Highlanders Collection. Ann Lethbridge
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will bid you goodnight, Ciara,’ he said, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing it gently. ‘Elizabeth,’ he said with a nod to her friend.
Ciara watched him leave and then caught a glimpse of Elizabeth watching him, too. A strange shiver crept down her spine, but it disappeared quickly.
‘Ciara. Elizabeth,’ her father called their names. ‘Are you ready to return home?’ He and her mother stood then and bid goodnight to the laird.
‘Aye,’ she said. She doubted that one night of rest had replenished her and she looked forward to her bed.
She walked over to the laird and lady and thanked them for their hospitality of the evening’s dinner. Since it was their custom to be the last in their hall, she knew it was fine to leave before them. A busy day would find her up and out early on the morrow, now adding a private talk with James into the many tasks she had to complete in preparation for their wedding.
They walked along the path to Elizabeth’s cottage to see her home first, then on to theirs. Since the wee ones would be asleep, they trod quietly through the main room and to their chambers. Soon, the house was as silent as the entire village and Ciara found herself following an endless trail of questions and suspicions about what James wanted to talk about in the morning.
With the arrangements set and the marriage ceremony happening in a few scant days, it was most likely about that and about plans to return to his, their, home in Perthshire. There would be much to see to once her dowry was in his father’s control and much for her father to oversee for the MacLeries until Connor appointed someone to handle the agreements with the Murrays.
Prime came early and Father Micheil would begin promptly, noticing anyone who arrived late. Though he would peer at them with a frown, he would never reprimand. He had performed her parents’ wedding and would say hers now and it made her glad. Realising that she’d not met the Murrays’ priest while there, she would ask James about that in the morning, too.
If morning ever came.
Chapter Sixteen
Marian stood next to Jocelyn during the Mass, watching Ciara and James. He touched her hand several times during prayers and Ciara smiled at him several other times. All seemed as it should between a young man and woman about to marry—respectful, attentive, even affectionate.
And it broke her heart.
Jocelyn noticed her expression and mouthed, Is aught wrong? to her. Marian shook her head and turned her attention back to the altar and Father Micheil’s prayers. James had asked to walk with Ciara, alone, after Mass, so he wanted to speak to her on some private matter. Again, expected between a betrothed couple.
If she could only be a bird in the trees along their path!
* * *
Soon Mass was ended and she waited as Jocelyn spoke to the priest for a few moments. Ciara kissed her and squeezed her hands as she and James left and it brought tears to her eyes. She and Duncan had had misgivings and fears about sharing the complete truth with Ciara, but it was her due. They had no doubt she would hold it all in confidence, but she needed to know.
Marian had watched as Ciara realised she was not her true mother and feared that Ciara would never forgive her for the deception. Instead, after hearing their explanation, she called her Mother and held her as she always had, easing Marian’s heartache. When she called Duncan Father, even after all the disclosures made to her, it made her heart swell with pride and love for the daughter who could not be more her own.
Jocelyn wrapped her arms around hers and they walked from the chapel together. Marian knew her friend’s intent and it came as soon as they were away from anyone who could overhear their conversation.
‘So, you told her?’
‘We did.’
‘She seems more at peace than I expected from such revelations,’ Jocelyn observed.
She’d been the only one to whom she had told some of the truth those long years ago when she’d first arrived in Lairig Dubh with Duncan. Assisting Jocelyn at Sheena’s birth had brought back the memories of that night with Beitris and Marian had suffered from them terribly. Jocelyn’s friendship and her wonderful herbal tea had eased the way through one of her darkest nights.
‘Ciara had heard, or overheard, many of the rumours from James and his father. At least she knows the truth about those now.’
‘How did she react about her mother?’ Marian remembered the desolate expression that Ciara’s eye bore in those moments, but also the love she saw there for her, too.
‘As we expected. It shocked her to her soul,’ Marian admitted. ‘But then she accepted it. She asked about her true father.’
‘Did you tell her?’
‘Aye,’ she replied, keeping some of this particular truth to herself, for no one save Duncan and Iain knew about that situation and Iain’s secret life. Jocelyn believed her brother Ciara’s father and never spoke of it.
They were near the place on the path where it split, part going uphill to the keep, the other going downhill into the village. Their duties called them in different directions for the moment, though Marian would see to James’s parents later. For now, the laird was acting host to his newest ally and discussing all manner and sort of business with him, much to the Murray’s delight when she’d observed some of the exchanges.
She took hold of Jocelyn’s hand before they parted.
‘I have been turning this over and over in my mind and cannot come up with a reason why Tavis would not marry Ciara. The wealth would be one matter, if Tavis cared about such things. Her education might be another, for it intimidates most men when they discover her abilities. But there must be something more personal to keep his heart locked away from her.’
‘Saraid?’ Jocelyn asked.
‘It must be. I did not know her well, Jocelyn. Did you?’
‘Nay.’ Jocelyn shook her head. ‘Her family moved here just before their wedding. Tavis met her while travelling with Connor to the southern holding.’
‘The only person who could answer questions about her is Tavis,’ Marian added. ‘And Ciara, for she worshipped him in those days and she followed them everywhere.’
‘The only two people to whom we cannot speak without raising questions.’ Jocelyn sighed. ‘It seems that Ciara will marry James, then. Which—’ she touched Marian’s arm ‘—does not appear to be a bad match after all.’
Marian crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed them, staring at the path the two had taken for their walk. ‘Nay, it is not a bad match. It will just take her so far from here and to a man who does not love her. But that is not a bad match.’
Jocelyn met her gaze. ‘And how is that different from our marriages? I came here believing that Connor would murder me the way he murdered his first wife. You came here, forced to marry a man who knew you’d deceived him and everyone else.’
Marian laughed. ‘Only Rurik and Margriet’s match must have been less trying.’
‘Do not be so certain of that. Our Rurik with the way he loves women and a woman who grew up in a convent? I am certain there were some rocks on that path.’
It did calm her worries when she thought of it that way. At least James and Ciara liked each other at the beginning of their marriage. Love could grow later.
It could.
James took her hand as they walked from the church and she decided to focus on all the things she liked about him as they strolled in the privacy of the forest for this ‘talk’.
She