“I was terrified, unable to cease my tears. As I searched for my father, I found myself in a small alley, where a beautiful woman sat on the ground with her wares spread out on a cloth before her. She beckoned me closer and spoke kindly to me, assuring me I would find my family shortly. And though I dinna want to allow her to touch me, when she reached out to stroke my cheek it was as if I had no the power to move away from her. To this day, I remember her words, her voice, as if it were yestereve when I met her.
“‘Have no fear,’she said to me. ‘What you will do in life, the lives of those you raise, all are too important to the Fae for us to allow anything to happen to you this day. Hurry along, child. Even now your father searches for you.’”
“I no ever heard you tell that story of yer childhood before.” Though certainly his mother had delighted them with stories of her youth their whole lives.
“No. I’ve told that one only once, to my father, and no all of it at that.” She shook her head, the faraway look still in her eyes. “I felt as though my feet were bound to the alley and I couldna move, no even when the woman dropped a necklace of ribbon and stone over my head. She tucked the bauble down under my shift where it would be hidden, and told me I’d find need of it one day. When she finally removed her touch from my skin, I ran as fast as I could. Blindly, out into the thick of marketplace, weaving through the masses, straight into my father’s legs as if I were directed to him by a power not my own.”
She paused to sip her wine once more, her expression returning to her normal composure.
“And?” Robert encouraged. There had to be more to this fantastic tale.
She smiled, again shaking her head. “I told my father of the beautiful woman and her words, but he dismissed it as nothing more than an encounter with a Tinkler, assuring me I was lucky to have escaped those who steal children as well as possessions. It was only after I was older I heard the other rumors about Tinklers.”
“Other rumors?” Robert had read of them in history books. He knew that later they’d be persecuted as a people, driven from many places, and called by a variety of names, including gypsy.
“Aye. Many of the Tinklers are thought to have connections with the Fae.”
“Mother...” What could he say to her? He couldn’t very well tell her the Fae didn’t exist. Coming from him, that would be a lie she’d see through all too easily.
After a moment of silence, she picked up the thread of her story as if it had never been interrupted. “To appease me, my father looked for the woman. Though we searched down many alleys that day, we never found any sign of her. And even at that age, even without having heard the rumors, I kenned the truth of what she was.”
“What she was?” he echoed quietly, knowing before she spoke what his mother would say next.
“She was Fae, Robbie. Telling me of my future. Sending me safely back to my family that day that I might fulfill some purpose for the Fae later in my life. She protected me.” His mother straightened in her chair with another smile. “As, of course, we’ll help you protect yer Leah.”
“Divine luck was with you that day, my lady, that the Fae you met was kindly. No all of them are. Some who walk this world are fair evil and dangerous to their core.”
“As with Mortals, no? You find yer good and yer bad in everything.” Margery tilted her head to the side, appearing to study her son. “I always believed you to be the reason the Faerie saved me that day.”
“What?” His mother’s words caught him off guard.
“From the moment I first felt you move within my belly, I believed you to be the one the Fae awaited. It’s why I was so sure you had to be alive, no matter what they told me. No matter how long you’d been gone. I kenned the Fae had a purpose for you, Robbie.”
His mother was wrong, of course. The Fae hadn’t enough care for him to allow him to return to the proper time to keep his oath to a dying friend. Not enough care to allow him to rescue a small lass waiting for a father who would never return. It was obvious they had no more use for him than as a delivery boy.
“It’s no me, mother. It’s Leah. The Fae she encountered were no the kindly ones. They ill-used the poor lass in many a horrendous way. I felt she’d be safe here. Safe to grow and recover with yer gentle help, if you’ll give it now that you ken the truth.”
“If?” His mother’s eyes widened with her indignant disbelief. “Robert. You should no have the least bit of doubt in this matter. Especially now that I do ken the truth. For all the world to see, she’s yer daughter, and we’ll raise her as such. She’ll be cared for all her days, Fae or no.”
“I’m not Fae!” Leah stood in the doorway, her face red in her anger. “I won’t be. I renounce that part of me. I refuse to be something so horrible.”
As tears trickled down the girl’s cheeks, his mother hurried to her side, wrapping her arms around Leah.
“There, there, lass,” she soothed. “Dinna you fash yerself over it. It matters no in the least. Yer home with us now. Yer a daughter of the House MacQuarrie and you’ve nothing to fear ever again.”
Robert rose from his chair and headed toward the door, intending to leave the two women to bond in the way of women. His mother’s voice caught him just before he made his escape.
“You’ll want to speak to yer father, Robbie. He’s much to tell you. You’ll want to know about Richard as well.”
He looked back to see his mother leading Leah toward a chair by the fire, her low voice a reassuring murmur.
Though he felt as if half the weight of the world had been slipped from his shoulders, unease still rode him as he made his way down to find his father.
Now he faced the uncomfortable task of sharing with his parents that he was about to leave again on his quest to find his friend’s child. No, he caught himself in that thought. Isabella wouldn’t be a child any longer. He was twenty years too late to help the child Isabella. He could only pray he wasn’t too late to help the adult she’d become.
From the conversation he’d just had with his mother, he sincerely doubted he’d be able to do that without telling them everything. Thougheverythingwould be a large bite for them to swallow.
Still, he could hardly expect their assistance if he didn’t plan to offer them his honesty.
