Page 52 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

Florence jumped to her feet. “Oh, Kenna, ‘tis truly a good story! Ye haven’t heard it yet? Oh, Ellen, tell it. Or I’ll tell it. No, ye should tell it. Yes, it should be ye. Come on now, start with the engagement.”

Ellen gave Kenna an angry look, as expected.

Kenna batted her eyelashes, letting her eyes go wide as if she was sharing in Florence’s girlish eagerness. A bit of the gold flashed in Ellen’s eyes. Perhaps Ellen could read Kenna’s falsities as well as Kenna could read Ellen’s.

“Fine. The engagement itself isn’t much of a story. Have ye heard of the Battle of the Shirts? Not surprising if ye have not. ‘Twas nearly twenty years ago. Only five Frasers survived it, and my father and the Laird Lovat were two of them. My father carried the Laird back to Dounie Castle, and, as a sign of his gratitude, the Laird promised a wedding between our two families. I am my father’s only child, so they made it simple by engaging me to the Laird’s eldest son, meaning Rob.”

“How old were ye?” Kenna asked.

“I was only two when the promise was forged. Rob was only a year older and Hugh a turn of the season younger.”

“But,” Florence interjected, “then love got in the way of that engagement!”

Ellen sighed. “Aye. Love and a touch of madness. My father sent me to live at Dounie Castle fer the year leading up to the wedding so that Rob and I could get to ken one another but—”

“But instead she got to ken Hugh,” Florence interrupted once more, waggling her eyebrows devilishly.

“Aye. Rob did not have much interest in me. Even when we were in the same room, having a conversation, it always felt like he was off riding through the Highlands in his mind. So, I started to have more conversations with Hugh. We developed a friendship, and then one day, after a bit too much wine, it just became something more.

“Once ye start something like that, once ye feel that connection, ‘tis difficult to break free. One mistake turned into two, then three, and then ye just stop keeping count.”

Kenna could understand that feeling. Even now, after having only the smallest taste of Rob, Kenna found herself constantly thinking about him. She found herself tracing her fingers along her skin, imagining it was his touch as she drifted to sleep every night. It was perplexing how one small act had changed the way she looked at herself, opening her eyes to all of the emotions and pleasures that she had never known she was capable of feeling.

“Hugh and I kept making mistakes ‘til I began to make final preparations fer my wedding to Rob. We each agreed that ‘twas the best time to end it. But, our Lord God had other plans.”

“She woke up two days before the wedding as sick as can be,” Florence said, reaching out to rub Ellen’s shoulder comfortingly. “We were all terribly worried.”

“Aye. They sent fer a healer, who announced that the cause was a pregnancy.”

Across Ellen’s face now was pain. Not the false sort of thing that Ellen would use to escape a situation, but true pain that made the gold in her eyes dim and her skin look dull and gray.

“Hugh was so gallant,” Florence said as she leaned forward, a gentle smile on her face as her eyes glazed over, looking forward to the fire but clearly seeing something else. “While both our father and Ellen were shouting, and Rob was off doing a jig, Hugh stepped forward and claimed responsibility fer the babe. Even when Ellen’s father came down upon him, which was, a rather terrifying display, Hugh just stood there without even flinching. ‘Twas such a loving moment. I hope to one day find someone who would stand up fer me in such a situation.”

“Pregnancy out of wedlock is hardly a thing to wish fer!” Ellen said, scandalized. “I lost everything because of it! My wedding, my future, my reputation!”

“Aye, aye, those losses were all the greatest tragedy, weren’t they?” Florence prodded with a bit of disgust in her voice, much to Kenna’s surprise. It was a note that she had never heard in Florence’s voice, one she hadn’t thought her capable of when she shared the disposition of the sun.

“I happen to think they were.” Ellen huffed, throwing her needlework down on the table. “Now, if ye two would both excuse yerselves, I think I am going to turn in early tonight.”

Kenna didn’t hesitate, not wanting to be anywhere near Ellen when she was in one of her moods. Ellen, in her usual state, was bad enough, but when she was truly upset, she was more than Kenna could stand.

Florence followed Kenna back to her room, shutting the door softly behind them.

“Always so dramatic about the whole thing, that one.”

“Why are ye so upset about it?” Kenna asked, wanting some explanation to clarify the thing that had undermined everything she had previously thought about Florence.

“I try not to be, but Ellen is always so—well, ye ken how she is. She acts as if it was criminal fer both fathers to decline to throw her and Hugh a lavish wedding celebration after what happened. When everyone agreed to her and Hugh marrying as quickly as possible, she thought they would still throw them a feast, but our father would not hear of it. She behaved like a child, I must admit, screaming about how the feast was already cooking and the guests already arriving, but our father would not budge on the matter. Her father did not argue the decision, either.

“Was it a bit unfair? Perhaps. But it was just too great of a scandal to celebrate. It was supposed to be the sort of affair that celebrated the rise of the next Laird and Lady of Lovat and instead it was the hushed marriage of a second son to a woman he had foolishly stolen away from another man and impregnated. The only people who would drink to that would be the ones who wished to forget it.”

“I see…” Kenna whispered, thinking back to her own wedding. Though she hadn’t thrown a tantrum in front of everyone, she had not exactly behaved well either.

“Aye, well, now, of course, she continues to get upset because her marriage to Hugh has prevented her from taking on the title of Lady of Lovat, which is, of course, now destined to be yers. If ye try and reason with her, saying that she is still a noble lady of Lovat, she’ll tell ye that ‘tis just not the same. Then she goes on some bluster, some awful one that I swear she practices whenever she looks in a mirror, about how anyone would be unable to so quickly come to accept a change that completely changed the course of their life.”

Kenna nodded and worked her way through the piles of boxes to take a seat in the chair, feeling suddenly exhausted by all that she had learned. Was that why Ellen was always so cold to her? Because she took a power that Ellen hoped to have for herself?

“But that is silly, is it not?” Florence continued, clearly not put out by Kenna’s poor replies. “If she were that dedicated to Rob and his title, she would not have run into Hugh’s arms so easily, no? When all is said and done, she is still married to a rich man of noble birth whom she loves and receives love from in return. That is more than many women could ever wish fer. Christ, ‘tis far more than even I can wish fer. So, there is hardly a reason fer her to complain, is there?