Page 39 of Bond of a Bewitched Highlander

"Saints!" He turned away to pace to the window. If her words were true, that meant she didn't remember taking off with the earl. No wonder she was acting like an innocent lass. She remembered naught after her eighteenth birthday.

The nib scratched across the paper, and he returned to the desk.

How old am I now?

"One-and-twenty," Brodie said.

Her face blanched, and her eyes widened. He had never seen her look more astounded and confused.

"When did we first meet?" he asked.

She paused, eyed him, then wrote: this morn.

He could detect no deception in her eyes, but knew she was capable of it.

She frowned, then wrote: When did we first meet?

Should he tell her the truth or let her believe him a stranger? He hated lies. "Over two years ago."

Her baffled gaze searched his as if she looked for the answer. Hell, she was so convincing.

"Do you think she will recover?" Brodie asked Finnian.

"'Haps with time, but she needs rest. She's exceedingly wan." He motioned to her ashen face. "While in the sea, she might have lost a lot of blood from that head wound."

"'Tis true." Brodie proceeded to the door. After pulling it open, he spoke to Drury, who waited outside the door. "Have the maids prepare a room for Lady Elsea, forthwith."

"Aye, m'laird." He hastened away.

Within a few minutes, one of the chambermaids escorted Elsea toward a room upstairs. He followed to see which room it was.

"Bring her food, drink, and clean clothing," Brodie said. "And wash the blood from her hair."

The maid curtsied. "Aye, m'laird."

They would take good care of her.

"Brodie!" his mother hurried along the corridor toward him but stopped short when Elsea went into the room. His mother's mouth dropped open.

The maid curtsied and closed the door.

"Was that Lady Elsea?" his mother whispered, her dark hair styled to perfection.

"You ken it was, Ma."

"What is heaven's name, Brodie?"

"I dragged her from the sea where she nearly drowned. She has a head injury and cannot speak. Plus, she's lost most of her memory. She has nay inkling who I am."

"How terrible! The poor lass. How did you find her in the sea?"

"I was in selkie form." He did not want to tell his mother anything about the female selkies being abducted. "To make a long story short, Lady Elsea fell off a birlinn."

His mother crossed herself, for she hated any mention of the curse or his selkie form. "Why was she on a birlinn?"

"We have nay notion as of yet. Because of the head injury, she has no memory of it, except that someone kicked her down. We asked her questions, and she wrote her answers. She claimed she could remember naught after her eighteenth birthday."

Ma gasped. "Do you believe her?"