Free The Arrow: A Highland Guard Novel (The Highland Guard) by Monica McCarty

time she chose the moss green. Though she regretted the loss of the rose dress—Ete had taken one look at the ruined gown and nearly burst into tears—Cate thought the green might be even more flattering. The gold ribbon that lined the bodice, hem, and sleeves seemed to pick up the lighter flecks in her eyes.
    She didn’t bother with a veil. It would only get wet, as her hair was still sopping from her bath. But with only an hour until the midday meal, she didn’t have time to sit before the brazier brushing it until it dried.
    She replaced the circlet atop her head and gave herself another quick once-over in the looking glass before stepping away. She might not look quite as primped and polished as she had this morning, but she looked a good sight better than she had with mud splattered all over her face. The humiliation of being seen like that by the man she so desperately wanted to impress was painfully fresh. But she would do what she always did: get up, dust herself off, and try again. Bruised and battered perhaps, but ready to fight again. Not just for her, but for the children. They needed him and the stability she’d never had.
    She hustled from the room, wanting to make sure the children were looking their best for their “presentation.” Her mouth pursed. She tried not to be disappointed by Gregor’s cold reaction—no doubt suddenly being told you were the father of three would be a shock to anyone—but she was. For the first time that she could remember, he’d let her down.
    His harsh words still rang in her head.
“Get rid of them.”
    As if they were rubbish. As if she could just send them away and not care what happened to them. They were children, for heaven’s sake, not stray cats!
    Once he saw them and came to know them, he would change his mind. She just had to be patient. He’d taken her in, hadn’t he?
    Cate had enough faith in him for them both. As his mother had told her, ties didn’t come easily to Gregor, but once formed they were as unbreakable as steel.
    Cate ought to know; she’d put them to the test enough.
    She gnawed on her lip guiltily. Had she done so on purpose? Maybe once or twice. But eventually the fear that he would send her away abated. Now, she tested him just because it seemed to be the only way to get him to come home—not to mention it was rather fun. She liked pricking beneath the charming, roguish facade to see those gorgeousgreen eyes darken, that sinfully delicious wide mouth harden, that tiny muscle beneath the perfectly formed jaw start to flex.
    But pricking his temper wasn’t good enough anymore. She wanted him to notice her the way a man does a woman. She wanted him to take her in his arms and kiss her the way she’d seen him kiss the previous seneschal’s widow the last time he was home. She wanted him to realize that she was the one for him.
    When she reached the top floor of the tower, she found that Ete and Lizzie, one of the kitchen maids, had Eddie and Maddy temporarily under control, but Pip was nowhere to be found. He hadn’t returned to the tower house or to the garret chamber where he slept with Eddie.
    Leaving the younger children to the capable hands of the servants, Cate went in search of Pip. She suspected where she would find him. He’d slept in the barn for nearly three weeks, before she’d been able to convince him that he belonged inside. The barn was still the place he retreated to when the chaos of the house grew too much for him.
    It was where he would go to lick his wounds.
    Not that she blamed him. Cate had worked so hard to make Pip feel like he belonged, and with a few sharp words, Gregor had undone it all.
    Her heart squeezed for the proud boy who was trying so hard to be tough and pretend it didn’t matter that his mother had abandoned him on the doorstep of strangers. Trying so hard to believe in a story that even Cate conceded left room for a few questions.
    She’d wanted to believe it was true nearly as much as Pip had.