Page 60 of In Bed with a Highland Liar

The doubt kept her going until the men stopped at the top of the hill just as dawn broke and the sun began to rise in the horizon. When they came to a stop, so did Lilith, at a distance from them. She watched them from afar as they spoke amongst themselves, but she was too far from them to know what they were saying.

Soon, they would reach the cottage and Lilith would have to be even more careful of her surroundings. One slip up could make the difference not only between remaining hidden and being discovered, but also between life and death. If Ruadh was there, if his men were there, then there was no telling what they would do to her.

Lilith took the opportunity to stretch her sore muscles, rubbing some of the tension off her shoulders. The men didn’t stay there for long, so she, too, quickly climbed back up onto her horse and followed them once more as they rushed down the hill. She was more exposed there, as the trees became sparse and the path widened, making it easier for her to be spotted, and so she was more careful, making sure to maintain a bigger distance between them.

The entire time, her thoughts kept straying back to Aaden. She could only hope neither he nor her father would be too angry with her for sneaking out of the castle and following them, and that they would understand why she did it. She could handle a bit of berating from her father, though, if it meant that she could be there with them, and if Aaden tried to berate her, too, then Lilith was more than happy to point out to him that she was a grown woman who could make her own decisions.

She would not let anyone leave her behind like this.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The word cottage could not begin to describe what Aaden saw when they reached the place. It was an estate, a large, charming building of stone that stood a few minutes’ ride from the lake. As impressive as it was, though, with its steepled roofs and the large windows, it was also old, as though it had been standing there for many years, for the most part abandoned.

There were no signs of any renovations, at least none that Aaden could see. If this was the place Ruadh was supposed to be maintaining, then there was no doubt in his mind everything he had told Evander about needing to oversee the repairs was nothing but another lie.

The grass and the plants in the gardens were overgrown, drowning the stone paths that snaked through the grounds. Ivy climbed the walls, wild and untamed, and though the building itself was in good condition, the windows and the doors didn’t have the same fate, projecting a decrepit appearance that gave the entire place an eerie, disconcerting feeling.

There were no guards there, though, at least none roaming outside the building. To anyone passing by, it just looked like an empty estate, long since abandoned to the mercy of time.

“Is this the right place?” Aaden asked as they came to a stop. “Are ye certain?”

“Och aye,” said Evander. “Dae ye nae remember?”

Aaden shook his head. He couldn’t say that he did. The only thing that made him accept Evander’s certainty was the fact that he was so sure of it himself, and a vague feeling that he had been there before, as one feels when revisiting a place in a dream.

“Spread out,” Laird Stewart told his men. “See if there are guards along the perimeter.”

Immediately, his men dismounted their horses and scattered, approaching the estate on foot. For a while, the rest of them watched, their hands curled tightly around their weapons in case there were, in fact, guards there that they hadn’t yet seen. It took them a while to inspect the area, but once they had searched every part of the outside grounds, one of the men motioned at them to approach.

Laird Stewart led their team of four to the estate and Aaden’s heart leapt up to his throat as they approached. He was the one to push the door open, and then the four of them, followed by the laird’s men, scattered throughout the place, searching room after room for any signs of life.

Aaden headed to the second floor, opening the first door he found and finding an empty library inside. It was that room which pulled up memories, a specific one: his mother, holding him in her lap as she read him a book. He couldn’t tell if it was a real memory or something fabricated, something his mind made up now that he was present in the room.

Had he ever had such a pleasant childhood? Had there been a time before Ruadh knew of his real origin?

Shutting the door, Aaden moved to the next one, and then the next, finding every room empty. Just as he had begun to despair, he opened the last door at the end of the hallway and took in the sight before him.

It was a sparsely furnished room, large but holding nothing in its confines save for a bed and a decrepit dresser. It was dark, too, curtains drawn over all the windows except for one. On the bed, there was a woman, her golden hair greying at the temples, her face and arms mottled with bruises in shades of purple and fading green, her wrists tied to the headboard with a rope that cut cruelly into her skin.

Aaden stared in shock, mouth hanging open as he took in the scene. His heart, which had been beating like a drum up until that moment, now sat perfectly still in his chest.

He recognized the woman instantly, and so did she.

“Aaden.”

Her voice was barely more than a croaked whisper that barely carried itself across the gap between them. It was so low that Aaden thought that perhaps he had simply imagined it just by looking at the tiny movement of her lips.

After a moment of hesitation, he rushed to her, his hands scrabbling to cut her free from her restraints. His fingers shook as he gripped his knife and sawed through the rope until he finally freed her, and for a moment, they only stared at each other in silence, tears gathering in his mother’s eyes.

With a trembling breath, she surged forward and Aaden let her crash into his chest as he folded his arms around her. The last time they had seen each other, she had been the one holding him, towering over him and wrapping herself around his body as though she could shield him from Ruadh’s wrath by sheer force of will. Ruadh had ripped him from her arms anyway, throwing him out of the castle along with his father.

He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, his mother sobbing as she clutched onto him, refusing to let go. Though it had been two decades since they had last seen each other, it felt as though not a single day had passed to Aaden, as though he was still that little boy.

When his mother pulled back, she did so only to grab his face and examine it closely. Aaden did the same to her, noting the fine lines around her eyes and in the span of her forehead which betrayed the years that had passed, though did nothing to obscure her identity from him.

“How… how did ye find me?” she asked, quickly glancing at the door over Aaden’s shoulder. “It doesnae matter. We must leave. Ruadh will be back soon.”

“He is here?” Aaden asked and he, too, looked behind him, but predictably, there was no one there.