Epilogue
Leila was looking forwardto her first celebration of the Yule.She liked the celebratory mood that had seized both Killairic’s village and hall.The air was cool but not so very cold during the daylight hours—and she had Fergus to keep her warm each night.Her belly grew rounder and the new midwife from Dumfries declared herself pleased with the progress of Leila’s pregnancy.Radegunde had advised her not to worry and she tried not to do as much.They expected the child in the new year, although all was already prepared.
Leila walked a little more slowly and tired a little more quickly, but those were small prices to pay when she knew the child—boy or girl—would make her husband and his father so happy.She still feared that Stewart’s savagery might have left a mark, but the midwife assured her that the babe was vigorous and seemingly hale.Would the babe have blue eyes as Fergus had once foretold?She could not imagine how the babe would have red hair, but Leila could not wait to know for certain.
Ever since Karayan’s departure, Fergus had returned to the solar to sleep each night.They made love or cuddled and she continued to tell him Scheherazade’s tales.Leila could not imagine a greater contentment than living by this man’s side.
She was leaving the chapel after discussing the arrangements for Christmas Eve and making her way back to the hall when she noticed the visitor enter the village gates.He was older and dressed warmly but simply.Indeed, he looked to have walked, for he had no steed, but only a great heavy walking stick.He glanced up when she passed and Leila smiled at him, assuming he was a friend or relation of someone in the village.No doubt she would be introduced to him over the holidays.At this moment, she was late for the midday meal.
Instead of smiling in return, his mouth dropped open and he paled.“Saffirah?”he whispered, his tone incredulous.
Leila halted and looked at the new arrival, puzzled by his address.How could he know her mother’s name?
“I beg your pardon?”she said, thinking she must have heard him incorrectly.
He apologized as he approached, his gaze roving over her face as if he could not believe his eyes.“I am sorry, my lady, for my eyes must deceive me.You remind me greatly of a lady I once knew, but she would be many years your senior by now.”His smile was sad.“It has been a long time.”
“A woman named Saffirah?”Leila said with care.“I did not know there were any so named here.”
“It was not here.”The man ran a hand over his brow and looked suddenly fatigued.“So many years,” he whispered, then seemed to recover himself.He inclined his head.“I am Alasdair Campbell, the comrade of Laird Calum.I hope he is yet sufficiently hale to greet an old friend.”His gaze sharpened, and she noticed the vivid blue of his eyes.“Unless I am mistaken, you are far from home.”
Leila did not return his smile.Could it be?Her heart fluttered.She could not bear to think that the Franj who had broken her mother’s heart stood beside her now, speaking her mother’s name with such ease.“Nay, sir, I am at home.Calum’s son, Fergus, is my husband and now is Laird of Killairic.”
“Ah!”Alasdair said.“And so the details come together.Fergus was due to return from Outremer, and Calum hoped for his appearance last Yule.”
“Our party arrived in the spring, sir.”
Alasdair nodded approval.“He is wed, then, and wed well, I would wager.”He indicated her belly.“For it cannot be long before your child is born.”
She had to ask.“You then are the comrade who journeyed to Jerusalem with Calum,” she said, recalling every word of her uncle’s missive.It seemed unlikely that this kindly man would use a woman as Hakim had declared the knight had mistreated her mother.
Perhaps he had repented of his former ways.
“I am, though I lingered there longer than he did.”
“Why?”Her question was too sharp and Leila knew it.
“I was in love,” Alasdair said.“I suppose there is no cause to hide it.I was assigned to a post in one of the villages granted by King Godfroi to the care of the Holy Sepulchre...”
“Al-Ramm,” Leila said, her heart in her throat.
Alasdair stared at her.“How could you guess that?”
“I would ask you to continue your tale first, sir.”
His features softened.“Al-Ramm.That is where I met my Saffirah.She was the sister of the blacksmith there and talented with the administration of herbs.Both she and her brother admired the work of Ibn Sina, she for the pursuit of healing in people and he for the healing of horses.”
“You were in their home?”
“Nay, never.I was struck with affection for Saffirah when first we met and was astonished to find my admiration returned.We met secretly, only to talk, though I would have wed her in a heartbeat.She insisted that such a match could not survive, and truly, we saw the hatred between our kinds each and every day.She told me of her family, as I told her of mine, so I knew much of Hakim though I only met him briefly.”He swallowed and shook his head.“The day came that I was released from my post and another man sent to take my place.I would have stayed.She told me to go.”His voice turned husky.“I might have defied her command if I had not loved her so.”
This was a vastly different version of the tale than her uncle had shared with Leila and she hoped it was true.She could find no hint in Alasdair’s manner that he deceived her and wondered if it had been another Franj who had violated her mother.
“And you were never intimate, despite this love?”she dared to ask.
He smiled, taking her elbow for the steps to the keep.“So, you might well ask, for passion is so often taken as the full expression of love.I was concerned for her future, should we be intimate, for if we were not to wed, I would not have wished for her to be shamed.Much less to be left with a child.I was stalwart, until our last night together.We were more amorous than we had been yet, for we knew we should never see each other again.”He frowned.“I was weak, though she insisted that we enchanted each other.It was marvelous.As perfect as she was.”
He seemed to be overcome for a long moment, but then finally cleared his throat.“I hated to leave.She practically cast me out.I begged her to send me word if she had need of me, but she wept and kissed my cheeks, telling me that her heart was mine forever but that we should not see each other again.I have prayed for many years that she found good fortune, that she wed a good man, that she had many children and a long life.”He sighed and Leila saw how it grieved him.“I will never know.”
