I eagerly await your reply.
Your Father, Sir Alexander Comyn
Shaking, Alana sat down hard on the bench by her grandmother.
“Alana?” Godfrey asked.
She did not hear him, and looked instead at the messenger. “You are to return to Balvenie at once. Tell my father that I will do as he asks.” She stood. “Lady Joan and my sisters will be safe here.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THEWOMENARRIVEDat midnight.
Alana was expecting them. Her father’s messenger had told her that Sir Alexander intended to send them to Brodie the moment he received word from her.
Alana held up a taper as the three women were escorted into the hall. Alana stared intently, but all three women wore their hoods.
Then she turned to Angus. She had sent him with six other soldiers to fetch the women. “Were there any problems?”
“No, my lady. We waited safely in the woods while Sir Percy took your answer to Sir Alexander. It took but an hour for the women to steal from the castle, using an underground tunnel. No one saw us.”
“Thank you,” Alana breathed, touching his arm. “Why don’t you get some rest?”
As Angus and his men left, the smallest woman removed her hood. She was in her mid-thirties, strikingly fair, with very dark hair. Lady Joan stared at Alana. “I suppose I owe you a great debt.” She did not smile and her blue eyes were hard and cold.
“You owe me nothing.” Alana smiled, but as she spoke, she thought about how Joan had insisted her father have nothing to do with her when she was born. “I am Mistress Alana le Latimer.”
“Even if we had met in different circumstances,” Joan said, refusing to smile, “I would know who you are. You look exactly like my cousin Elisabeth.”
Alana did not know if she was receiving a compliment, as clearly, Joan did not like her. Either that, or she was very angry. “This is Lady Fitzhugh,” she said, gesturing to her grandmother, who came forward. “And Sir Godfrey, Duncan’s son.”
Joan nodded at Lady Fitzhugh and Godfrey.
Eleanor inclined her head. “You have hardly changed in the past twenty years, Lady Joan.”
“Actually, I have changed a great deal,” Joan said, glancing at Alana again.
Alana was now filled with tension. She realized she must be a constant reminder of her father’s love for another woman during their betrothal. If Joan did not hate her, it was clear that she disliked her intensely.
“You could be mistaken for one of your daughters,” Eleanor said with a smile.
Finally, Joan’s expression eased. Her daughters were taking off their cloaks. Alana stared at the two young women, who stared as unwaveringly back.
Margaret was slender, blonde, not even sixteen and terribly beautiful. She was blushing as their gazes met, her eyes wide and curious. Alice stood beside her, holding her hand tightly, her expression frozen. She was fair-skinned, dark-haired and very attractive, as well. In fact, Alana felt a frisson of shock as she stared at Alice, for it was almost like gazing into a mirror. Their coloring and features were so similar—no one would ever mistake them for anything but sisters.
Dismay flooded her. Iain would find her very attractive, she thought. And she was Buchan’s heir.
Godfrey touched her elbow as if to steady her. Alana was so grateful for his presence.
“As you know, these are Sir Alexander’s daughters, Lady Alice and Lady Margaret,” Joan said tersely.
Alana was acutely aware that Joan had referred to them as if they were Sir Alexander’s only daughters, but it did not matter. They were her sisters. She did not know what to think or feel. Her sisters had been raised by her father in grand castles and fine halls, and they had had everything; she had been raised as an unwanted ward by a man who had molested her. Iain might marry Alice, who was a great heiress, when Alana loved him so—when she had nothing but Brodie. She was relieved that they were safe, but there was dismay in her heart, too, and even, perhaps, jealousy.
Why had Sir Alexander abandoned her?
She must not think of the differences in their lives now. “Welcome to Brodie,” she said. “I am so relieved that you have escaped the siege at Balvenie.” That much was true.
It was a moment before Alice spoke. “Thank you for giving us refuge,” she said. Her gaze quickly moved over Alana from head to toe, before jerking back up. She flushed.
