When a Laird Loves a Lady (Highlander Vows: Entangled Hearts Book 1) (31 page)

Marion burst out laughing now, too.
“You must be teasing!”

Bridgette frowned. “I dunnae tease
about love, and I may even be one of those women who is a wee bit envious. I
would love to have Lachlan look at me the way Iain looks at ye.”

Marion arched her eyebrows at her
friend. “You wish for Lachlan to look at you as if he’s tormented by how he
should feel for you?”

“Aye!” Bridgette said. “I’d gladly
take confusion on his face instead of the blank expression with which he stares
at me. Then at least I’d ken he feels
something
. However, Iain does nae
look at ye like a man tormented.” Bridgette quirked her mouth. “Och. Well,
sometimes, but mostly, especially the night ye appeared in the hall wearing
Catriona’s wedding gown—afore he realized what ye were wearing—he looked like a
man verra much in love. His eyes go all soft when he looks at ye and a smile
always plays at his lips. Oh! And yesterday, even when ye were nowhere in sight
and he sent Fiona away and demanded all the MacLeod women like ye, he looked
like a man who would fight the devil himself to defend ye. No man who is nae in
love looks like that.”

“I assure you, he’s not in love
with me.” No matter how deeply she longed for it, she refused to fool herself.

“I assure ye, he is. Now he may nae
have told ye yet…” Bridgette gave her a questioning look, and Marion shook her
head. “Och, well, he is still denying it, then. Do ye nae remember what the
seer said?”

Before Marion could answer,
Bridgette spoke again.
“Thrice he’ll stare how he feels for ye in the face,
and thrice he’ll deny it.”
Her accent so mimicked the seer’s that
gooseflesh appeared on Marion’s arms. Bridgette cackled—for effect, Marion
knew—but it still made Marion shiver.
“But if the Fairy Flag flies again,
then the love that is now but a seed in his gut will have found a way to his
heart and will grow into a vine that stretches to the heavens. It will be a new
love. Nae the same as any that grew afore it, but strong, true, and a
blessing,”
Bridgette finished.

Marion trembled where she stood,
exhilarated by the possibility that Iain was starting to truly love her. Yet
she also shook with the very real fear that if it was true, and if the seer’s
prophecy was correct, Iain would eventually fly the Fairy Flag to save the
clan, which could only mean the clan was in danger because of her. Her thoughts
turned in circles and each loop led to Froste, which led to her father. Before
she could think more on it, a wave of nausea overcame her. She barely made it
to the bucket before she was sick.

Bridgette hovered behind her as she
retched, and when she was done, her friend handed her a linen. “Are ye sure ye
feel well enough to be out of bed?”

Marion nodded. “Yes, I feel fine,
except I have been rather nauseated in the mornings and haven’t had much of an
appetite.” She gave Bridgette a stern look. “Don’t mention it to Iain. I don’t
want him to worry.”

Bridgette stared at her oddly for a
long moment. “Marion, may I ask ye something delicate?”

Marion nodded.

Bridgette furrowed her brow. “When
was the last time ye had yer flux?”

Marion felt a blush rise to her
cheeks, but she cast her mind back and then gasped. “Well before I left
England.” She could not stop the grin that came to her face. “Bring me the cup
over by the bucket.”

“Why?” Bridgette asked with a
frown.

Marion strode past Bridgette and
picked up the cup before scurrying behind the dressing curtain. As she pulled
her clothes down to relieve her bladder, she said, “The midwife in the village
near my father’s home told me that if a woman is with child, her urine will be
clear.”

Bridgette snorted. “And ye believe
that? My mother told me a sure sign was morning nausea. Ye’re going to have a
bairn!”

A child.

Marion’s hand fluttered to her
belly as she pulled up her clothing and looked into the cup. She needed proper
light to see the color. She dashed to the window, and her breath caught. It
looked clear! She and Iain had made a child. Heaven above! Her fingers curled
against the skin of her belly as she thought of falling down the stairs and
that she could have lost the babe. She exhaled a shaky breath of relief that
she had not.

Would Iain be as happy as she was
at the news?

Her grin faltered a bit as
Bridgette came to peer over her shoulder. “That looks clear to me. Ye must tell
Iain at once!”

Marion nodded. “I will. I just wish…”
She let the words trail off. She was embarrassed to say that she wished he
loved her. What if he felt he must say the words now because she carried his
child, but he didn’t truly mean them?

“Ye wish what?”

“Nothing,” Marion said, forcing her
grin wide once more. “I’ll tell him tonight when we are alone. You must keep
this a secret until I’ve done so.”

“I vow I will.”

“Come.” Marion grabbed Bridgette’s
hand. “I’ve a feeling he’ll limit my leaving the castle even more once he knows
this, so let’s go. I want to do a great deal today.”

As Marion and Bridgette made their way to the
kitchen, Graham appeared and Marion had to suppress the desire to poke
Bridgette with her elbow when an irritated look crossed her face.

Graham faced Bridgette with such a
look of tenderness that Marion ached for him. “Bridgette, would ye care to go
riding with me and Lachlan?” he asked.

Her entire face lit up at the
mention of Lachlan. “Yes!” she gushed. “Let me go get my bow.”

Graham grinned. “I’ll come with ye
and we will go to the stables from there.”

Bridgette started to dash off and
then turned back to Marion. “If ye dunnae need me to stay?”

Marion waved a hand at her friend.
“Go.”

Bridgette nodded, and she and
Graham departed, leaving Marion alone in the hall. She stood for a moment
looking down at her flat stomach and grinning, anticipating the quickening.
When Marion entered the kitchen, the heat from the ovens and the smells of
freshly baking bread and venison assaulted her. Normally, she loved both, but
right now they mattered not. She pressed a hand to her stomach and smiled
secretly to herself.

Before she could linger on the
thought any longer, she caught sight of Elspeth, who paused her stirring in mid-motion.
A smile came to Elspeth’s face, and Marion released her held breath.

“Marion, it’s good to see ye
recovered!” she said and laid her spoon on the counter.

Several of the women stopped what
they were doing, including Kyla, who rushed over to Marion and embraced her.
The woman arched her dark eyebrows as she surveyed Marion. “I see I judged
correctly with the gown.”

“Oh, Kyla!” Marion exclaimed.
“Thank you! It’s lovely.”

Kyla nodded and patted Marion’s
hand. “We all ken what a rotten thing Fiona did to ye. I went directly home
after he ordered ye out of the great hall and started on a gown for ye. I
decided if it did nae fit quite right, it would do until we could make ye
more.”

“That was very kind of you,” Marion
said, running her hand down her skirts and thinking happily that she would need
looser-fitting gowns soon. She glanced around the room at the women who were
hovering but feigning interest. She felt as if she needed to say something
about what had happened with Fiona. “I want you all to know how sorry I am that
Fiona was sent away.”

She locked eyes with Elspeth, who
simply waved a hand as if to say,
Please don’t fret.
Marion took a deep
breath in the suddenly very quiet room and continued. “I asked Iain to think
about letting her stay, but he refused.”

Suddenly, comments were coming from
every direction, so fast she could hardly tell who was saying what.

“Fiona always acts wanton toward my
husband.”

“Mine as well!”

“She thought herself too good to
work in the kitchen.”

“She didn’t even cry at Catriona’s
funeral!”

Marion’s cheeks burned with
gratitude for what the ladies were trying to do to show her that they didn’t
care for Fiona overly much, but she also felt a twinge of pity for Elspeth.
“I’m sure Fiona has positive qualities, as well,” Marion said loudly, purposely
looking at Elspeth.

Elspeth shrugged. “I’ll nae speak unkindly
of my sister, but I’ll say she is nae a happy soul and what she did to ye was cruel.
I dunnae think what has happened will be harmful to her. She would never have
been happy here as anything less than the MacLeod’s wife. She thought it her
right as the eldest sister, and she always felt Catriona snatched the chance
away from her.”

“I thought ye were nae going to
speak poorly of yer sister,” came a sharp voice from behind Marion.

Marion saw several of the women’s
eyes grow big as they stared at whoever was standing there. She slowly turned
and met Alanna’s hostile dark eyes. The woman’s full lips were pressed into a
thin, angry line.

Elspeth brushed past Marion and
moved toward Alanna, who flinched away from her. Marion frowned at the odd
reaction.

“Alanna, why are ye here in the
kitchen?” Elspeth asked. “Ye should be home getting ready for the bairn.”

Alanna’s hand fluttered to her
belly. “I’d feel better about my bairn coming if yer sister were still here.”
Her eyes cut to Marion. “Fiona acted as clan midwife, though I see many of the
women here have forgotten that she helped deliver their bairns.”

A hush fell over the group, and
some women cast their gazes down. But one woman stared boldly at Alanna. “Ye
ken verra well that Fiona killed my bairn.”

Marion held perfectly still,
realizing there were many secrets that weaved through these women’s lives that
she did not know.

“Fiona did nae kill yer bairn,”
Alanna said in a hard voice as she raked a hand through her long, curly red
hair. “Yer boy came out with the cord wrapped around his neck and there was nae
that could be done! I’ve told ye this repeatedly, but ye refuse to listen.”

“Ye were nae there,” the woman
spat.

“I was nae, but Fiona came to me
distraught and told me what had happened.” Alanna turned toward Elspeth. “Tell
her, Elspeth! Ye were there! Ye ken. Dunnae let her bitterness destroy yer
sister’s life any longer.”

The woman shook her fist at Alanna.
“Elspeth has already spoken to me, and I dunnae need to hear more.”

Alanna’s shoulders sagged, and she
shook her head as her gaze moved from woman to woman and stopped on Marion. “I
never thought I’d see the day that MacLeods turned against MacLeods. Then
again, I never thought I’d see the day that Iain forsook his love of Catriona,
either. My poor cousin!”

With that pronouncement, Alanna
stomped out the way she had come, leaving them all standing in hushed silence.
Elspeth moved toward Marion, took her hand, and squeezed it. “She’s just
distraught. She’ll quiet once her anger lessens. Catriona and Fiona were her
dearest friends.”

“But not yours?” Marion asked,
surprised by Elspeth’s curious lack of emotion over her sister’s departure.

Elspeth shook her head and gave a
surreptitious glance around. Most of the women had moved away and returned to
their work. Kyla was the only one who still stood there with them, and when
Elspeth fairly stared the woman down, she wiped her hands on her aprons and
gave Marion a smile. “I should go stir the pottage.”

“As the youngest, they thought me
an annoyance more than anything.” Elspeth shrugged and smiled. “I tried to
belong, but the three of them did nae wish for me to.”

Marion cocked her head. “Do you
mean until Fiona thought Catriona stole Iain from her?”

“Oh, aye. I mean until then. Then
Alanna and Catriona grew closer, and Fiona decided she would finally be kind to
me.” Elspeth pressed her lips together, and Marion got the distinct feeling
that Fiona’s efforts had been too late for Elspeth.

“I am sorry, Elspeth. I didn’t have
many friends as a child, either.” The truth was, Angus had been her only friend
until Bridgette, but she didn’t feel comfortable enough to share that yet.