The Accidental Highland Hero (8 page)

James blew out his breath and stalked into the chamber adjoining his. “The lady is near death.”

Niall snorted. “She has too much spirit to die on us.”

“We have no idea which clan she is from, let alone if her da would be willing for you to court her. Or what status she holds, even though she wore the finest of gowns.” James gave his mother a searing look.

“My da is dead,” the feverish woman said when James laid her in the bed.

“Died in the shipwreck?” James asked, his brows furrowed while his mother hastily covered the lass. He hovered over the bed, wanting to know now who the woman belonged to even more than he wished to know Catriona’s reasons for not coming to see him. After all, if the lass were from an enemy clan, it would put them in a bad way. “Who are you, lass?”

Tenderly touching the side of her head where the bruise spread across the raised area the size of a hen’s egg, she squinted and stared at the bed. “I…I cannot remember.”

James settled his fists on his hips. “You remembered you have no da!”

“I…I do not know why I remember that.”

He looked at his mother whose wrinkled brow showed concern. She patted the woman’s arm reassuringly. “Leave her be, James. I will speak with her without your badgering her.”

“I want to know by evening meal who she is.” He gave the lass one last look, as harsh as he could manage. He wished the truth from the lass’s lips, and if he put the fear of a battle-enraged Highlander in her, he was certain she would speak honestly. Although the way the lass looked, her cheeks crimson, the bruise and swelling on her temple, her soggy eyes, he couldn’t help feeling a wee bit like a brigand. But he had his people to think about. If she was from an enemy clan—

“By evening meal,” he reiterated then stalked across the room and out the door. Glancing back when his cousin didn’t quit the bedchamber, he hollered, “Niall!”

Niall grinned and winked at the injured lass then followed James out of the room.

“I want you seeing no more of the lass until we know who she is. Leave her to Tavia and Mother’s care.”

“You do not truly believe the lass is holding out on us, do you, James?”

“Mayhap. What if Tavia frightened the lass about being a Dunbarton?”

“The lass does not appear to be easily frightened. I believe she cannot remember because of the bump on her head or mayhap the fever also.”

James scoffed, “You think she is the one for you no matter who she is, just because she is a bonny lass.” But he had to agree the lass didn’t seem to be frightened of him, despite the way he had acted. Being the laird of Craigly Castle was not an easy task. ‘Twas important his people respected and obeyed him, and he could not give in to the unbidden feelings he was having over the wee lass.

“Does she remind you of Seana just a wee bit?”

“She is too fair.” Although he got his cousin’s meaning well enough.

“Aye, but ‘tis the fever and the way she tried to steal away that reminded me of Seana, just as willful. I feared your mother was about to faint from upset, seeing the young woman so flushed.”

Not wanting to think anything more about his dear sister, James changed the subject. “I have clan business to attend to, and I will ask you to see to the villagers’ claims that the butcher has been overcharging them. But take some men with you.”

Niall frowned.

He knew that look. Niall didn’t wish to be coddled, but James would be damned if he would let his cousin go anywhere without adequate protection in these dangerous times. “God’s knees, you have run into trouble with the enemy once this day. Take a tail to ensure everyone’s safety.”

“Aye.” Niall glanced back at the chamber.

“And stay away from her, Niall. I mean it.”

“‘Tis not because you are interested in the wee lass, cousin?”  Niall cast a smug grin then strode off before James could comment.

Of course, James wasn’t interested in some lass he knew naught about. The Dunbarton’s raids on his borders had to stop. And the lass, should she be a Dunbarton, had to be returned forthwith before new trouble erupted, particularly if she was a lady of import. Although he could use her as a bargaining tool. He shook his head. He would not use an injured woman to obtain peace with Dunbarton. Stringing up their scrawny necks was the only way to deal with the raiders.

Yet he couldn’t dismiss the feelings that stirred deep inside him when he had held the feverish woman close. ‘Twas like naught he had ever felt before for a woman he had only just met. Except—he shook his head. The lass he’d saved from the incoming tide had been but a girl, and he had never found her in all his searches.

He glanced back in the direction of the stairs. The younger lass’s hair was darker red, less golden.

This one had barely worn enough to be decent, and she had snuggled against his chest like a child under his protection. But her feminine curves and the sweet fragrance the ladies had bathed her in countered the notion she was a child. No, she was a voluptuous woman full grown—mayhap a wee bit frightened, bold, pleasing to the eye, despite the discolored knot on her forehead and blackened eyes.

He should not have held her so close. He should have had one of his other men carry her to the chamber. Yet, how would any that he put to the task have felt if they had carried the near naked woman tight against their chests?

His groin stirred with renewed interest in her. Shaking the image from his mind, he reminded himself any woman he would touch in such a manner would raise his shaft. So why did it happen again now, with just the thought of her in his grasp?

‘Twas time to get Catriona to agree to marriage, he decided.

When James spied Eanruig, he narrowed his eyes, irritated that his seneschal had not told him about the lady. ‘Twas understandable why Niall hadn’t. He was already smitten with the lass. But there was no excuse for Eanruig to have hidden the truth.

He strode across the hall and joined Eanruig, his countenance stern. He would tolerate no insubordination from his people.

“I will have a word with you about the lass, Eanruig, now.”

****

“You must not worry about James’s brusque ways, lass.” Lady Akira offered a goblet to Marsali. “Even if you are a Dunbarton.”

A harried woman screamed outside the chamber, and the sound of small scampering feet ran closer to the guest chambers. “Eilis!  Eilis!  You come right back here, you scamp!”

Eilis.
Marsali barely breathed.

“
Eilis!
  I shall have your hide, you willful lass.”

Lady Akira smiled. “Eilis keeps her mother running.”

Eilis.
Now she remembered. Her name was Eilis. The name was fine, and she didn’t feel any shame in it. So why fear the Dunbarton’s name?

“I am not a Dunbarton,” Eilis said softly, picking at the blue wool coverlet resting at her chest. At least she hoped she was not.

“Then why were you afraid?”

“I…I could not remember who I was. When your healer seemed upset I might be a Dunbarton, I feared I was. But I am not.”

“You remember your name, dear?”

“Eilis.”

Lady Akira’s brows perked up.

“I…I guess ‘twas the mother calling for her daughter that helped me to remember it.” She was Eilis and not Agnes, her cousin. But why did she even think such a thought? 
Think, think
. But the harder she tried to remember, the more her head splintered with pain. She still couldn’t remember her clan, only that she had a cousin named Agnes, and for whatever dark reason, she did not want to be her.

“Eilis of…?” Lady Akira asked.

Eilis shook her head, but the pounding renewed, and she lay back still against the bedding. “I know not the name of my clan, only that it is not Dunbarton.”

Lady Akira observed her for sometime, not speaking a word. Tavia continued to wipe Eilis’s brow with a wet cloth, although she cast glances at the older woman.

Finally, Lady Akira raised her dark brows heavenward, gave an almost imperceptible smile, then nodded. “Mayhap your memory will improve before evening meal.”

Chapter Four

James barely had time to question his seneschal further about the lass when his mother approached. Thinking she had some word about the shipwrecked lass, he waited for his mother to speak. Her brown eyes sparkled, and her lips curved slightly upward, making him think his mother had good news. Yet her cheerfulness seemed subdued.

When she did not speak but wrung her hands, he frowned. Her actions were not what he wished to see. “She is a Dunbarton?” he fairly roared.

Several servants carrying fresh rushes into the hall stopped and watched him.

His mother shook her head. “She says nay. Her name is Eilis, which I believe.”

James thought about her name. Eilis. A good Irish name and since the MacNeill clan originally came from Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland in 379, the name suited the lass.

“And the clan she hails from?”

“She remembers it not.”

James didn’t believe it for a minute. How could a woman know some things and not others?  “And you believe her?”

“Aye. I have an idea, my son.” The glitter in her eyes told him she was up to some match-making mischief.

“What is it that you have in mind, my mother?”

“Until the lady has recovered and we can return her to her people, why not have her ‘serve’ as an enticement to Catriona to see you?  Eilis is a lovely lass. Mayhap Catriona needs a nudge to encourage her to come forthwith?”

James considered his mother’s devious smile. “Aye, she might be jealous to learn I am considering another lass to wed.”

“Aye, you get my meaning. Send a messenger to inquire as to Catriona’s health and have him remark, perchance, about lovely Eilis, who is brazenly attempting to catch your eye. I would think Catriona would mount her swiftest horse and find out who the lady is. Although to ensure Catriona does not know her, have the messenger describe Eilis’s beauty, but he must not reveal her name or clan’s name.”

“Which we know not anyway.”

“Aye.”

“I like this idea of yours.”

His mother again smiled, and he wondered why his father sought mistresses to pleasure him up until the time of his death instead of loving James’s charming mother.

“I fathom fair Catriona will be here without delay,” she said.

James leaned over and kissed his mother’s cheek. “Here I thought you were trying to get me to commit to Eilis.”

“Eilis indeed.” His mother laughed. “She is too much for you to handle.”

James frowned. He did not think the lass too much for him to handle one whit. “Niall has not put you up to this, has he?”

“Think you he is interested in the lass?”  The unbridled amusement on his mother’s face indicated she already knew it was so.

“Aye, I know he is.”

“Nay, he did not put me up to this as you say, James. But I believe Catriona is delaying the marriage because she thinks you have nay other choice but her. ‘Tis a game she plays. See if you become desperate enough to force the issue. Eilis is bonny enough that she should make Catriona think twice about the way she is treating my son.”