The Highlander’s Promise, page 7
“Mother,” Jasper spoke quietly. “Let the lass be. She is clearly fleeing a dire situation.”
“Agreed.” His mother looked him straight in the eye. She slowly turned the item in her finger over. It was a small painting. No bigger than her hand. It was the sort of thing noble families used in marriage negotiations. He stepped closer, peering at it.
“Christ…” he muttered as he took the painting, seeing the face of their foundling.
Of his ladybird…
Jasper cupped his hands around the miniature, satisfaction surging through him at the idea of being able to know her name.
Of having a way to make her his.
“Terin Campbell,” his mother supplied her name. “That was done when she was just seventeen and ripe for wedding. It was sent here when her family tried to lure yer father into contracting Magnus to her. Yer father was very interested in the match, but yer brother wasnae. By the look on yer face, Jasper, it would seem ye owe yer brother a debt.”
Jasper sent his mother a hard look. “Tell me about her circumstances.”
His tone was hard, and Jasper realized there had scarcely ever been anything he’d taken quite so seriously in his life as he did finding out about Terin.
Discovering if he could claim her.
“She was wed to Goron Duncan some four years ago,” his mother supplied the details.
Jasper jerked his attention back to his mother only to discover her watching him intently.
But Seana was very serious now. Jasper didn’t shield his emotions from her. He doubted he could if he tried. Every fiber of his being was involved in the moment, in the sheer level of need he had to succeed in clearing a path between Terin and himself.
But he couldn’t keep another man’s wife.
“Goron Duncan is dead,” Seana said. “Lucas has taken the lairdship.” His mother tapped on a letter. “It seems Terin proved she was still a maiden before a midwives’ council and then…disappeared from Duncan land.”
He ached for her.
For the years she had clearly been an unwanted bride.
And yet, Jasper felt a surge of satisfaction sweeping through him. He’d honestly never felt so intently about a female before in his life.
Terin could be his…
“Thank ye, Mother,” Jasper spoke gruffly.
The letters open on the desk in front of his mother represented one of the things a noble wife did. She kept up correspondence with all the other noble households, even if he suspected that the letter his mother had out at the moment was from spies placed in those households instead of the ladies of those same places.
“Davonna is her aunt,” Seana continued.
“No wonder she said she was bound for Chattan land,” Jasper responded. He looked back at the painting.
Terin Campbell.
Knowing her name gave him another jolt of emotion. A sense of being able to do…well, he wasn’t precisely certain just what it was he wanted to do.
Only that he was very pleased to know who she was and that she was bound to stay near at hand.
Terin Campbell.
The bite on his wrist suddenly throbbed.
Christ, he’d lain on top of her…
“If ye knew who she was,” Jasper found himself tongue-tied because the scene was replaying in his mind, thrashing him with just how inappropriate it had been.
“Why did I have ye treat her as I did?” Seana finished for him.
“Yes,” Jasper declared.
His mother was smiling at him. His tone should have drawn disapproval from her, but the way she smiled made it clear she was very pleased with herself.
“I wanted to see how the pair of ye responded to one another,” his mother answered.
“By humiliating the lass?” Jasper asked, exasperated.
His mother grew serious. “It’s past time ye and yer brothers were matched.”
Jasper straightened up.
“I can see that ye know this,” his mother continued. “Since yer father matched Kianna, it appears that my efforts to delay matchmaking in favor of allowing ye and yer brothers to sow yer wild oats is at an end. By next spring, ye can expect contracts to be negotiated and signed. Weddings to follow before summer’s end. I did not have time to allow ye to overlook how ye feel about her.”
He’d be a fool to argue with her. His mother knew how to press on him. Every word had been true as well. As a son of the laird, it was his duty to wed for the benefit of the clan. His bride would have just as little choice, and the best both of them might hope for was mutual respect.
But Terin made him feel.
Jasper looked at the portrait once more.
He had no idea what he felt for her, but whatever it was, he’d never experienced it before, and he found it far more enticing than waiting for his father to select a stranger for him to wed.
His mother knew it because she understood him. Jasper felt his shirt collar biting into his neck. His mother was watching him, her eyes narrowed as she granted him just enough time to realize what she’d been doing and why she was correct to push him closer to Terin. Just to see what effect they had on one another.
Of course, his mother had been a contracted bride, too. Jasper drew in a stiff breath. The topic was forbidden, but he knew very well how Davonna had ended up at Larks Point Tower. It had simply been the way his father felt, but even knowing his own feelings were fickle and not his to command, Jasper still realized how harshly life had turned against Davonna.
His mother was making sure he didn’t miss the opportunity to wed a woman he was interested in.
“I do nae care to scare her, Mother,” Jasper said. “The lass needs a bit of time, most likely.”
“Which yer father will nae grant ye,” his mother replied firmly. “A sound strategy will gain ye the victory.”
Jasper crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“Terin Campbell is a prize, Jasper,” his mother informed him sternly. “Fail to see her in that light, and someone else will steal her out from beneath yer nose. I know ye will return to Larks Point and spend the winter there. If ye leave Terin here, yer father will have her wed to one of yer brothers before spring. Turn yer back on Terin, and she will likely take the chance to flee instead of going back to the chamber ye gave her.”
Jasper stiffened. He looked toward the window. It was growing darker by the second. The mass of clouds thickening and coming lower. He’d intended to wait until the storm passed before finishing his ride to the northern point of Chattan land, where he spent most of his time.
Terin was fleeing dire circumstances…
Strategy.
His mother was correct to use that word in relation to Terin. Jasper needed to think, or he’d make a fatal mistake.
Terin had cut her hair off and challenged the rules of society to make it to Chattan land.
Snow wouldn’t deter her.
But it could most certainly kill her.
Jasper turned and nearly ran toward the door. He stopped just shy of the doorway, turning and sending his mother a sincere look.
“Thank ye, Mother,” he rasped out before he turned and left.
*
Seana let out a little chuckle.
Her husband emerged from behind a tapestry, a sour look on his face.
“He’s going to make a fool of himself over that lass,” Neil began.
Seana fluttered her eyelashes. “Of all yer sons, Jasper is the one who will submit the least when it comes to whom ye think he should wed.”
Neil grunted. “Aye, I suppose ye are correct. As a third son, he is more dependent on his own merits for his life, for he’ll not inherit much.”
“Yet with that lack of inheritance comes freedom to wed as he will,” Seana replied. “It’s truly a stroke of fortune to have him bring Terin Campbell home with him. She is a much better catch than we might have secured for him.”
“The Duncan will nae be quick to relinquish her dowry,” Neil argued.
“Lucas Duncan needs to forge relationships,” Seana countered. “He might have secured the vote to become the Duncan laird, but he is still just an offshoot of the family. It’s in his best interest to negotiate with us.”
“He made a mistake in letting the lass escape since she proved she was a virgin,” Neil remarked.
“A mistake which can become our gain,” Seana said.
Neil was nodding his head. “Jasper is needed at Larks Point. Needed there more than I care to admit, for the men there respect him the most.”
“Respect Jasper has earned,” Seana remarked.
“Aye, aye, I know it well,” he agreed. “Being able to get the little lass up there without anyone knowing will give us an advantage in negotiating with her family.”
Her husband was satisfied with the turn of events. He sent her a pleased look before he left her study. Seana was left with her own thoughts. She smiled softly, recalling the way Jasper had looked when he’d come through the doorway.
There was something brewing between Jasper and Terin for certain.
It was the sort of thing that took time to identify and accept. It was also one of those things which could not be cultivated. No, affection and attraction were fickle, wild emotions.
Seana recalled the summer when she’d arrived to wed Neil’s brother. It had been arranged and agreed upon while Davonna was contracted to Neil. His brother had died so very unexpectantly. Her husband didn’t know that she’d hidden in his father’s study and heard him beg his father to allow him to wed her instead of Davonna.
Even now, the memory sent a ripple of pain through her because Davonna had been there as well. The pair of them clinging to each other as they tried to make a home out of the place they’d been sent to by their families.
Thirty years earlier…
“Mind what ye are saying, Neil,” Laird Chattan chastised his son. “I have seen the way young Davonna trips over herself to please ye.”
“I love Seana,” Neil stated firmly. “If ye insist on me wedding Davonna, it will be a cold union, and it will not stop me from seeking Seana.”
Laird Chattan raised an eyebrow. “Well, that would have advantages. Keeping both those pretty little hens in our keep means we don’t have to send the doweries back. So long as we weave the tales right.”
“Father,” Neil exclaimed.
His sire sent him a stern look. “Marriage is business, son.”
Neil bit back his next words because he knew full well, he would not win the argument through anything except hard reasoning.
“I am yer only child, Father,” Neil began after a moment of contemplation. “Yer claim on the lairdship has been weakened because ye and my mother do not care for each other.”
In truth, the laird and lady of the Chattan could barely stomach one another for the length of a meal.
“Humm,” Larid Chattan flattened his hands on the tabletop as he thought the matter through. He suddenly looked straight at his son.
“Ye’ll bed Seana often if I allow her to be yer bride?” Laird Chattan asked bluntly.
Neil cleared his throat, which made his father chuckle.
“This is business, lad,” Laird Chattan pressed his son. “I agree that it would have been better if ye had some siblings. Legitimate ones, that is. I do nae care to have to kill Seana to keep ye from her either.”
Neil sucked in his breath.
His father showed no remorse for his words.
“This is about the lairdship,” his father said firmly.
“I do nae care for Davonna,” Neil told his father again. “I’m ashamed to say it, for she does everything she can think of to please me. But my feelings are only those of tolerance.”
“Fallis,” Laird Chattan called out to his chief Retainer. “Take Davonna Campbell up to Larks Point. Make sure she stays there.”
“Father,” Neil protested.
Laird Chattan slapped the tabletop. “Are ye a woman, Neil? Do ye think ye can allow Davonna to tell anyone that she is being pushed aside because of yer tender feelings? She is a Campbell. If ye want Seana, there is a price to be paid.”
“Davonna is innocent,” Neil protested.
“When there is a price to be paid, it is always the innocent who are sacrificed,” Laird Chattan continued. “One of them is going to Larks Point, son, for I will not give up either alliance or dowry.”
“Larks Point is a crumbling ruin,” Neil continued to argue.
“No one will ever think to look for Davonna there,” Laird Chattan answered his son. “If she is kept here, someone will tell the Campbell. There will be blood spilled over it.”
“Send her home,” Neil insisted.
“And have the Campbell learn ye chose a MacRae over their daughter?”
Neil shut his mouth. There was no peaceful way out.
“Do nae ever come into me study again until ye have grown up,” Laird Chattan warned his son. “As me only child, I will listen to ye, but I will not coddle ye like an infant. Fallis?”
“My laird?” Fallis answered.
Laird Chattan pegged his son with a hard look. “Neil will bring Davonna to ye before nightfall, or ye are to take Seana to Larks Point Tower.”
*
Seana had a good life, and she was properly grateful.
Yet she’d stolen it, or at least she’d watched fate gift her with happiness at the expense of someone else.
She smiled because Jasper had a chance. Fate had delivered to him a woman who put a glitter into his eyes. She’d been delaying her children’s matches, using every argument she could to keep her husband from arranging unions for them all in the hope that affection might blossom.
Aye, fortune had truly favored Jasper, but it seemed she was going to need to give her son a bit of a shove because he didn’t realize how easily he might face wedding a woman he simply had no affection for.
A gust blew in through the open door. It chilled her to the bone, making her cast a worried look toward the window.
Fortune might have favored them in bringing Terin to the Chattan stronghold, but the weather wasn’t going to hold off any longer. Seana nibbled on her lower lip, torn between staying where she was and allowing fate to rule what was to come, or get up and stop Jasper from leaving.
Her mother’s heart was tested.
But in the end, she remained in her study. Jasper was a man fully grown, and fate favored the bold.
Like any other mother, she would have to wait and see what happened.
*
Jasper was in a hurry.
His captain, Leith, put his arm out to stop Jasper as he appeared in the yard.
“She’s right there.” Leith pointed across the yard.
Jasper rocked back on his heels because he’d been moving so fast. He took in the sight of Terin standing near the stable door, blinking to make sure he wasn’t imagining what he wanted to see.
“Ye are a fine captain, Leith.” Jasper grasped his man’s shoulder. Leith was as indispensable as his right arm. “Ye know what I’m thinking.”
“Thank ye,” Leith replied. “But I needs ask ye for leave, Chief.”
Jasper turned his attention to Leith.
“Me mother is here and not likely to last the winter,” Leith said. “She can no’ make the trip to Larks Point.”
Jasper nodded.
“Take Knox along,” the captain suggested. “He’ll think it’s a fine idea until those matrons get a hold of him.”
Knox stepped up. “They can handle me all they like. I won’t whine as ye do!”
Jasper turned back toward Terin. His men were good natured, and poking one another was part of their bond.
Besides, Larks Point had a uniqueness about it. Davonna had built it out of stone, somehow raising an estate from nearly naught with her will and cleverness.
Word got out about it as well.
Orphans and widows made their way to the tower, and Davonna found ways to make them all useful. Jasper discovered himself grinning as he contemplated what Terin’s reaction would be to the way her aunt ran Larks Point. To be truthful, he was suddenly hopeful that Terin would thrive at Larks Point. It was likely the only place she’d be able to let her demons go. A place where she wouldn’t be an unwelcome bride, living under constant suspicion.
Aye, Larks Point was the best place for Terin.
Even if Jasper doubted she would be happy to know Larks Point was his home as well.
But he grinned as he contemplated her discovering that fact.
For better or worse, fate was placing them neatly together.
Chapter Three
It was hardly the first chance she’d taken.
Terin ordered herself not to look at the sky. She was so close. Staying at the Chattan stronghold now meant she’d be there for the winter. No matter how good she might think she was at hiding her gender, there was no way she’d make it until spring without being discovered.
She needed to go.
And sooner rather than later.
On Duncan land, she’d always worried about being poisoned. She knew how to blend into the comings and goings of the maids. Terin never really stopped. Instead, she moved through the kitchens, picking up odds and ends. She moved a basket, using it to cover up the fact that she took a chunk of cheese from one of the tables.
She kept her face low and her chin tucked into the collar on her way out of the kitchen. It took only a moment to stop in a storeroom and tie all of her food up in an apron that was hung over the back of a drying rack. A good knot in the ends, and she was able to sling it over her head. It hung across her back beneath the part of her plaid which was attached to her shoulder. The clouds were still ominous, but she crossed the yard anyway. The weather wasn’t going to get better. The bundle of food gave her reassurance, too, for she wouldn’t starve.
And Lark Point Tower was only a three-day walk.
She didn’t dare take a horse.
Taking food was bad enough, but a horse, well, someone would notice the loss of the animal. Every horse in the stables cost the laird a great deal. They were essential to defending the clan’s land. So to take one without permission was asking to be run down.
No, she didn’t dare.
