Chapter 21 #12
Ethan took a chair across from her and leaned back, stretching out his long legs and putting his feet up on a stool.
In the past few weeks he had been a great comfort to her, caring for her as a brother would.
Now she understood; he did it out of love for his own brother.
“It seems that Ceann’s mother, Aisleen, who raised him, couldn’t have a child of her own.
Her husband Artair loved her more than anything, and hated to see her pine away for a bairn to hold.
Though I don’t know all of the particulars, eventually Iona helped them.
Artair… lay with her and she gave them a child to love.
In return, she was always welcome to live on their lands and watch that child grow into a man.
She would never want for food or shelter, or freedom. ”
Ella could not imagine the sacrifice it would have taken for Iona to hand over her child for another couple to raise. She doubted very much she could have done the same. “And what of you, Ethan?”
“Ah, well, a year or so later, Iona married, and I came along. My da died in battle when I was quite young, so I never really knew him. But Ceann’s father Artair was as much a father to me as any could be.
He fostered me at the castle, when I was old enough, and trained me alongside Ceann.
” Ethan paused, thoughtful, then said slowly, “He would have known, of course, that we were brothers. He would have wanted us to grow up together. He was a good man.” He smiled to himself, apparently lost in some distant memory from his childhood.
Ella was silent for a moment, her head whirling with all of these unforeseen revelations.
Ceann had a mother he didn’t know about, and a half brother, and the curse he had feared for most of his life had apparently been broken.
By me. And now he would be a father. She felt the happiness for him welling up in her before she remembered she was still mad at him, and still terribly hurt.
Aye, she would forgive him, eventually, should he come to his senses and ask it of her.
She knew his words and actions that night in the stable were born of his own grief and mistrust of a world he felt had wronged him, but that didn’t erase her own pain.
Still, she loved him too much not to forgive him.
Her heart skipped a beat. I love him. I love him with every bone in my body.
Ethan leaned forward and took her hand. “My brother loves you, you know”, he said as if he had read her thoughts.”
Ella bit her lip. “Well, he lusts for me anyway, as we all know”.
“No, he loves you. I’ve seen him lusting many a time, and then I’ve seen the way he looks at you.
Even as he tries to hide it, it’s not the same.
He loves you. If he has any fault, it’s that he feels too much, falls too hard.
He has always had more passion that most. Maybe too much, sometimes.
I think he feels things more deeply than any of us can guess. ”
“I know he does, I’ve seen it. I only hope he decides it’s worth the risk to his heart, to be with me… and our child.” God it felt so strange to say that. Our child.
Ethan chuckled. “Ah, Ella, he never had any choice in the matter. The man was doomed from the beginning!”
Ella reached over and cuffed him playfully on the arm. “What do you mean doomed, Ethan MacKenzie? Perhaps I’m the one who is doomed, if I’m to have a child who takes after its father!”
“Aye, you may well be. You know, I have a bit of the Sight myself, from my mother’s side”.
Ethan reached over and placed his hand low on her stomach, closing his eyes.
Startled, Ella watched as a slow smile spread across his face.
“Tis a son, strong and braw, the next great laird of Tulloch. His father will be very proud.” He grinned at her, his eyes shining.
“And his uncle will spoil him beyond all belief!”
Chapter 18
Ceann returned for the fourth time in a week to Castle Tulloch, hoping that there had been some word.
There hadn’t. He had been to every village and keep within a two day’s ride, and no one had seen Ella, no one had heard of her, she had not stayed at any inn…
it was as if she had just disappeared. She was alive; she had to be alive.
Any other possibility was unthinkable. With no one having so much as seen her, he was at a loss as to which direction to go.
He knew only one thing: he would spend the rest of his days searching for her if needs be.
And if he was lucky enough to find her again, he would stop at nothing to keep her by his side.
Nothing. In these weeks of being without her, of trying desperately to find her again, one thing had become clear to him, crystallizing in his mind with more clarity than anything he’d ever known before.
Ella belonged to him and him alone, and he loved her…
more than it should even be possible to love another human being.
It was the overwhelming strength of that love that made him into such a fool.
He had been so afraid to let himself feel it, afraid of what would happen if he did, and then lost it.
And so he had sent her away, and his own child with her. Aye, there was no bigger fool than he.
He was in the hall, forcing himself to eat some bread and meat only so that he would have the strength to keep going, when Ethan strolled in.
Ceann suddenly realized he hadn’t seen Ethan for some time.
He hadn’t been here any of the times he’d come back to the castle in the last week.
Strange… shouldn’t Ethan have been by his side, helping him search for Ella?
His friend scanned the hall, and seeing him there at the table, smiled and headed over.
His smile became a look of concern as he took in Ceann’s appearance.
“Ceann? You look like hell. What in God’s name have you been doing to yourself? ”
He scowled. “Just leave me alone Ethan. I’m not fit for company.”
Ethan eyed him, an amused smile playing on his lips. “You’re not fit for much of anything, as far as I can tell, but I’m not going anywhere just yet.” He pulled up a chair opposite Ceann and sat down. “Now, tell me what’s happened. I’ve only just come back.”
Ceann put his face into his hands and growled, but he eventually answered. “She’s gone. I sent her away, and now I can’t find her.” He tried, but he couldn’t quite keep the anguish from his voice.
“You sent Ella away? Och, and here I thought you two were getting along so well, what with you not being able to keep your hands off her, and she with your babe in her belly.”
Shocked by his blithe remark, Ceann looked up at Ethan, his mouth falling open. Ethan gazed innocently at him.
Ceann shot up, his chair crashing to the floor behind him. “You know where she is!” He couldn’t breathe.
“Aye, I do”. Ethan sighed dramatically. “I can’t believe you’re to be a father Ceann! I suppose our days as two carefree bachelors are over now.”
“Tell me!” Ceann roared.
Ethan’s expression turned serious. “I will, but first sit down; there are some things you should know.”
“Ethan!” Ceann growled, “Tell me where Ella is!”
Ethan gave an exasperated sigh. “I am not telling you until you hear me out, so you may as well sit down.”
Ceann looked as if he might pummel him, but he drew a shaky breath and righted the chair. “She is safe?”
“Safe and well, as is the babe. Now sit.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Ceann lowered himself into the chair. He had nearly lost hope. She was safe. His child was safe. “Talk. Fast.”
“You’ve heard of the Auld Ways, aye?”
Ceann gaped at him. “Ethan, this is not the time for stories…”
Ethan held his gaze. “It’s not a story, Ceann. Listen.”
Ceann’s already addled mind worked to process what Ethan was telling him.
Had his friend gone mad? He knew of the Auld Ways, of course.
Iona had gone on about them to Ceann and Ethan when they were boys.
He had spent much of his youth playing in and around her cottage with Ethan.
She had believed in wondrous and mysterious things; spells and magic, the Sight and prophecy.
She had held them both rapt with her stories about the ancient kingdoms of Scotland, and the lives of their people.
He hadn’t seen her in several months though…
“Do you remember Iona?” Ethan asked.
Ceann frowned at him. Could Ethan read minds, now? “Of course I do, she was like a second mother to me when we were lads. Why are you asking me this now?”
“Because she is my mother, Ceann. You never knew, did you? She thought to keep it a secret, to keep me safe.”
Ceann stared at him for a long moment. “Iona is your mother?”
“Aye.”
Ethan gazed consideringly at the shock on his friend’s face. Perhaps he should save the rest for later; the whole truth may be too much for one man to handle all at once. “About Ella…”
“Tell me where she is Ethan!”
“Well… the lass didn’t seem in much of a hurry to see you again, last I spoke to her.”
No, after the way he had treated her, he would be damn lucky if she would even look at him. He thought of the horror in her eyes, the blood smeared on her delicate chin from his punishing kiss. He groaned in agony. He would never forget what he had done to her, nor would he ever forgive himself.
“Anyway, you should know, it seems there is more to this whole curse thing. It’s not that you couldn’t get any woman with child, just that there was only one, a true mate, if you like.
All you had to do was find her, or in this case, I suppose she found you, for the curse to be broken.
” He paused. “This information was found, by the by, in the hands of Lord Ross. He had the document, a copy, I think. I took the liberty of sending Seamus to go through his personal belongings. It was hidden, but the servants knew all about it.”