And the former Englishwoman spent as much time riding in Vegar’s lap as she did in her own saddle.
For some reason, both Caelis’s children found this vastly amusing and their giggles echoed through the forest as the horses galloped toward the sea.
Their party made it to shore where the boats were kept in a cave by the Sinclairs faster than he would have expected traveling with children and a newly mated pair. The sea crossing itself went quickly, with the four robust warriors to man the oars. The three women entertained and watched over Marjory and Eadan, making sure Caelis’s son especially did not go tipping over the side of the boat into the waters.
Eadan had a sense of adventure untempered by caution that made Caelis both proud and terrified at the same time.
The boy showed no more fear of the sheer drop down the unprotected side of the switchback trail they had to climb to reach the Balmoral keep than he did riding a flat forest trail, either. Caelis breathed a strong sigh of relief when they reached the top and headed toward the imposing castle on the cliff overlooking the sea.
Shona laughed a little and he turned to her. “What amuses you?”
“When I first saw the Sinclair’s keep, I had the wish but little hope that the Balmoral’s would be as well fortified and imposing.”
“It is near impenetrable.”
“I can see that. My family here, if they had a mind to, could protect Eadan from Percival’s evil intents with little effort.”
“He has no need of their protection. He has mine.” Was that still in doubt in her mind?
Shona smiled up at Caelis, her lovely green eyes sparkling with the love she’d admitted to. “I know, but surely you can see the irony?”
“I do.” Though he did not like the fact she was still thinking of others protecting their son.
“I’m not,” she said, exasperation twisting her smile.
“I said nothing.”
“Did you not?” she asked, her eyes saying otherwise.
But he truly had not. He had not thought his feelings aloud, either. He was sure of it. He had never heard of mindspeak being so much like mind reading before. The latter being a myth parents told their children about in stories before bedtime.
Their traveling party was stopped and questioned at the gate, but let through because they were with Prince Eirik. Nevertheless, a small contingent of Chrechte soldiers accompanied them to the keep and did not leave them until dismissed by the Balmoral.
Caelis had no doubts the man would be able to point them in the direction of Shona’s family. Lachlan knew his clan from the oldest Chrechte to the youngest human infant, by sight and by name. The laird not only participated in training all the soldiers, Chrechte and human alike, he spent time training with the Cahir each sennight as well.
His wife, the Lady Emily, took a personal interest in all the families of the clan, no matter their origins and encouraged friendships between her children and those of the kitchen staff as much as the highest-ranking warriors.
Moments after explaining their quest to find Shona’s remaining blood relatives here on Balmoral Island Caelis was speechless from the knowledge imparted by Lachlan.
Shona was not so affected. “You are my cousin?” she asked the laird, her eyes shining with delighted interest. “How can this be?”
She was no doubt thrilled to discover her familial connection to the one of the most powerful Chrechte lairds in the Highlands.
“His mother was human,” Emily, the laird’s wife, offered. “It is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine.”
The Balmoral smiled indulgently at his wife, but shook his head.
“Actually, my great-aunt who left our island to join her mate among the MacLeod was Chrechte. She was sister to my father’s mother.”
Lachlan looked at Shona expectantly. She stared back, uncomprehending.
“You are saying her grandmother was Faol?” Caelis asked his voice near faint with shock.
The Balmoral laird nodded. “Aye.”
“But I’m human!”
“Those of mixed parentage are as likely to be born human as Chrechte,” Lady Emily offered with an interesting look for her husband.
“But my father was human.”
“He was,” Caelis affirmed. He would have been able to tell otherwise; it would have been revealed in the man’s scent.
Lachlan shrugged, apparently unconcerned by the fact his cousin had been human. “His mother was Faol.”
But then, Lachlan’s own brother had been human, with no wolf to share his nature. By all accounts, their father’s reaction to his firstborn being unable to shift had caused resentment and eventually Ulf’s death.
’Twas a sobering lesson not to be dismissed by a man with one Faol and one human child already.
“That explains Uven’s predecessor appointing my da as seneschal.” Shona sighed, the sound filled with weary pain. “My father never told me. Anything.”
The fresh betrayal in her voice sliced at Caelis’s heart.
Lachlan nodded as if he understood. “He was raised in a clan where the Fearghall had a deep stronghold. No doubt he believed he was protecting you.”
“Perhaps he was taught, like we were, that to reveal the true nature of the Chrechte meant death?” Audrey offered, her concern for her friend apparent.
Clearly accepting neither explanation, Shona looked up at Caelis, her expression filled with pained helplessness. “Why?”
Ignoring the others around them, he turned to face her, cupping her cheeks, wishing he had an answer that could take away the pain. “I dinna ken, but this I know: it was not your doing. The lack was in your da, not you.”
“I loved my parents. So much.”
“They loved you, too.” Neither had been effusive in their affections, but in their years among the clan, they’d shown the high esteem they held their only offspring in.
“It does not feel like it.”
She had too many fresh memories to supplant the ones from her childhood, when she would have been certain of their love and care. And maybe that explained how sure she was that Caelis did not love her.
“They made mistakes, but they did not stop loving you.”
“My father had to know how horrible my marriage would be for me and yet he pushed me into it.”
Because her father would have known that Shona was true mated to Caelis or she could not have conceived his child. Caelis himself did not understand why the man had not returned to the clan to tell him of his child.
Shona’s father must have known that Caelis would have claimed his true mate pregnant with his babe, no matter what his laird had dictated.
Instead, the former seneschal of his clan had forced his daughter into a marriage he had to know would be difficult, if not impossible, for her.
Only because she was more human than Chrechte had her body allowed penetration by the baron. Caelis could be grateful for that, because had her body responded like a Chrechte’s, Shona would have been subjected to even more pain.
He was certain of it. The dead baron had been a lecher and a cur.
“He thought you were fully human,” Caelis said to Shona now, knowing it would be little comfort.
“I’m not.”
Caelis would not gainsay her on that claim. There was too much to support her supposition, though he’d never heard of a non-shifting Chrechte exhibiting other traits of their race.
It bothered him that he could not tell what Shona thought about the fact she was part Faol, but there could be no denying it either. Her reaction to her marriage to the baron was far more Chrechte than human and the strange way Caelis and Shona sometimes read each other’s minds could well come from latent Chrechte gifts.
“You do not have a wolf.” Of that he was certain.