Page 4 of Highlander’s Quest of Desire

Chapter One

Spring snuck up on them suddenly. Trees and bushes preened, adorned with colorful flowers, competing against each other for the title of the season’s beauty. Elspeth and Allie Buchan were grateful for them. The flowers made their job of decorating Blair Castle much easier and provided the perfect canopy for tea and refreshment tables. Their heady scent was the perfect accompaniment to laughter and romance. Elspeth Buchan wasn’t much concerned with the latter, but her brother Domnhall had other ideas.

Elspeth tried her best to ignore Domnhall at breakfast when he hinted at the number of eligible bachelors they expected to host by evening; she had avoided his suggestions of a late summer wedding when they had greeted their guests and shown them to their rooms. But now they were at the feast, and he was insisting she dance with one of the Labert lads.

“Charles’s quite handsome,” Domnhall whispered, tipping some roasted potatoes on her plate. “Even though he is a bit dull. Edward is far more interesting, but his breath is unfortunate. Then there’s Daniel. He’s the most promising of the lot if ye ignore the spots on his chin.”

“He’s fifteen!” Elspeth hissed back.

“Aye, so what? Ye can marry a man younger than ye.”

“Ye can marry him if ye fancy him so much.”

“Now, there’s nae need to take that tone,” Domnhall admonished, buttering a roll for her. “I’m just concerned. I want to see ye happily married and settled. Is that so bad?”

“And what about what I want?”

“Is that nae what ye want?” Domnhall looked genuinely perplexed by her statement.

“Nae.”

“I thought that was what all women wanted.” His face fell.

“Yer mistaken,” she said. “While yer thinking of possible matches for me I’m more concerned about the Grant’s nae sending a delegation to the festival.”

“Bruce mentioned the English were keeping a tight noose around his lands. It would have been hard to send people through that. Too much of a risk.”

“There’s little point in these festivals if we donae have all three clans participating. The English have always tried to intimidate the Lairds. Bruce Grant must be forming alliance elsewhere.”

“Is it Bruce Grant ye want to marry?” Domnhall asked, cheering up to the thought.

“Will ye stop with the husband-hunting?” Allie, his wife, hissed. “Ye’ll put her off her food.”

“Is it wrong of me to want her to have what we have?” Domnhall took his wife’s hand and kissed it. “Where would I be without ye? Ye are my North star. I just want Elspeth to get settled.”

“She’ll be fine,” Allie soothed. “And settled does nae mean the same thing for everyone.” She winked at Elspeth.

“What does that mean?” Domnhall asked, looking from his wife to his sister. “Settled means settled; marriage, children, a home.”

“Yer so old fashioned,” Allie rolled her eyes, teasing Domnhall. “Young people now need adventure in their life.”

“We had adventure,” Domnhall murmured, rubbing his thumb along Allie’s knuckles.

“Please, donae remind me,” Allie laughed.

Elspeth took the opportunity to slip away with her plate of food. She nodded and smiled at the people she passed. When she glanced back at the head table before slipping into the main hall, Domnhall was busy wooing his wife, and no one had noticed she was missing.

No one except Laird Labert.

The only Laird remaining from the original alliance was smiling at her indulgently. Elspeth flashed him a smile and held a finger to her lips, pleading for his silence. He chuckled, lifted his goblet, and drank a toast to her escape.

Elspeth lifted her favorite tapestry in the hall. It had a small niche behind it where she sat down with her plate of food. Biting into her potatoes, she rested her head back against the wall and thought over her brother’s insistence on her marriage. She tried not to put a bitter cast on it, but when it came to her brother she had complex feelings which couldn’t easily be wished away.

Domnhall had never hurt her, but he had been blind to the pain his first wife had caused. He had been mortified to find out the atrocities that woman had committed, but Elspeth still found his interest in her well-being jarring and distrustful.

It shamed her to think so. She knew her brother loved her very much, and his earnest desire to see her happily married was sincere. But old wounds didn’t heal quickly. She was still that girl afraid of the shadow of Adamina stalking her through these very halls. Elspeth hadn’t forgiven her sister-in-law. How could she forgive the woman who had made her home a prison of nightmares and horrors? How could she forgive her when Elspeth still felt more comfortable eating behind tapestries than at the head table?

What she needed more than marriage and another unknown prison was the chance to leave Blair Castle on her terms and be of use to some cause or the other. But what? She had no skills; swords and arrows were beyond her. Her riding skills were fair but not exemplary. The only thing she had to offer, other than neat stitches and accurate portraits, was her knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants. She wondered if she could persuade Domnhall to rent her one of the cottages on the estate where she could practice her medicine and be of service to the people.