Chapter 13
As the castle came into view, Kate let out a sigh of relief, glad to be back in the safety of the house and away from the madness which had just occurred. Her mind had been put at ease, by the fact that the man she had shot at had survived, however, there was something else bothering her.
It rode behind her on a separate horse, and without looking back, she knew that Reuben was staring right at her. She shut her eyes for a moment, and felt his lips on hers. His tongue searching her mouth, bold and demanding, holding her as an aroused hostage. Teeth gently grazing her bottom lip.
Kate forced her eyes open as her mind began to lie to her, telling her that she had enjoyed the kiss. She tried to tell herself differently, to shut the idea down and out of her mind. But deep down, as the air brushed against her lips, she felt the Laird once again.
As the horses pulled up to the castle, Kate saw her sisters, along with the Lady of the McDonald estate standing up in the balcony.
They all had smiles on their faces, obviously excited for the return of both parties.
Kate wondered why they were so happy for a moment, but watched as their faces went from smiles to shock as they noticed her ripped clothes, and Reuben’s bloody arm.
Kate stopped her horse just in front of the stable, jumping off as a servant took the beast away.
Reuben did the same, turning to Kate just as Hudson ran up to him. “Kate, m…”
But she was in no mood to listen. Kate felt incredibly stupid.
She had kissed the very same man she had accused of killing her parents.
There was no excuse for such a thing, other than her own lack of self-control.
She rushed up the stairs, with Hudson speaking to Reuben behind her.
As she got into the main chambers, Lily and Freya ran up to her, with Willow and Grear walking quickly behind them.
“Kate! Oh dear. Kate, are ye alright?” Lily asked as she reached her sister, grabbing her arms and looking down her body.
“I’m fine, Lily, I’m fine.” Kate turned to look at Grear, assuring her with a nod that she was truly fine.
“What about my son, how is he?” Grear asked, starting to walk past Kate as Reuben ad Hudson walked in.
“I’m fine, Maither, just a little wounded, but I’ll live,” Reuben replied with a curt smile, before turning to Kate.
She quickly turned her head away, not wanting to make eye contact. Seeing him would remind her, and she was not ready to deal with the emotions, or the way her body would react.
Damn my body for reacting! she thought to herself.
“Well is anybody goin’ to tell us what happened?” Willow asked, looking from Kate to Reuben as both tried and failed to get the other’s gaze.
“We were attacked,” Reuben fired off first, seeing that Kate was not going to respond. Kate nodded in correlation, and Reuben continued. “I believe it was a mercenary. He fired at us from the trees, missing us, but just barely. I was unarmed and unable to do anything.”
“So how did ye escape?” Willow asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yer sister here saved our lives. Apparently. She is a great shot with the bow. Landed a great blow on the mercenary, but the man escaped. I’m certain he won’t be taking on any jobs for a while. Not after this. I owe my life to yer sister.”
“It was nothin’, I just fired at what I saw.”
Grear nodded, “And ye both came home afterwards?”
“Aye, we had to. I was going to give chase, but I couldnae leave Kate all on her own out there. So, we turned back and headed home. Her safety was the most important thing. That’s why ye sent me there, wasnae?”
Grear smiled, looking from Kate to Reuben.
Kate realized that the only reason Reuben had come there in the first place was because Grear had sent him there to come help her.
But she had not asked for him. She quickly pondered on the Lady’s reason for sending her son out to meet her.
She wondered if Grear somehow knew about the attack beforehand.
“Alright, enough standing around. Reuben, head to the infirmary, and we will have Hilda come look at yer wounds.” Grear turned to Kate. “Sure ye daenae need any help, Kate?”
“Certain of it,” Kate replied. She realized her voice had come off a little harsher than she had expected, and she bowed her head. “I would like to be excused now.”
Kate quickly walked off, leaving them behind as she hurried to their room.
She quickly changed out of her clothes and prepared a bath, washing the sweat and fear off her body.
As she showered, she turned away the idea that the Lady Grear had something to do with the attack.
She would never put them, or her son, in harm’s way.
But it did not give her the answers she was looking for.
Once she was done, she stepped out into the room to see her three sisters waiting.
Each of them with a different look on their faces.
Freya looked concerned, Willow looked excited, as she wanted to hear the story of how Kate had taken out a mercenary on her own.
Lily, on the other hand, looked as though she was upset with Kate.
But with all of the requests she knew that the girls would have, Kate was only interested in making a single statement. She cleared her throat, “We leave by the morrow. Pack yer bags.”
“What?” Willow asked, shocked.
“Yer bags, clothes. Pack light, I daenae want anythin’ that will slow us down. Quickly now!” Kate said again, working on her own small bag.
Freya walked up to Kate, grabbing her hand and stopping her. “Kate, what is it?”
Kate pulled her arm away and glared at the girls questioningly. “Did ye nae hear what I said? We are leaving!”
“I’m nae going with ye,” said Lily.
“Ye better not make me mad, Lily, this is nae the time. We got attacked, we aren’t safe here.”
“Nae, we are. It’s not the attack that scared ye like this. What is it, Kate?” Freya asked, touching her gingerly.
Kate looked away, biting her lips. They would not understand, and she had an obligation to them.
She had to make the tough choices for them.
It was not a path she wanted to take, but she had no choice.
They had to leave. “If by morning, ye daenae have yer bags packed, I’ll leave without ye.
If ye bairns cannae see that I’m tryin’ to help ye, then there’s nothin’ I can do to change that. ”
“Kate,” Willow called out, but Kate ignored her, rushing out the door.
The three girls stood, watching the door which Kate had just walked out of in disbelief. Kate had just said she would leave them behind, breaking their hearts. Lily turned around, with tears on her face. She seemed to be the most hurt of the sisters.
“She promised that we would always be together, and now she wants to leave us?” Lily asked, looking to Freya and Willow.
Freya walked over to her, holding her sister in an embrace. “No, Lily. Kate is just a little stressed.”
“But if we leave her like this, there is going to be trouble and ye know it Freya,” said Willow. “If we daenae find a way to keep her back here, she’s going to leave tomorrow, and there’ll be nothin’ we can do to stop her.”
Freya nodded. Kate was as stubborn as Max had always said. She never listened, especially when she had made up her mind about something. Now, she wanted to leave, and it would take a miracle to get her to change her mind. Freya let out a sigh, looking out to the evening skies out the window.
“What do ye think happened out there?” Lily asked. “I thought our plan would go well.”
“Aye, I thought Reuben and Kate would see they weren’t so different.”
“We need to know what happened out there,” said Lily. “I’m going to ask Reuben.”
“Is he going to answer ye?” Freya asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Aye, he better,” Lily replied and rushed out of the room.
Willow and Freya followed behind her as they hurried through the corridors to the infirmary where Hilda bandaged his wounds.
Willow and Freya peered from behind the door, while Lily boldly walked in boldly, staring right at Reuben.
He looked up with a smile, catching a glimpse of Freya and Willow behind the door.
“Aye, ladies.” Reuben began, seeing the look on Lily’s face, he nodded. “Lily, how are ye doing?”
“I came by to ask ye the same,” Lily replied, looking at his arm.
“Was a deep graze, but I got it all cleaned up, and it should start healing soon. Would leave a wee little scar, but that should be about it,” said Hilda, packing up the items she used to treat him.
“Thank ye, Hilda,” Reuben replied. “Kate scraped her knee, might want to check on her.”
“Aye, my Laird,” Hilda replied, walking out of the room.
“So, what happened when ye were out there?” Lily asked.
Reuben raised an eyebrow, looking at the bandage wrapped around his arm. “It’s as I said, we were attacked and…”
“Nae, before ye were attacked. When ye met my sister.”
Reuben put a hand to his chin, processing the thought.
The memory of the kiss came back, and a smile tugged at his lips for a moment.
He shook his head and turned to Lily, “I saw her out in the woods, she was shooting the arrow. Apparently, she didnae need any help for anything, and yet my maither had said that she did.”
Lily shook her head, “Then what happened?”
Reuben raised an eyebrow, “Did she say something?”
“Nae, she’s upset,” Lily replied, getting closer to him and folding her arms across her chest.
“At me?” Reuben asked, running a hand through his hair. It hurt, as it was the same arm which Hilda had just wound up.
“Well, that’s what I’m trying to find out, but ye keep ignoring the questions, and asking me even more questions. So what happened after then?”
“Well, we got into a bit of a disagreement…” Reuben began, recalling how close their faces were at that moment.
He smiled as it told him what he had been hoping.
She wanted him, just as much as he wanted her.
But she was just too stubborn to admit it.
She could not make that peace with herself.
The feeling of her nose touching his own, and the softness of her lips.
Reuben bit his lip, and suddenly realized that Lily was still waiting for an answer.
“Oh, and then we talked it through, and everything was fine. Right until we were attacked.”
“Alright, thank ye,” Lady Grear replied from the balcony beside the room. She walked in with a knowing smile on her face, winking at Lily.
“I didnae know ye were there,” said Reuben, a little startled.
“Aye, I was just making sure ye were okay. Since ye are, I would suggest ye get to bed, rest now, take an early night. For ye wound to heal, ye body needs rest. I’ll have someone send down some food for ye to eat.”
“I think I can manage,” Reuben began to object, but he saw the look on his mother’s face, and he agreed, walking away. He walked by Freya and Willow who acted as though they were just arriving at the room, and had not been standing there the entire time.
They waited until he had walked away, and they heard the sound of the door to his chambers shut before they walked in, seeing Grear and Lily in the infirmary.
The woman walked back and forth deep in thought as she tried to make sense of things as well.
She had watched everything, overheard the argument which Kate had with her sisters, and had seen her son’s response to Lily’s questions.
“Our plan didnae work?” Freya asked Grear, with hope in her voice.
“Nae, I think it did. My son, he was distracted while answering yer questions, and he had a good look on his face. I’m sure something positive happened while they were away. It has to be what the Laird recalls. He kept out some detail from what he said to ye, I’m sure of it.”
Freya and her sisters smiled; Willow even let out a low whoop. But then she paused, “So why is Kate so upset?”
“I daenae know, Willow, and I wish I did.”
An idea went through Lily’s head, and she turned to Lady Grear, making eye contact with her. “Does the McDonald family have anything to do with the death of our parents?”
“Lily!” Freya scolded, trying to shut her down immediately, but Grear held up a hand, stopping her.
“I think she has a right to know. Ye all do. Yer parents were killed during the raid, this was fourteen years ago. I heard about it, and I wasnae here, I was out in the battlefield with my son and his faither. He was just a little boy, but he was learning the ropes.”
Intrigued, Freya stopped herself from holding back her tongue. “What battle?”
“We were away fighting off the Jacobites at the time. My son had nothing to do with the death of yer parents. Neither did my husband, nor myself. There were no connections, whatsoever. I give ye my word, and I promise ye that wherever ye got the idea that we had a hand in their death, they are liars, and only hope to create a rift between us.”
The girls nodded. They would believe her, they had to. Grear was not the kind of woman to lie, but Kate had grown up believing this her entire life, and changing the belief would take a lot more work. Freya sat on the chair which Reuben had left, turning to the night sky outside.
“Kate still wants us to leave by the morning. We have to do something if we are going to go ahead with our plan.”
“We need more time,” said Grear.
“But we just have till morning, it would take magic to pull off something like that.” Willow added.
“Not magic,” Lily sat up quickly, a grin spreading across her face as a plan came to mind. “Not magic at all.”