Chapter Nineteen #2
‘You may go now. I will send Lady MacLerie to you in the yard,’ he repeated. He needed to get them out of the hall and discover what behind-his-back arrangements were going on with the damned MacKenzies. Although Rurik looked ready to take his head, Duncan nodded and stood.
‘May we return later this day and speak again, Laird Matheson?’ he asked, his tone respectful and even, not meant to inflame, but to engender reasonableness.
‘Laird?’
Rob turned when Symon used the title, for he never had before, not in private and not in public. ‘We will speak in private, Symon.’ He gave a slight shake to his head to tell Symon this was not the time.
‘Until later, then,’ Duncan said as they turned to leave.
Rob watched until they left, escorted out by Dougal, and then he climbed the stairs to seek out Jocelyn in his chambers.
When he arrived, he walked quietly down the hall, signalling to Tomas who stood at the door not to announce his presence.
Standing silently beyond their sight, he listened as mother and daughter spoke within.
‘I told you, Mother. I am well.’
‘Those bruises say otherwise, Lilidh,’ Jocelyn chided.
‘Would you have expected me to give up without a fight? They killed my guards, almost killed my maid.’
‘Isla?’ Jocelyn asked.
‘Is recovering downstairs, Lady MacLerie,’ he said, walking in then.
They sat side by side on a long bench before one of the windows. Mother and daughter, holding hands, and leaning on each other as they talked. What had Lilidh told her about him? About them? Her gaze caught his as he walked towards them and it was unreadable. Did Jocelyn know?
‘Rob, I beg your pardon for slapping you,’ Jocelyn said, standing and letting go of Lilidh’s hand. ‘I beg you not to hold Lilidh accountable for my—’
‘Bad behaviour?’ he asked.
‘She hit you?’ Lilidh asked, as she stepped over closer and looked at his face.
‘Like daughter, like mother,’ he said
‘I have never struck you,’ Lilidh argued.
‘You tried, when you were brought here.’ Rob realised that Jocelyn was watching their actions closely—too closely. Did they wear their intimacy like a garment so that others could see it?
‘Your men wait for you in the yard, Lady MacLerie.’ Rob turned and motioned to the door. ‘Tomas will escort you down to them.’
Though she looked as if she wanted to fight with him, Jocelyn hugged and kissed Lilidh farewell and left with Tomas. When they’d gone, he closed the door, not certain of his welcome in his own chambers.
She’d been crying, that much he could see. But had it done her any good to see her mother for such a brief time?
‘I am surprised your father allowed her to journey here,’ he said. Though...
‘I doubt that my mother gave him a choice in the matter. I could not believe my eyes when Tomas opened the door and she stood there. I expected you to return, but never did I think I would see her.’
‘And?’ Rob asked.
‘I have not seen her since I married Iain, Rob.’
Jocelyn had no idea of the state of Lilidh’s marriage. Glancing past her, he realised the bed was yet unmade. Had Jocelyn noticed and understood?
‘She asked. I told her the truth—that I’ve been sharing your bed.’
Lilidh was looking at the bed, too. Sadness tinged her words, yet her eyes did not show it. Rob slid his fingers around hers, entwining them together and kissing her hand.
‘Regrets now?’ he asked. It would not surprise him if she was having them, especially now since her mother knew.
Their time-out-of-time was over now. Duty and family called both of them. The nights of acting as if they were meant to be together was done. The acts committed in this bed would now become memories and be the only part of her left to him when she departed here.
‘Nay, no regrets, Rob.’
But she let his hand drop and then went to straighten the bedcovers without saying more. He watched her perform such a menial, everyday task and the longing nearly took him down as the bolt had.
‘I will be meeting with your cousins later. Do you have any greetings to send them? Or have you already told your mother?’
‘No. You do what you must and they will do that as well,’ she said softly.
‘Lilidh—’ He stopped because he just did not know what he could say.
He could not promise to keep her—his clan depended on giving her back in order to survive. He could not offer her his love—for she and he would both be expected to marry elsewhere. He could not tell her the truth—for it would tear her world and her heart apart.
‘Just go and do what you must, Rob.’
He turned to go, but he did want to hear her opinion on one matter before he did.
‘Why do you think your father did not come to get you, Lilidh? Why is he not here, beating down my doors to get to you?’
She shook her head and looked over at him.
‘Because a daughter is not a reason to go to war. Because one person in a battle is expendable,’ she offered.
The haunted expression was back in her eyes when she faced him.
‘I know you expected him to answer your challenge, but it’s truly better if only Duncan and Rurik are here instead. ’
Thinking back on the way Connor handled matters during Rob’s time at Lairig Dubh made him realise a pattern he’d not seen before or had forgotten since—Connor went only after other measures failed to resolve a conflict. When Connor went....
‘Because if the Beast comes, you will die,’ she finished. ‘You will all die.’
Then they were in deeper trouble than he thought they could be!
He’d demanded that Connor face him over this, thinking it would scare off the Mathesons from this foolhardy plan to ransom her, to smack at her father’s nose.
Now he might have brought the destruction to them that he had wanted to avoid.
No matter his personal need to confront Connor over sins of the past and to discover the reason for his actions, bringing him here to Keppoch and facing him publicly was too dangerous to the rest of his kith and kin.
The only thing he must accept was that any attempt to keep Lilidh, to claim her as his heart and soul wanted him to do, would be as unacceptable to Connor now as it was four years ago.
There would be one way to know if Connor wished the past to remain buried—if he gave gold in return for Lilidh. If he took that easier path to resolution, it was a way to avoid everything else.
And if Connor offered him gold?
The only thing Rob could do was to take it and send her back. To admit that this time they’d shared was the extraordinary time it had been and to let her move on in her life, hopefully healed of some of the damage he’d done before.
Rob left the chambers then, heading for the elders and Symon. He must convince them to release Lilidh as soon as possible. His reckoning with Connor would have to wait for another time.
* * *
Tyra watched the rest of this first meeting from a hidden corner just out of view of the rest. When Symon exploded with his accusation that the MacLerie was marginalising both the Mathesons and their demands, she’d nearly lost control and laughed aloud.
Then the look on Rob’s face when Symon revealed that a deal had been struck with the MacKenzies without his knowledge was more satisfying than she had ever imagined it would be.
It had been favours and gold well spent to set that part up.
Luckily she’d found Brother Donal to be more a man of worldly concerns than godly ones and the deal to forge certain documents had been struck.
His return to the abbey at Angus’s untimely death had ensured that only his confessor, and that under the holy seal, would ever hear any claims he made.
And the gold spent encouraging one or two of the
elders to continue their enthusiastic support of Symon and his opinions was also done well. None of them would open their mouths or risk exposure as traitors and being named outlaw.
Symon had come to her before this meeting and told her that Rob suspected him of ordering the attack. She hoped she’d kept a concerned expression in her eyes as her brother demonstrated to her once again what kind of fool he was!
So, she’d stoked his anger at being left out of decisions and at Rob’s suspicions until Symon was ready to explode. Then she’d watched as he had—revealing more to the MacLeries than Rob knew.
Leaning back against the wall, she waited for the
MacLeries to leave the keep before seeking her chambers. Though Rob had dismissed her, Symon would come and apprise her of anything said or ordered. And, in turn, she would push and prod Symon to make certain the hostilities between him and Rob continued.
Tyra made her way back to her chambers and found the small casket in which she kept trinkets and keepsakes hidden. The letter lay on top and she opened the parchment and read it once more. Gavin swore his undying love for her and urged her to remain in her faith of him.
Certainly she knew of his proclivity to sleep with the servants—her spy there revealed that to her—but that did not lessen their love. It was only until she took her place as his wife and then she would see to that much as she had been seeing to things here.