The lad nodded. “Aye, my lord.”
Rose felt dizzy and sick, but as Jason’s hand came toher elbow, she drew her arm back with as much dignity as she could manage in her state of exhaustion. She neither wanted nor needed kindness from Ruark Kerr or his minions, and could ascend the stairs on her own.
Ruark waited until Rose was out of sight of the hallway before turning to face Julia. With tears in her eyes, she took a step back as if he would strike her. The action sobered him, perhaps because his father had been known to own a heavy hand on matters of emotional discourse. He was nothing like his father.
“Do you think I am going to hit you, Julia? Is that what you think?”
“Oh, Ruark ...” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know what I am thinking or saying any longer. I ... I don’t know. Truly, I am sorry ...”
“For what? For a mother’s anger and frustration? For something that was not your doing to begin with?” He pulled her into his arms. “Christ, Julia ...”
“I am lost. I thought I was strong. I am not ... My son is all I have in this life.”
She continued to weep. Closing his eyes, Ruark remembered a time in his life when he had always held her thus. She had once been his closest friend ... before life had changed them both as abruptly as a summer storm changed the landscape after a flood. Yet, thirteen years suddenly did not seem so long ago.
He held his palm to her head. Julia dabbed a tear from her eye with the tip of finger. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
“I have always trusted you.”
He tilted her chin and looked into once-familiar blue eyes. “Except when you are frightened.”
She pulled away from him. He had not meant the wordsto be more than what they were, an attempt to give her hope. But the past lay between them, a memory of the last time he had come to her when she had asked for help.
Aye, they both remembered well enough what she had once cost him, but he felt guilt to realize how soon he had put aside her fate after being banished from Scotland. She had changed much from the girl she had been. He saw the circles beneath her eyes, but he also saw strength in a mother’s determination to protect her son.
“There was a time your da would have killed ye for touchin’ her as ye are,” Duncan said from behind them.
He stood leaning in the entry-hall doorway, a chalice of wine in his hand. Julia stepped around Ruark. “Duncan, please ...”
Ruark stopped her with his hand on her arm. Then gentled his grip. “Go upstairs, Julia.”
She nodded, then, tearing her eyes from Ruark’s, looked past him at Duncan before walking up the stairs. When she was out of sight, Ruark faced his uncle. “If you have something on your mind, tell me now, because you and I have had this argument before.”
“Jamie is on my mind.”
“As he is on mine.”
“As long as we are clear aboot your priorities, lad. You’ve been a mite distracted since ye put that Sassenach wench on the back of Jason’s horse.”
“Her name is Lady Roselyn.”
“I do no’ care if she is the good Queen Mary herself come back from the dead. As long as ye remember her purpose here.”
Ruark held Duncan’s probing gaze. “I do not take my responsibility lightly. Never question my priorities or loyalty to this family again.”
“Then while you’re fookin’ that bonny lass upstairs, do no’ be forgettin’ her father has been none too kind to those who call themselves Kerr.”
For a moment, as Ruark set his hand on the balustrade, he thought he could kill Duncan. “Tell me, Uncle,” he said with quiet menace. “Why was Jamie with your crowd, raiding cattle on Hereford’s land in the first place? A little bit of mischief and larceny could have been had much nearer without forcing a confrontation with a battalion of English dragoons.”
Duncan wiped a sleeve across his mouth, his eyes momentarily shuttered. He set the goblet on the breakfront next to the doorway. “The lad is old enough to learn a Kerr’s ways.” He walked to the bottom of the stairway. “ ’Tis my sworn oath to make a man of him, just as it was mine to do the same of you. I’ll no’ be apologizing to ye or any man.”
“Know this now, Uncle! Lady Roselyn is under my protection.”
He turned and took two steps up the stairs.
“What has got in your craw?” Duncan carefully asked from behind him. “When ye left here ye were ready to tie the chit to a stake. No man would have argued your right to do so.”
Ruark descended a step. “You were about to take raiders over the border today ... against my explicit order to wait one week. The last I looked, five days does not make a week. Hereford deserves a place in hell for many crimes, but I do not intend to send the rest of this family with him. And that includes Jamie and the two lads with him.”
