Laird of the Black Isle by Paula Quinn

Author:Paula Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

The rest of the morning went the same way, with stolen, intimate glances shared over the breakfast table, which later in the morning became the reading table. He hadn’t stayed too long but disappeared somewhere outside to hammer something. Ruth came by with a bag of apples and a small sack of mushrooms and settled down to sew in a chair left absent by the laird.

William fidgeted during the first half of the reading lesson but when Lachlan, returning from whatever he’d been doing for the last hour, saw him, he went to stand by his chair. “This is important, lad. ’Twill open doors fer ye. Pay attention to yer lesson and when ’tis over ye can come help me.”

Mailie thanked him with yet another smile. She was beginning to feel like a grinning fool.

He kept his promise when the lesson was over and invited William to help him. Of course, Lily insisted on going as well.

Mailie swooshed them away and stayed behind to clean up. She didn’t mind. It would give her a chance to speak with Ruth about where to pick the best heather.

“He likes ye, lass,” the older woman said, setting down her sewing in her lap. “I want so much to rejoice. He’s been so empty and now I see life in him again. But d’ye ferget who ye are? The daughter of a MacGregor.”

“Nae,” Mailie said, sitting back down next to her. “I dinna ferget. I remember it every moment. But I canna go home alone. I must stay here—with him, forced to realize that he is no’ what I first believed. He is patient and even-tempered, thoughtful and charitable.”

“His heart,” Ruth argued softly, “is vulnerable because of this notion that Annabel is still alive. Have ye considered what he’ll be like when he discovers, fer the second time, that his daughter is gone?”

“I’ve thought it all over, Ruth. I think of it all day and all night, but my heart speaks to me louder than my head. Still, this dilemma plagues me. If there was a way to get a letter to my faither—”

Ruth shook her head. “Count me oot of that, Mailie. He’d never fergive me fer helpin’ to bring the MacGregors here.”

“But ’twould give me a chance to—”

“I’m sorry,” Ruth said, stopping her. “No one in the village will go against him. He wants to think they dinna know who leaves the meat, the furniture. I let him believe it because ’tis what he wants, but they love him. Most of them dinna even know him. They only know what they’ve heard. But he has their loyalty. I fear if yer kin come here, they will take up arms fer him.”

Mailie paled at the thought. “What can I do?”

Ruth wiped her eyes. “I dinna know, lass, but the longer ye stay here with him, the worse ’tis goin’ to be fer him later. And I dinna mean what will happen when yer kin get here.”

Mailie chewed her lip and felt like weeping at the tragedy of it all.

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