Though Margaret tried to persuade him he would be safer with her, in the end, she could not make him stay. And the lad deserved a chance at a new life, far from the village where he would always be known as his father’s son.
“I left our things outside,” he said.
While he brought in a dirty cloth bag and a large rectangular basket from outside the door, Margaret and Lizzie gathered what few coins they’d brought with them.
“Hide these coins well,” Margaret told him, then she gave him one of her pieces of black onyx. “This is for protection.”
A tear slid down Brian’s cheek as he pressed a soft kiss to his sister’s cheek.
Margaret suspected he’d been shown little affection in his life. She put her arm about his bony shoulders and held him. For a moment, he leaned into her, then he stepped away and hoisted his bag over his shoulder.
“You’re going to grow up to be a fine man,” she told him. “When you’re ready to find us, Ella and I will be waiting for you.”
###
“Bwian! Bwian!” Ella cried out, her small arms reaching toward the door.
Margaret was grateful Ella had not understood her brother was leaving without her until after the door closed behind him. The parting was already so painful for him without hearing his sister’s heart-wrenching cries.
“Hush, sweetling, hush,” she cooed as she rubbed Ella’s back and rocked her on her lap.
Margaret’s heart wept for the little girl in her arms. How could she fill such a gaping hole in Ella’s life? The poor child had lost both her mother and her brother tonight. Margaret squeezed her eyes shut and prayed Ella had not actually witnessed the bloody murder. Even if she had not, Ella most likely had seen violence in her home before this.
Ella’s cries gradually subsided to soft hiccoughs, and eventually she fell into an exhausted sleep in Margaret’s arms. Being careful not to wake her, Margaret laid her in her basket.
Her heart swelled as she watched Ella sleep curled up on her side in the basket, which was meant for a babe, not a child of three. Even sound asleep, she clung to her ragged blanket and a dirty doll her mother had made, all the poor thing had from the only home and family she knew.
“By the saints, what will ye do with her?” Lizzie asked, leaning over the basket.
“I’m going to keep her.”
She touched Ella’s soft cheek. Tears swam in her eyes. She was amother. After years of longing, she had given up on her dream of having a child. Ella was the answer to her prayers.
“I’m your mother now,” she whispered. “I’ll take good care of you. Always.”
Ella changed everything. This could no longer be a temporary escape from court. Margaret could not go back. Ever.
“I can’t wait to see Archie and George’s faces when they find out,” Lizzie said with a grin. “Adopting the child of a penniless villager, and a murderer at that, will ruin their plans of making the kind of marriage alliance they hoped for.”
“They must never find out. Never,” she said, gripping Lizzie’s arm. “They would take her away from me.”
“What will ye do?” Lizzie asked.
“I don’t know yet.” Where could she go that her brothers would not find her? How would she care for the child once she got there? She rubbed her forehead, trying to think.
“Ye can’t stay here in the village long without being found out,” Lizzie said.
Brian’s father would assume Brian took Ella with him when he disappeared, and the other villagers would assume their mother took both children with her. That bought Margaret a little time. Still, she could not keep Ella hidden in the cottage for long without being discovered by a villager, if her brothers’ men did not find them first.
“I’ll have to take Ella somewhere I’m not known,” Margaret said, more to herself than to Lizzie.
“I know,” Lizzie said. “Ye can go live in the Highlands with Sybil and her MacKenzie husband.”
“If only I had a way to get there.” MacKenzie lands were far away and difficult to reach. Her brothers could track her down anywhere in the Lowlands, but no one in the MacKenzie clan territory knew her except her sister. She could pretend to be someone else there.
“Ye could hire a man to take ye.” Lizzie screwed up her face in thought. “He’d have to be someone who knows the Highlands well and who can wield a sword if you’re attacked.”
How would she ever find such a person—and quickly? Even if she did, the man would probably take her straight to Archie. Any fool would know he could gain more by revealing her plan to her powerful brother than by helping her escape.
