Free Highland Grace by K. E. Saxon Page B

in fact, it
had been a well-organized trap their father and his band of corrupt
soldiers had set. The real attack came once the keep was left
undefended. In an act of bloody vengeance, Jamison Maclean had
abused and executed the wife who’d left him and the father-in-law
who’d sheltered her. Daniel, only thirteen moons at the time, had
been fishing at the loch and had only survived because Jamison had
not known of his existence.
    Standing with his back to her and his head
bowed, he asked grimly, “Was he one of those massacred, or did he
die defending the keep?”
    “He was one of the first killed defending the
keep when the marauders rushed through the opened portcullis into
the courtyard.”
    He swung around to face her once more. “What
of your mother—what of you and your sister? Where were all of you
that day?”
    “There was a cattle fair in the next town. My
mother had taken my sister and me in hopes that she might find a
merchant selling fine cloth for new gowns she wanted to make for
us.”
    “My God. When I think of what would have
happened to you had you remained....”
    “Nay, don’t think on it. We survived, as did
Daniel, and we flourished,” Jesslyn replied.
    Bao nodded and walked back to his stool.
Sitting down, he asked, “And your mother? She’s alive, then?”
    Jesslyn’s lips pressed into a straight line
and she shook her head. “Nay, nay. She became ill from a lung fever
one very cold winter. In truth, ‘twas the year before Alleck was
born. She never recovered.”
    “I see. So you were all alone at the
MacLaurin holding for quite a time it seems.”
    Her smile was sad. “Aye, but I managed. I
make very good ale—did Daniel tell you?”
    Bao cocked his head to the side and gave her
a lopsided grin as he looked at her in a new light. “Nay,” he said,
shaking his head. “Nay, he did not.”
    Jesslyn placed her hand over her belly and
her eyes glowed.
    “The babe?”
    “Aye.”
    It took every bit of will he had not to take
her in his arms and kiss that warm smile, but somehow he managed
it. He took a gulp of his ale. As he settled the cup at the side of
his trencher, he said, “Mayhap you should continue telling me how
you and Graeme came to wed each other.”
    Jesslyn rose from her stool and began
clearing off the table, clearly unsettled by the subject she was to
relate. “I’d never met Graeme,” she said finally. “My sister was
betrothed to him by contract and she was escorted to the MacBean
holding for the wedding. I was not allowed to attend, as I was but
ten summers at the time and deemed too young to travel that far a
distance. They were wed for five years before she got with child.”
Jesslyn tipped her head back and lifted her gaze to some unknown
place above, a wistful smile on her lips. She shook her head,
saying, “She was so happy.”
    “And then what happened?” Bao prompted when
Jesslyn hadn’t resumed her tale after a moment.
    Jesslyn turned her head, a look of surprise
on her countenance, as if she’d forgotten his presence. “Before she
died, she made me promise that I would take care of her bairn, that
I wouldn’t leave it to be taken care of by one of the women at the
keep. I swore my allegiance to her and waited for Graeme to return.
When he came back, he was told of the death by Lady MacBean, and
that I was there to take care of the babe. He ran to find me.”
Taking a deep breath and letting it out on a sigh, she turned and
faced Bao. Crossing her arms over her chest, she began to rub them
as she said, “I was at the well with some of the other lasses of
the village. He drew me away from them and asked me to wed him. I
did, and we raised Alleck as if he were mine.”
    “Yet you didn’t wed him solely to keep your
promise to your sister,” Bao stated.
    “Aye, you are right. There was an immediate
attraction between us.”
    Bao studied her, saw the residue of grief in
her eyes. “You still love him. And I believe that even now, after
almost