Page 48 of It’s in his Highland Kiss

“How is he?” Adaria asked, when she reached Marion, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“He is fine,” Marion assured her. “He woke up in the middle of the night. We spoke for a while. I’m not a healer, Adaria, but I think . . . I think he’ll be alright.”

A sob ripped out of Adaria then, her hand tightening around Marion’s shoulder. Marion stood from the chair and pulled Adaria into a hug, holding her tightly as she sobbed against her.

It didn’t take long for her to recover though, as she always did. Adaria dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand and gave Marion a smile, before she sat at the edge of Eiric’s bed, looking as though she was too afraid to touch him.

“Is he really alright?” she asked Marion.

“Yes,” Marion said. “He is, Adaria, I promise.”

“I’m fine, Maither,” came Eiric’s response.

His eyes fluttered open, and Marion was so glad to see him awake again that her breath caught in her throat, making her stagger.

She watched him and Adaria as they spoke. Adaria was so careful with him, so tender, that Marion could have sworn she felt a piece of her heart break. She didn’t deserve to see her son hurt, just as much as Eiric hadn’t deserved to be hurt in the first place.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Marion said, as she turned around to leave, but before she could do so, there was a hand around her forearm, holding her still.

“Stay,” Adaria said. “I’m sure me son wants ye here anyway.”

Marion and Eiric exchanged a look, and she could see the blush that quickly crept over his cheeks. Marion could have sworn that she had the very same blush on her own face, but her embarrassment only made it impossible to leave without thinking that Adaria would suspect something. So, instead, Marion sat down on the chair once more, listening to the two of them as they talked.

For the first time since they had returned, Eiric explained what had happened to him, though he made sure to do so in vague terms. Marion was certain that neither she nor Adaria wanted to know the details of his capture and torture, and she was glad that he had spared them both.

“All that matters is that ye’re back,” Adaria said, when Eiric had finished his recount. “That ye’re back and ye’re safe . . . and we have Marion to thank for that.”

“Aye, we do,” Eiric agreed, but then a small frown crossed his face as he looked at Adaria. “Where’s Faither?”

Adaria hesitated for a moment, drawing in a sharp breath. “He is busy,” she said, sounding displeased. “He said he will come and see ye later today.”

Marion looked at Eiric and she couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seemed to be relieved to know that the laird would come, even though it didn’t seem to be his priority.

Perhaps there was something between them that Marion couldn’t understand, a father-son relationship with its own terms. She didn’t dare ask, and she didn’t need to know.

For even if the laird wasn’t there, she would be.

Chapter Twenty-One

Eiric had been recovering for several days, and though Marion had stayed with him at first, it seemed to him as though she was avoiding him now. He hadn’t seen her for an entire day, and at first, he was worried that something had happened to her, but Mrs. MacKay assured him that she had just seen her in the gardens.

It could only mean one thing: she didn’t want to see him.

Eiric scoured his brain for anything that would explain why Marion didn’t want to see him, but he couldn’t find a single reason. Had he done something to her? Had he said something that he shouldn’t have said to her, something that had offended her?

He didn’t know, nor could he find out if Marion didn’t come to see him. He was forced to stay in bed, unable to stand or walk anywhere without assistance, and he doubted that anyone would be sympathetic enough to his plight to help him go to Marion, instead of having her come to him.

Perhaps he could ask Edan to bring a message to her, he thought. All he wanted was to know if he had done something wrong, so that he could apologise for his behaviour.

But what if she never wanted to see him again, to talk to him again, for some reason? What if he had somehow, unknowingly, ruined everything between them, and now he would be forced to live the rest of his life knowing that she despised him and never wished to see him again?

I dinna think I can stand it. I dinna think I can stand kennin’ that she hates me.

Another, more rational part of his mind though, told him that she didn’t hate him, and that she wasn’t avoiding him because of something that he had said. There was no denying that there had been feelings between them for a long time, blossoming when they least expected them. Perhaps they scared her, just like they scared him, and perhaps unlike Eiric, Marion couldn’t handle them as well.

Of course, Eiric knew something that Marion didn’t, a secret that allowed him to be much calmer, much more rational about his feelings towards her than she could ever be.

The question that plagued him was, should he tell her? Should he risk everything by telling her his secret, in the hopes that she would feel better about whatever there was between the two of them?