“Neither,” she said with finality.“And so I wonder if it matters where I am.I might as well be useful if I cannot be happy.My cousin is married and has a son.My uncle is a widower, with no one to keep his house.My cousin does this now, but if she has more children, perhaps I would be of more assistance there.”
She wandered away from him, sadness in the droop of her shoulders, and he could not bear to see her so unhappy.“Perhaps we have more in common than I had realized, Fergus.Perhaps you, too, are denied the company of your beloved.”
“I will be, if you return to Outremer,” he dared to say.
Leila spun to face him, her eyes wide.He saw a welcome spark of hope in her eyes and dared to be encouraged.“How so?You love Isobel.She has died with your heart in her possession as surely as Duncan’s wife died with his.”
Fergus shook his head.“I thought I loved Isobel.I was convinced of it for four years, but in truth, I loved the notion of Isobel.In my dreams, she changed to become a woman I admired much more in memory than in truth.”
“But you cried out her name in your sleep.”
“When I dreamed that she cost me Killairic.”
Leila folded her arms across her chest.“You shelter her son as if he is your own.She said he was your own.”
Fergus shook his head.“And I told you that it could not be so.The boy must be raised by someone and there is no one at Dunnisbrae any more.I have asked Murdoch to seek out Isobel and Stewart’s kin at Iona.When he returns, I hope he brings news that one of them will take the boy.”
“You did not tell me this.”
Fergus arched a brow.“You have not been conferring with me.”
Leila blushed and dropped her gaze.
“And when I tried to speak with you, you kept our conversations short and formal.”Fergus took a step toward her.“I feared these past weeks that Isobel had cost me something of greater import than Killairic.”He took a deep breath when Leila did not reply.“I feared that Isobel had destroyed any chance of you loving me.”
“Impossible!”Leila said, her eyes flashing with welcome and familiar vigor.“She could never have done as much, no matter how many lies she told me.”
Fergus smiled in his relief, then took Leila’s hand within his own.“I love you, Leila.Will you stay at Killairic and exchange wedding vows with me before a priest?I would have you be my legal wife, for what God has put together, no man shall put asunder.”
Her features lit with a joy he could not mistake.“Fergus!”Leila cried and he caught her in a tight embrace.She stretched up and kissed him with the passion he had missed.
“You have not given a reply,” he teased and she laughed at him.“Is it because you do not wish to be baptized?”
“I will be baptized and I will wed you,” she said with resolve.“I will gladly be your wife, Fergus.If you love me, that is all the reason I need to stay.Killairic will be my home in truth.”
He kissed her with satisfaction, loving how she surrendered to his touch with such enthusiasm.It began to rain with greater vigor, though Fergus chose to ignore it for the pleasure of his lady’s kiss.When they parted, breathless, he sheltered her from the rain as they returned to the keep, then stared down into her shining eyes.
“I thought when you decided not to go to Iona, that you did not want me to be baptized,” she said.
“I did not want you to be compelled to take a long journey after Stewart’s abuse.I thought you needed to rest.”
Her answering smile was glorious.“It is too bad, though, as your father said Iona was a good place to be baptized.”
“But it would be more fitting for you to be baptized here,” Fergus replied.“What of the morrow?We can visit the reliquary and have the blessing of Saint Euphemia upon our match.”
“You would reveal it?”
“Nay, I would not invite attention.Perhaps we shall have a blessing of the grain on the morrow.”
Leila laughed.
“But the fact is that Karayan followed me to Gaston’s abode and thence to here,” Fergus noted.“That means any other soul might do the same.We will undertake the blessing of the reliquary, then a more secure home must be found for it.”
“But where?”
Fergus smiled.“If the reliquary is to be hidden longer than it has been thus far, I have an idea.I will send a missive to Gaston with Karayan and seek his counsel.”
“What idea is this?”
