what you meant by not coming back from your hunt empty-handed, now, isn’t it?”
He didn’t sound angry, but Jamie still wasn’t sure what he was thinking. “Yes,” she answered. “I had already made the decision.”
Alec gently tucked the little girl under his arm, treating her much like a burlap bag of feed. “That isn’t how you hold a baby,” Jamie blurted out. “She’s only three summers, Alec.”
Mary Kathleen didn’t seem to mind, however. She let out a giggle.
“What happened after you saw the bruises?” Alec asked her.
“I became . . . angry.”
“How angry?”
“I threw the plaid on the ground,” Jamie blurted out. “It was a deliberate insult. I did it on purpose. I restrained myself though. I wanted to give that horrible woman a few good bruises to remember me by.”
“I spit on it.”
Marcus had made that announcement. “In front of witnesses, Alec.”
“Good.”
Marcus lost his frown when he’d gained his lord’s approval. “It means war,” he reminded Alec.
“Two wars,” Gavin interjected. “You’re forgetting Helena’s family. They’ll also get involved.”
“No,” Alec countered. “They won’t care. Why do you think Annie came with Helena when she wed me? The two sisters had been sorely mistreated by their family. The king was aware of this, of course.”
“And that’s why you were married to her so soon after her first husband’s death? To protect her?” Jamie asked.
Alec nodded. When he finally looked at his wife, he was smiling. “Thank you.”
“Why do you thank me, Alec?”
“For bringing our daughter home,” he answered.
She was nearly overwhelmed by his compassion. Her eyes filled with tears and she would have burst into sobs if Alec hadn’t pretended to drop Mary Kathleen just then. Jamie shouted instead.
Both father and daughter laughed. Alec all but flipped the child over his arms, then held her up to face him again. “Wife? This babe smells as rank as Murdock. Bathe her,” he ordered. “Marcus, have someone go find Edith and Annie. They’ll want to meet their niece.”
“Then you truly claim Mary Kathleen as your daughter,” she asked, her worry still obvious.
He stared at her a long moment before answering. “
How could I not?”
She was too overcome with emotion to give him answer. When Alec handed the child to her, Jamie settled her on her hip.
Angus and Elizabeth walked into the hall just as Jamie started for the tub behind the screen. She quickly explained all about her new daughter. Mary Kathleen turned quite shy and hid her face against the crook of Jamie’s neck. Elizabeth offered to help bathe the little girl. Jamie agreed, then caught Angus’s remark about arrangements being made for their king’s visit.
“Your king is coming to see you?” she asked Alec. She looked appalled.
Alec raised an eyebrow over such a bizarre reaction. “He is.”
“Edgar?”
“’Tis the only Scottish king we have,” he answered.
“When does he arrive?”
“Tomorrow. Does this news displease you, Jamie? You look upset.”
“He’s known for his cruelty,” she blurted out.
Everyone in the hall gave her incredulous looks. “Edgar?” Alec asked. “Jamie, he’s known for his kindness.”
The grumbles of agreement made her feel much better. She smiled down at Mary Kathleen and then said, “I shouldn’t have believed those stories. No, he couldn’t have done what I heard he’d done if he’s as kind as everyone says.”
“What story?” Marcus asked.
“Tell us the worst,” Gavin suggested. “And we’ll tell you if it be true or not.”
“I heard that when Edgar took over the throne, he had to unseat another and he . . . well, he blinded him so he wouldn’t cause him any trouble.”
No one said anything about that statement. They all looked at one another.
“I know,” Jamie rushed out. “You all think me shameful for believing such gossip.”
“Now, Jamie, lass, that story happens to be true,” Gavin finally admitted when he realized no one else was willing to explain. “But he didn’t kill his predecessor. He only blinded him.”
“Aye, the man’s still alive,” Marcus interjected.
Alec watched the way his soldiers tried to allay Jamie’s fears. He realized they wanted to protect her feelings as much as he did.
“How can you be smiling, Alec, over such a sin done by your own king?”
“England’s king is far more ruthless,” Alec stated.
“You shouldn’t speak ill of Henry,” she countered.
“Speak ill? Jamie, I just praised him.”
He looked as if he meant what he’d just said. She gave him a good frown to let him know what she thought of his praise.
“What’s your real worry, wife?”
“What if he won’t let Mary stay with us?”
“He will.”
“You’re certain, Alec?”
Alec nodded. “Will I kneel before him, do you suppose?” she asked.
“If you want to.”
“Will it make me disloyal to Henry?”
His smile was gentle. The woman was certainly lacking in her history lessons. “I doubt you’d be disloyal, Jamie. Edgar is Henry’s brother-in-law.”
She was so relieved by this news that her shoulders slumped. “Well, why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been fretting like a child over this loyalty issue, Alec, and all for naught. You could have mentioned that Edgar and Henry were good friends, husband.”
Jamie carried Mary behind the screen before Alec could tell her he thought she was daft.
“Why did you let her think Edgar and Henry were good friends?” Gavin asked.
“For the same reason you softened your answers about Edgar to her,” Alec answered dryly. “None of us want her to worry. We’re all bent on making her happy, now, aren’t we?”
Gavin grinned. “Aye, we are.”
They shared a laugh, but the sound was drowned out by all the noise the women were making. Jamie, Elizabeth, Edith, and Annie were taking turns bathing Mary Kathleen.
“She’s a beautiful child,” Elizabeth remarked.
“We must tell her so,” Jamie advised. “Often. She mustn’t ever feel she doesn’t belong.”
The bath was finally finished. Jamie stood Mary on the chest and gave her hair a proper trim.
The little girl didn’t seem the least bit shy with the women, but it was still obvious she preferred Jamie’s attention most of all. Once she was dressed in a clean white sleeping gown Edith had provided, she reached up for Jamie to hold her.
While Mary ate her dinner, Edith went upstairs with Annie to make her bedroom ready for her. It had been decided that Mary would sleep in the chamber next to Alec and Jamie. If the child cried out in the night, Jamie was certain she’d hear her.
“All mothers are light sleepers,” she stated. “We instinctively know when our daughters need us. You’ll understand what I’m saying, Elizabeth, after your baby is born.”
Jamie’s voice was so enthuasiastic, Elizabeth didn’t have the heart to remind her she’d only been a mother for half a day. She agreed instead.
“Angus grows impatient to have the threads taken out of his chest wound,” she reminded Jamie. “He’s waiting at the table for you.”
“You sit next to him,” Jamie replied. “He won’t shout as much if you’re near.”
“It will pain him?”
“Don’t be fretting,” Jamie soothed. “It won’t hurt him at all. He’ll be shouting over the inconvenience of it all, though.”
Elizabeth hurried over to the table to do as Jamie suggested. Alec had just started a fire in the hearth. His back was turned to Jamie, but once he’d stood and noticed her, he only had enough time to accept the daughter she thrust into his arms.
Alec didn’t have any idea what was expected of him now. Still, he wanted to please Jamie. He stared down at Mary, holding her awkwardly under her arms.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you, Mary?” he asked in Gaelic. “I’m your papa now.”
She shook her head, then gave him a smile.
Alec smiled back.
He was ready to put her down, but when he tried, Mary let him know she wasn’t ready to leave him. She grabbed hold of his tunic and stiffened against him.
Alec perched her on his shoulders instead. The child liked that well enough. She let out a shriek of laughter and wiggled her toes with obvious delight.
Jamie nearly dropped the supplies she’d gone to fetch, when she rounded the corner of the screen and saw what Alec was doing. “You don’t hold a child like that,” she called out. “And for God’s sake, Alec, don’t shrug at me again. You’ll send Mary flying through the air.”
“I’m new to this, Jamie,” Alec muttered. “She’s the first child I’ve ever held.” He pulled Mary back into his arms while he continued to frown at his wife.
“You’ll get used to her,” Jamie announced.
Alec had to glare at Marcus and Gavin then so they’d quit their disrespectful smiles.
Then he carried Mary over to the rocking chair, settled her on his lap, and ordered her to go to sleep. Mary tried to climb up his chest instead. She was just as suspicious of the moving chair as he’d been, and he had to soothe her back down into his lap.
Jamie had turned her back on the two of them and was giving Angus her undivided attention. Alec drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair, wondering what in God’s name he was supposed to do now. He decided he might as well try telling a bedtime story. It took him a minute to pick his favorite, and then he related, in full, the tale of one of his finest battles.
In short minutes, he had Mary Kathleen enthralled. Her eyes had widened to saucers again and she seemed to be hanging on his every word.
Gavin and Marcus also became interested in the bloody tale. They pulled up stools near the hearth and took turns offering grunts of approval during the telling.
Jamie could hear Alec’s soft burr in the background, but she wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying. Angus was letting her know how unhappy he was because she wouldn’t let him remove the slats from his arm. “Your fingers are moving now, Angus,
but that doesn’t mean the healing’s done. No, you have a good month, mayhap more, wearing this contraption, and that’s that. Elizabeth, his chest has healed nicely, hasn’t it?”
“It has,” Elizabeth replied. “We are both very thankful to you, Jamie. Aren’t we, Angus?”
“Aye, we are,” Angus agreed.
It looked as though it pained him to make that confession. Jamie tried not to laugh. She’d already learned that Angus’s gruff manner hid a soft heart.
She smiled at Elizabeth, then hurried to put her supplies away. It was time to take Mary Kathleen upstairs. The little girl was surely exhausted from her long day.
Yet when she turned the corner again and saw Alec holding Mary in his lap, she didn’t have the heart to interrupt. Lord, she really must be exhausted, too. Why, her eyes filled up with tears over the wonderful sight.
He was telling his daughter a bedtime story. No, she qualified with a smile. He was telling Mary, Marcus, Gavin, and Angus a bedtime story. God’s truth, the men looked just as engrossed in the tale as the three-year-old.
She loved Alec with all her heart. He was such a gentle, compassionate man. She felt like laughing now. Alec would certainly take great exception if he guessed she thought him kind, and she wondered how he was going to react when she finally confessed her love to him.
It didn’t matter if he accepted her love or not, she thought with a sudden frown. In time, she was sure he’d see the rightness in it. Why, with proper prodding, he might even begin to love her, too.
How could she have ever thought the Scots were inferior? She had to shake her head over that shameful sin, then started forward to hear this story that held everyone so captivated.
Not everyone was captivated, she noticed when she saw Elizabeth’s expression. Angus’s wife looked positively horrified.
And then she caught one of Alec’s remarks. “The mighty blow severed his arm . . .”
“What are you telling that child?” she demanded in a near shout.
“Just a story,” Alec answered. “Why?”
“What specific story?” Jamie asked. She rushed forward to snatch Mary out of Alec’s lap.