“Then he must be our guest and stay until the morrow.”
“I imagine his father awaits his return.”
“So he does.I would not give him cause for concern,” Fergus said.“Stewart is right.”
Isobel pouted, keeping his hand clasped between both of hers as she leaned against him.“Oh, Fergus.I feared for your survival so much.I am so relieved that you are hale!”
Again, Fergus heard insincerity in her words and he tried to extricate his hand.“Did you?”he asked.She was the wife of another, and Stewart was armed.
Leila had warned him and he had been too foolish to heed her counsel.
He could not resist the urge to challenge Isobel.“And you were so concerned that you forgot our pledge?”
Isobel had the grace to color.“Fergus,” she whispered, resting one hand on his chest.She fluttered her lashes, looking vulnerable and lovely.She had done this before and he had always succumbed to her entreaties.In this moment, Fergus found he could only think that she had been not kept her vow.“I could not wait for you.It was too long and there was too much uncertainty...”
“I understood that you and Stewart wed within three months of my departure.”
She faltered.“It was so long,” she began again.“I could not wait.Fergus, I am only a woman and I am weak...”
Fergus was skeptical about that.
If her father had forced her decision, surely she would say as much?
“Then you should not have pledged to do as much in the first place,” Fergus replied.“You knew I rode to Outremer.You knew I would serve two years once there.You cannot have anticipated that I would be home any sooner than this.”
“If at all,” Stewart interjected.“Isobel, I must insist that you return to the hall before you take a chill.”
Isobel glanced at her husband before returning her attention to Fergus.“We should all go to the hall...”
“Nay, I will not.”Fergus caught a glimpse of movement and saw the boy in the portal, a boy who had clearly followed Isobel.
There could be no doubt that he was Isobel’s child.He had the same fair hair and blue eyes, though he was more sturdy of build.
Like Stewart.
“Ah, Gavin,” Stewart said.“Here is our neighbor, Fergus.”
The boy bowed and greeted Fergus formally.
Fergus had noted already that Isobel’s belly was slightly round, but the way she cupped her hand protectively over its curve in this moment indicated that she ripened with child again.
Whatever had happened, whatever had changed her thinking, there was no future for Fergus with Isobel.If ever she had loved him, she did no longer.
What was of import was that Leila was now his wife.
“Stewart speaks aright,” Fergus continued firmly, reaching for Tempest’s reins.“We should return to Killairic with all haste, before the weather becomes worse.My best regards to both of you, and my condolences with regards to Kerr.”
“Kerr?”Isobel echoed, her eyes narrowing.
“He died, Isobel,” Fergus said gently.“We were attacked by bandits to the west of Venice and he was killed in the assault.He is buried there, in hallowed ground, beside a lovely chapel.”
Isobel’s lips parted, then she clamped them together.For a fleeting moment, Fergus thought her expression colder than a midwinter night and he wondered whether she had any heart at all.“He died?”she asked, ice in her voice.“And you left him there?”
“We were attacked by bandits, Isobel.It was not possible to bring him home from such distance...”
Isobel did not wait to hear more.She burst into loud tears and began to wail the loss of her beloved nephew.She fled back into the bailey, lamenting the boy’s early death, but it seemed to Fergus that her reaction was insincere.
That glance had been chilling, sufficiently so that he found himself glad Isobel had broken their betrothal.
Stewart gave Fergus an angry glance.“This is not how I would have told her,” he muttered, but Fergus was glad he had delivered the news himself.“Godspeed to you,” he added, clearly meaning the opposite, and headed back through the gates with his son.The portcullis was dropped with a clang and the two sentries glared at him from the other side.
Fergus could still hear Isobel’s lamentations.
He swung into the saddle, nodded at Hamish, and turned Tempest for home.His duty was done.The truth was unwelcome but delivered.He would build a future at Killairic with Leila.
The very notion encouraged him to touch his heels to Tempest’s sides.
