Tess and the Highlander (11 page)

“Aye. I will go with you to Benmore Castle. But
when…when the message arrives from my mother, will you take me to
her?”

“If you wish it.”

Colin took her hand in his, entwining their fingers.
He said nothing more, but Tess could see that he was struggling
hard to voice something deep within him.

“You’ve no need to be doubting what we saw, m’lord,”
the burly fisherman growled at Alexander Macpherson. “Unless St.
Adrian himself has taken to wearing a kilt and walking on the
rocks, I say there was a Highlander on that island. And we’ve ne’er
spied one of yours out there before.”

“Did he call out to you? Motion for you to come
ashore? Did he show
any
sign that he’d needed help?”

“Nay. Nothin’ of the kind. The lad just stood there,
a-watching the half-dozen fishing boats we had out. Then he just
turned around and disappeared onto the island.”

“And you didn’t go ashore after him?”

“What for? No reason to.” The man shrugged. “And we
had fishing to do. After a storm like that, the fishing is always
good. The rest of ‘em are still out there, m’lord. I only came
back, as I’d heard one of your men talking of it in the alehouse
last night. He said there was gold in it for whoever helped find
your brother. I’m thinking maybe I made a mistake coming here.”

“Nay. You made no mistake.”

The fisherman followed the Highlander out of his
cabin door and waited as Alexander shouted orders to his ship’s
mate.

“He didn’t look like he was in any trouble at all,”
the fisherman added when the ship’s master was done. “And ‘tis not
like the lad’s all alone there. Auld Garth and his wife have been
living on that island forever and a day. I cannot say they’re very
fond of company, but the two are sure to give a man a meal or two
and a dry place to sleep.”

“Very well,” Alexander drew a bag of gold from his
belt and tossed it to the man. “I’ll see to it that more of this
comes your way if that the man you saw was my brother.”

“Aye, m’lord. Wishing ye the best, I am.” With a
nimbleness that defied his burly physique, the fisherman scrambled
over the side and into his currach.

It was too much to hope, the Highlander thought as
he turned his thoughts from the man rowing toward the shore. But
they had searched north and south along this coast for Colin and
found nothing. With each passing hour, Alexander’s hopes of finding
his brother alive had lessened.

And then the fisherman had rowed his skin-covered
boat into the harbor.

Perhaps St. Adrian wasn’t finished with his
miracles, after all.

It would be difficult to leave Tess with her kin,
Colin realized as he moved quickly across the island.

There were other things that Colin remembered.
Things that he could not tell her. Hints and accusations, whispers
and rumors. Tales that might have been the absolute truth…or the
embittered yearning of a clan that had lost its laird. Indeed, the
Lindsay clan had seen no justice meted out to Sir Stephen’s
killers, whoever they were. Whatever Colin’s recollections, though,
he realized they were based on fragments of what a young lad had
heard years ago from traveling merchants and musicians who had
previously passed across the lands of clan Lindsay. None of it was
worth mentioning to Tess now. Of that he was certain.

Within an hour, Colin built a large fire on the
highest point on the island, and another one along the eastern
bluffs. He had no doubt that Alexander would arrive soon, even
without the aid of all these signs. But Colin had many questions
about how Tess would react when the exact moment arrived to leave
the island.

He frowned at the thought of how she’d sunk into a
deep melancholy once she had made up her mind to go. Colin could
understand her perfectly, though. This was the place where she had
spent most of her life. These ruined buildings were home. She could
be herself without worrying whether others would accept or reject
her.

Colin had given her the privacy that she had sought.
He’d come out to start the fires himself. But now, as the sky and
the sea gradually became calmer, he could only imagine how her
fears would be preying upon her.

He turned his steps back toward the building.

The outside, the stairs, even the large
living chamber had been transformed in his absence. Everything had
been cleaned and swept. Amazed, Colin looked at the shells sitting
in a neat pile by the door.

As he was looking at the changes, Tess
descended the stairs of the ladder. He saw the child’s clothing and
the cross and the brooch were the only things that she was carrying
down. She looked self-consciously at her dress when she saw him in
the room. He noticed that she had mended the holes. “I looked
through everything that might have resembled a dress that Charlotte
had put away up there, but there was nothing better than what I
already had on.”

“Tess, you look wonderful as you are.”

She shook her head. “I know I don’t remember much of
that other life that I left behind, but I can guess at the
importance of good manners and clothing and household skills—all
those things that people deem necessary in a young woman who wants
to make a good first impression. All of those things that I sadly
lack.” A blush had crept into her cheeks.

He immediately took her hands. “In what is
truly important in life, you are better prepared than most women
twice your age. And what you don’t know you learn in no time at
all. But none of that is important right now.” He lifted her chin
until she was looking into his eyes. “Just think of the thrill that
finding you are alive will bring to your mother and your other kin.
Think of that, Tess, and everything else will work out.”

The uncertainties in her dark eyes continued
to linger. “I…I don’t want to disappoint her, Colin.”

“You shan’t,” he said fervently. “You are
alive, Tess.
Alive
! No mother would wish for a greater
treasure.”

She looked searchingly into his eyes, and he
held her gaze for a long while. Then he smiled and glanced down at
the things in her hand.

“Now, do you mean to tell me that out of an
entire loft filled with baubles and keepsakes, that’s
all
you are taking with you?”

Tess smiled at the small bundle. “These are
the only things that are mine. The rest belong to this island.
Whoever is sent to take care of it after I go should inherit them.”
She walked away from him and cast a sweeping look around the room.
“There was one last thing that I was hoping to bring with me,
though.”

“If you want to bring Makyn and her wee
lambs, it should be no problem.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t want to
uproot them. They belong here, too. What I was hoping for…it
doesn’t really weigh much and doesn’t take much space. But…”

“Anything.” He would do anything to see that
smile dance in her eyes.

“Those.” She pointed to the pile of shells.
“’Tis not really for me, but more for you, as I know how you’ve
become accustomed to the sound of them crunching beneath your boots
and…”

He smiled. She was going to survive
this.

They both were.

The Isle of May was truly a place of
miracles.

‘Unparalleled’ was the only word Alexander could
think of to describe the thrill of relief that had coursed through
him at the sight of his brother Colin standing on the shore of the
rocky inlet. And the same word would have worked for his
astonishment at the bonny caretaker of St. Adrian’s shrine. But the
ship’s master had no way to describe his feelings upon learning
that she was Theresa Catherine Lindsay!

Alexander had a far better recollection than his
younger brother of the storm of rumors that had followed the attack
on the Lindsay clan eleven years earlier and the young heir who had
disappeared. He himself had been introduced to Sir Stephen Lindsay
not long before that tragedy. He had watched the man fight in a
tournament the king had held in the bowl-shaped rock amphitheater
just outside the walls of Stirling Castle the summer before. He had
heard stories from his own father, Alec Macpherson, about the
Highlander’s courage and his dedication to his king and his people.
And as a child, Alexander had even overheard bits of talk of how
beneficial it would be to both clans if someday Alexander were to
wed a daughter of Ravenie Castle’s laird. As it turned out, Lady
Evelyn Lindsay had indeed borne a daughter.

But life’s tragedies take no heed of men’s plans. In
one fateful night, the Lindsay laird had been killed and the bairn
lost. Lost until now.

And Alexander couldn’t stop staring at her. She was
no longer a bairn.

Tess, wrapped in a stout leather cloak, was standing
by the railing and listening intently to what one of the ship’s
mates was telling her about the sailing vessel that was at this
minute plowing through the rolling billows northward.

“Could you possibly see fit to give
me
your
attention for a moment?”

Alexander heard Colin’s low growl, but answered
without taking his eyes off the enchanting young woman.

“What is wrong, brother? Feeling ignored, are
you?”

“Blast it, Alexander. If you don’t look at me, I
swear I’ll throw you to the fish.”

The edge in Colin’s voice was not like him at all.
With a show of reluctance, the ship’s master drew his attention
from the lass and glanced casually at the fierce young lion beside
him. In looks and in size, he and Colin were very much the same.
But in worldliness and good sense, Alexander knew he had more than
a few years on his younger brother.

Still, though, there was something in Colin’s look
that caught Alexander’s attention. It was either his tumble into
the sea or his time on the island, but
something
had changed
Colin. Or perhaps
someone
, he realized.

“I thought you were going below to change into a
less ragged shirt.”

“I went. I changed. I came back. But still you stand
here looking like a beggar eyeing a free supper.”

“Am I, brother?”

“Aye. The drool on your chin gives you away.”

“You’re probably right.” Alexander gave a small
shrug. “But see for yourself. The sea is finally smooth. A fair
wind fills the sails. The course is set and all is well. I even
have the dubious good fortune of being able to return my wee
brother to Benmore Castle in one piece. But on top of all that, I
have the bonny face of a young woman to gaze on right here on the
deck of my ship. Why should I want to move?”

“To give her some rest from your lecherous looks!
Can’t you see the poor creature is nervous about all of this?”

“She looks quite well to m…”

“Never mind how she looks!” Colin snapped. “I’m
telling you that Tess is plenty nervous about people looking at
her…particularly pox-ridden, bow-legged old sea rovers like you.
And since stepping on board, she’s not had a minute’s rest from
your bloody staring.”

“I don’t know. She looks perfectly comfortable to
me.” Alexander smiled. “And I’ll have you know, I am not
pox-ridden. I’m as careful a man as a maid will find anywhere.”

“I’m
so
relieved to hear it…you bloody goat,”
Colin retorted.

Alexander slapped his younger brother on the back.
“You, on the other hand, appear totally shaken.” The ship’s master
lowered his voice. “Now tell me, you aren’t already smitten by this
lass, are you?”

“I’m telling you nothing. But I will say I was the
first person to find her there since the old caretakers’ deaths.
Tess considers me…well, a friend.”

“And I can certainly see that you have acted as a
trusted friend should.”

Colin was eyeing Alexander suspiciously, obviously
unsure of whether the older brother was teasing him or not. Despite
Colin’s roguish reputation with women, it was already clear to
Alexander that his brother’s relationship with Tess was far
different than any he’d been witness to before. There was a fierce
protectiveness toward this young woman that was immediately obvious
to everyone on board. Indeed, there had been no comments at all by
the men regarding the days—and nights—that the two had spent alone
on the Isle of May.

Tess’s soft laughter at something that the ship’s
mate had said reached the two brothers’ ears. Looking about him,
Alexander realized that most of his men’s attention was focused on
her. From Colin’s scowling face, it was obvious that he was seeing
the same thing.

“You cannot blame them. The lass really is quite
pleasing to look at,” he said casually, wondering how long it would
be before a brawl broke out. “And I’m thinking she doesn’t even
realize what a bonny creature she is…which make her all the more
special, to my thinking.”

As the ship dove into an extraordinarily deep trough
between a pair of large waves, a shudder could be felt in the ship.
Alexander watched as the ship’s mate steadied the young woman by
touching her elbow. The threat of murder on Colin’s face almost
made the older brother laugh, but he suppressed his mirth.

“Slow yourself down a wee bit,” the older brother
suggested placidly. “You’ve still a long road to travel before the
lass is safely settled with her clan or with her mother, as Lady
Evelyn chooses. You cannot allow yourself to get so riled over
something as simple as who’s looking at her, when there are far
graver matters still ahead.”

“Aye, and don’t I know it! Tess thinks that the only
challenge facing her is in getting ready to meet her mother. What
she doesn’t realize is that she should be more concerned with
warding off the attentions of all the men that’ll surely be
pursuing her. I mean, she is not even considering the fact that as
the heir to Ravenie Castle, she now has wealth to go with her
blasted looks! Why, that alone will be drawing the wolves to
her.”