Page 111 of The Laird’s Wrong Wife

“Have Oscar or the children been harmed?” David asked.

“Everyone lives. I need to come inside.”

They took her to the drawing room without pressing for more. Heather removed Ceana’s cloak and ordered broth, bread, and warm water. David remained beside the fireplace until Ceana had swallowed several mouthfuls.

Lennan stayed long enough to place Oscar’s sealed letter in David’s hand. “For ye alone, Laird Morrag.”

David set it beside his chair without opening it. Lennan bowed and withdrew.

“Has Daphne written?” Ceana asked.

Heather brought a folded sheet from the small chest near the window. Ceana recognized her sister’s hand before the page reached her.

“She is safe,” Heather assured her. “She has chosen where she wishes to live, but she will give us nay detail.”

Ceana pressed the page to her lips and drew her first full breath since leaving MacKane Castle. Daphne was alive and free. She had chosen to keep even her from knowing where she was.

“Angus is Laird Gilmore now,” David said. “He has signed a peace treaty. Bryce’s raids are over, and his men have withdrawn.”

“I see,” Ceana said.

His gaze lowered to the letter at his side. “Fear of Bryce led me to arrange Daphne’s marriage. When Oscar took ye, I considered the alliance before I asked what ye wanted. I willnae ask ye to forgive me.”

Heather set her cup down. “Why have ye come here without yer husband?”

Ceana placed a hand on her belly. “I am with child.”

Heather paused, her fingers still curled around the cup, and David’s hand tightened on the back of his chair.

Then Heather crossed the room and pulled Ceana into her arms. “Oh, me darlin’! Congratulations! Are ye well? Has Muriel examined ye?”

“She did yesterday.”

David came around the chair. He waited until Heather released her, and then wrapped both arms around her and kissed her brow.

“Me daughter,” he said, his voice rough. “And me grandchild. Ye will both have everythin’ we can give ye.”

Ceana laughed through her tears. “Perhaps the midwife counted wrong, and Daphne was born second.”

Heather cupped her damp cheeks. “I never believed fertility followed the order of yer birth.”

Ceana caught her mother’s wrists. “Then why did ye let me believe it?”

Heather’s hands went still. “The older women repeated the tale until everyone treated it as fact. I feared givin’ ye hope I couldnae guarantee. When yer courses came irregularly, I refused to say anythin’ in case… well, in case ye never conceived.”

A bitter laugh escaped Ceana’s lips. “Ye watched me plan me whole life around it, Maither.”

“Aye,” Heather uttered, her eyes filling with tears. “I should have challenged them. I should have taken yer fear seriously.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I failed ye, Ceana. I watched ye shape yer life around it, and I said too little.”

Ceana bent into her mother’s shoulder. She had expected years of returning alone to her chamber while Daphne received every offer worth considering. She had entered Oscar’s study and offered him a childless bargain because she believed motherhood belonged to other women.

Her tears soaked into her mother’s gown as she held her.

David stood near them with one hand over his mouth. “I treated both me daughters as answers to the men I feared. Daphne could quiet Bryce through marriage, and ye could secure MacKane. I am yer faither first, but I behave as yer Laird.”

Ceana wiped her face, sniffling. “Oscar doesnae want the bairn. That is why he didnae come with me. He thinks I might die like his first wife.”

David’s jaw hardened. His hand clenched at his side before he opened it. “Do ye want me to write to him or summon him here?”