Chapter 22 #2
Jamie laughed, unable to help himself. This was wonderful. So the lad had not suffered for his help, and the favorite daughter no doubt got off lightly. He would have liked at least one Fergusson to suffer for his humiliation, just so long as it was not the boy.
“I dinna see any humor in it, Jamie,” Alasdair said testily. “I’ve regretted breaking the betrothal a hundred times since, for I did want that girl more than I’ve ever wanted any other.”
“Och, well, there are indeed lasses who can get into a man’s blood, and no mistake,” Jamie concurred, sobering.
“But none so beautiful as she,” Alasdair said wistfully.
“Beautiful, is she?” Jamie smiled. Alasdair had assumed he knew what the lass looked like. “You think so?”
“You jest, Jamie.” The older man gasped. “Why, there’s none with red hair so dark, blue eyes so crystal clear, or skin so white and flawless. They dinna call her the jewel of Tower Esk without good reason.”
Jamie sat up, his stomach wound into a knot. The description mirrored the image that was so constantly in his mind. There could not be two girls so alike, could there? It was just too unlikely, too…
“Her name is just as lovely, I suppose?” Jamie prompted.
Alasdair’s eyes snapped. “Why do you toy with me, Jamie? Can you no’ see I’m suffering over the loss of her?”
“Of course. Forgive me, Alasdair. But I did warn you I was no’ in the best of moods. I havena been since first seeing Sheena. Mayhap I was taken with her, too.”
Jamie waited breathlessly. Would Alasdair say, “Sheena’s not the name of the lass I’m talking about”? Or was he right?
Alasdair grinned, confirming everything.
“Och, well, your dilemma is worse than mine. To have tender feelings for your enemy’s daughter!
Even if the old man would be giving her to you to end the feud, she’d no’ like that one bit.
Willful she is, and wants to choose her own mate.
I would go to Aberdeen and try to win her for myself again if I thought she’d have me.
But the truth is, she was never keen on our match.
’Twas her father’s wish, and of course you know why he chose me. ”
Jamie sat back and closed his eyes. He was no longer listening.
A flood of memories rushed through his mind one after the other.
The coincidences. The similarities. Sheena being at the glen on Fergusson land the first time he saw her.
Niall’s hair like hers, the father’s eyes like hers.
The boy’s curiosity over what Jamie would have done with the girl at the glen, his anger over the answer.
Sheena’s accusations against the MacKinnions, her fear and distrust of him, her desperation to get away.
And, finally, there being no “Erminia MacEwen” in Aberdeen.
He’d stake his life there was an Erminia Fergusson.
Jamie shook his head. He might have put it together at any time, but he hadn’t. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to, had avoided making connections, not wanting Sheena to be a Fergusson. Now he realized it didn’t matter at all. His feelings about her, his wanting her, were not going to change.
“Did you hear me, Jamie?”
“What?” Jamie focused on Alasdair.
“I said old Dugald would probably be agreeable to your suit, if you were so inclined.”
“He’s already refused to give her to me,” Jamie said absently.
“You asked for her then?”
“’Twas the condition for my release from his prison that I marry one of his daughters,” Jamie explained. “But Sheena wasna offered.”
Alasdair laughed wryly. “The others dinna compare to her.”
“So I suspected at the time.”
“Och, well, you were saved from that—and by Sheena herself. I always wondered why she helped you.”
Jamie thought quickly. He wasn’t going to betray Niall now.
“She helped me because she feared me. She thought her father meant to give her to me.”
“Yet you knew otherwise.”
“Aye. I used any means to get out of there, and I’m no’ sorry. Better to cultivate a small lie than to have a poor lass forced on me as a bride. You know my temper, Alasdair.”
“That may be, Jamie, but ’twas Sheena who ended the loser, banished for helping the enemy.”
Jamie sat up. “Banished?”
“I was surprised myself, but the old man was hurt by her betrayal, her being his favorite and all.”
“So that is why she was in Aberdeen,” Jamie mused to himself.
“She still is in Aberdeen, as far as I know.”
Jamie relaxed. It was only a harsh-sounding word, “banished.” And if Sheena had not been sent to Aberdeen, Jamie would never have seen her again after that time in the glen.
He thought for a while. Sheena must have willingly accepted the guilt in order to protect Niall, while Niall had let Jamie go so as to protect her.
The lad wouldn’t have let her take the blame unless she’d insisted.
How ironic! In trying to keep her from Jamie’s clutches, the brother and sister had in fact led her straight to him.
“I wouldna worry over it, Alasdair,” Jamie said lightly. “The fact is, Sheena is old Dugald’s favorite, and he’ll forgive her in time.”
“I suppose. But I wonder if I’ll ever forgive myself for the burst of temper that made me lose her.”
“Look at it this way, Alasdair. You’re probably no’ alone in wanting her. Many men have and many more will, but only one can win her.”
“The one who does will be a lucky man, and no mistake.” Alasdair sighed.
“That he will.” Jamie grinned, feeling quite lucky himself at the moment. “And now I must be leaving you, though I do indeed thank you for coming. You’re welcome to stay, of course. I should be returning in a few days.”
“And where are you off to in this weather?” Alasdair asked, surprised.
Jamie laughed, unable to contain his bubbling mood any longer. “To Aberdeen, to win a bonny lass.”
“Sheena?” Alasdair was growing bewildered.
“Aye.”
“But she’s your enemy, Jamie. At least she sees it that way.”
“Exactly. My enemy—and an easy prey to capture.”
Jamie was smiling as he left the hall, but he didn’t fool himself, not really.
It would not be easy to break through a lifetime of animosity.
But he would win her heart. He knew he would.
And where Sheena had had the advantage of knowing just who he was, now he had that same advantage.
How to use his knowledge was another matter.