“Anything, Robbie. But you must save yer strength now.” She reached out a hand to him and he grabbed on, holding much tighter than she would have expected him to be capable of.
“You and Jamie are to have a home there, Isa. No matter what happens to me, you ken? Yer to stay there where you’ll be safe. When you find my mother. Tell her yer my wife, aye? They’ll look after you there.”
“You mean you dinna have a wife waiting for you?” She wanted to bite her tongue, but the words were already out there, spewed from her mouth before she had time to censor herself.
“No wife,” he panted, his head dropping back to the cushion, his eyes closed. “Only you.”
“But what of yer... daughter?” She forced herself to say the word, somehow made less painful by the knowledge there was no wife. “Why have you no told me of her?”
“Leah’s story is her own, no mine, to be told or no as she chooses.”
How could his daughter’s story not be his? Isa started to ask but Esther returned, with Editha following her.
The first woman carefully climbed up into the wagon so as not to spill any water from the pot she carried. When she reached them, she dipped a small cloth into the water and wrung it out before placing it on Robbie’s forehead.
Editha took the peacefully sleeping child from Isa’s arms before sitting down beside her.
“You’d best stretch yer own legs for a bit, Mistress Isabella. The last part of our journey will carry us through the night with few stops, but William says by morning we’ll reach MacQuarrie Keep.”
Isa nodded, and climbed down from the wagon. She wandered over to the edge of the stream, scanning the area for Jamie’s whereabouts.
She found him at last, sitting on the bank, throwing rocks into the water with Ewan, Ralph and Esther’s son.
A wave of guilt washed over her as she watched the child. He needed to know what had happened to his grandmother. But not now. She couldn’t face breaking such horrible news to him after all the trauma he’d suffered. She couldn’t bear to add to his burden or to see him even sadder. Once they reached Robbie’s home, after both Robbie and Jamie were healed, there would be time. She and Robbie would tell the child together.
A shiver ran down her spine, the shock of realization slamming into her. Perhaps Robbie had felt this same way when he’d chosen not to tellherof Annie’s murder?
No wonder she’d fought unsuccessfully for years to learn control of her emotions. How could she hope to control what she felt when she was so blind to the feelings of others?
As she watched, Ewan brought more rocks over to where Jamie sat, as if he realized his young companion hadn’t the strength to gather them for himself.
Odd how these people, these tinklers who were scorned everywhere they went, had accepted them so easily and had shown them such kindness. She only hoped they would find this same sort of acceptance where they headed.
Jamie and her both.
Chapter 29
When Robert had referred to his home as MacQuarrie Keep, Isa had expected something much smaller than this imposing structure with the waters of the loch lapping at its back.
She lifted her hand to shade her eyes against the early morning sun, growing more frustrated by the minute as William argued with the guardsman on the wall denying them entrance.
“We’ve no need for tinklers here. Be on yer way!” the man yelled down for the third time.
Bollocks on this.
Isa pushed past William, her temper taking the lead.
“I’ve come to see Leah MacQuarrie,” she yelled up at him. “I’ve her father in this wagon and he’s hurt. If yer no going to open these gates, then get yer lazy arse down the backside of that wall and get her up there.”
The guardsman stood for a moment as if he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.
“Do it now, you witless worm!” she screamed, stomping her foot to emphasize her point.
Not very ladylike to be sure, but she had a dying man and a sick child to consider, so whoever wanted to could criticize her later—she simply didn’t have time for them right now.
“Well done, my lady,” William whispered, arriving at her side as the chains holding the portcullis began to scrape against the stone.
“Enter,” the guard yelled down, and from his tone, Isa was quite sure the man was none too pleased.
