Page 12 of It’s in his Highland Kiss

“Ye dinna remember any of it?” he asked. “Nae a thing?”

“I remember that it was very different from England,” Marion said. “Darker, cloudier . . . but I suppose it was winter when we last came.”

“Aye, it’s almost winter the noo,” Eiric pointed out. “It’ll be cold up in the Highlands, I willna lie to ye. It’ll be cold and dark, but it’ll be bonnie. There’ll be snow as far as they eye can see not too long from noo.”

“To tell you the truth, I think I enjoy temperate climates more,” Marion said. “But it’s been so long since I was last in Scotland that I can only find it . . . exhilarating.”

“Ye’ll like it,” Eiric assured her. “And ye’ll like the people. We are nothin’ like the Sassenachs, ye ken. I think ye’ll fit better there than ye ever did in England.”

“Oh, I’m sure everyone will see me as an outsider,” Marion said. “I doubt anyone remembers me. I doubt anyone even remembers my mother.”

“Trust me, people remember yer maither,” Eiric said. “She’s a hard one to forget, try as we might. But even if nay one remembers ye, then they’ll get to ken ye. Dinna ye fret about that, lass. I’m sure that everyone in the MacLeod clan will welcome ye.”

And if someone didn’t, then they would have to deal with Eiric, who wasn’t known in the Highlands for his patience. He wouldn’t allow anyone to treat Marion the way that her parents had treated her, not if there was something that he could do to stop it. He would ensure that Marion would have a good life in the Highlands, that she would make up for everything that she had missed growing up.

“I hope that you’re right, Eiric,” Marion said. She sounded melancholy, so much so that Eiric felt a twinge of sadness in his chest at the mere sound of her voice. “And I hope that those six months I’ll spend in the Highlands will be enough to get me through the rest of my life.”

“Marion . . . I told ye, that’s what I said to yer maither,” Eiric reminded her. “Ye dinna have to leave. Ye never have to leave the Highlands if ye dinna wish to do so. Ye’ll always have a home there, with us. The MacLeod clan is yer family as much as the Hadlees are. Me maither, she would be verra happy to have ye by her side for the rest of her days, that much I ken for certain.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Marion said, as she began to skewer the mushrooms through some twigs that she found on the ground and cleaned with the remaining water. “It all sounds very nice, but my parents won’t let me stay there a day longer than six months. That’s what you told them, and that’s what they’ll expect. They’ll wish for me to marry after that, I know they will. They’ll marry me off to some man that I have never even met before, and that will be that. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

This doesna sound like the girl who was ready to walk straight into that lake. Though I suppose once she faced death, she saw how sweet life is.

Eiric himself had faced death a few times, sometimes because of matters of honour, and others out of pure foolishness; and he knew that life was sweet, indeed. He could hardly blame Marion for wanting to live, even if her life was not the one that she wanted.

For a moment, he let the silence stretch between them, and then he took Marion’s hands in his, holding them tightly.

“I promise ye, if ye wish to stay in the Highlands, then that’s where ye’ll stay,” he told her. “Nay one will take ye back to England if ye dinna wish to go back, nae yer parents, nae anyone else.”

“Eiric . . .” Marion said, but then her voice trailed off, as though she didn’t know what to say.

“I promise ye,” Eiric repeated. “And I always keep my promises.”

It was what Marion deserved, and Eiric would be damned if he didn’t give her the life she deserved.

Chapter Six

The trip to the castle of the MacLeod clan was anything but short and easy. Marion and Eiric faced days of unstoppable rain, weeks of fatigue with only a few nights spent in warm, comfortable inns in between, and sleepless nights when they had to look out for brigands and wild animals.

But now there they were, sitting on Eiric’s horse, watching the castle gates as they opened before their eyes. Marion could hardly believe the splendour and the beauty of the castle grounds.

Her mother had always told her that Scotland was a wretched place, that she would find nothing but poverty and filth there, but Marion couldn’t possibly believe such a thing, not when the evidence was right in front of her eyes.

“Weel . . . this is home,” Eiric said, as he gave his horse a kick, guiding it through the gates. “What do ye think?”

Marion looked around, her gaze taking in everything, from the people who walked around the courtyard to the bushes that grew by the edges of the grounds nestled against the walls. For a moment, she froze. Everything was so unfamiliar, so new to her, that she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t remember any of it, nor any of the people that she saw around her, and she couldn’t help but begin to worry.

I don’t know anyone here, not really. Perhaps I’ve met some of them before, but I don’t know them, and they don’t know me, and doesn’t that mean that I am alone?

“It’s beautiful,” she managed to say, though she doubted that she sounded as excited and sincere as Eiric had wanted.

By the time they had both jumped off the horse, Eiric handing the reins to the stableboy so that he could care for the animal, there was a crowd around them. Marion was no stranger to being out of breath in her dress, which restricted her lungs if she so much as moved wrong, but now there was a different reason why she couldn’t draw any air into her body.

There were too many people, and they were all asking about her. Some seemed to remember her, just as Eiric had said they would, but others didn’t, and that made them even more curious to know who the newcomer was, and why Eiric had brought her there.

“This is Marion, she is a distant cousin,” Eiric said, effectively putting an end to all the questions. “Noo, if ye please, she’s had a verra long journey, and I’m sure she’d like some rest. And I need to see me maither.”

Just as Eiric spoke, Marion spotted Lady MacLeod by the castle doors, rushing to greet them. The crowd parted around her, the men and women going back to their tasks, though only half-heartedly, too curious about Marion to do anything else.