“What?” he asked innocently. “’Tis true!”
“Do ye mean to say then, that all this time I was to look in that creature’s belly, and not the belly of a’ diabhal?” Mared demanded, looking very confused.
“That’s it precisely, lass,” Carson said happily.
It seemed to Payton that Mared did not know what to make of the news. She sank into a chair and looked at him—but then she looked away, and her gaze seemed to be on something far away. Something far from this room, if not this world. Certainly not on him.
He awkwardly started toward her, his mind racing ahead of his body, intent on going to her, but then Grif was there before him. “Do ye see what this means, leannan?” he asked her. “Ye are free.”
“Aye, Mared, quite free,” her mother echoed joyously.
But still, Mared could only look at them, tears brimming in her eyes, thunderstruck.
“Ah, the poor lass!” Carson laughed. “She’s overcome!” He grabbed his daughter up and hugged her, then passed her to Liam, who hugged her fiercely.
When he let her go, Mared looked at her father. “I’m free?” she asked, seemingly unable to absorb it.
Grif turned a beaming smile to Payton as Carson laughed and assured his daughter she was free. “There ye are, then, Douglas. We’re able to pay our debts now, aye? Ye can release our sister to us.”
Payton was dumbfounded. He tried to find his tongue, but he couldn’t seem to think, not with Mared, who was clinging to her mother now, looking oddly relieved and saddened at the same time. The rest of the Lockharts seemed not to notice—they were smiling and laughing and chattering wildly about traveling to Edinburgh.
“When will ye pay it, then?” he asked of Grif in a desperate bid for more time.
“Ah!” Grif said, holding up a finger. “We’ve a plan to pay before our year is through,” he said happily. “We are to Edinburra this week—all of us. We shall have the gold sold in a matter of days and pay ye our debt, with interest. Will that meet with yer satisfaction?”
No, no, it would never meet with his satisfaction! He’d only just found happiness, and now the goddamn Lockharts would take it from him? He turned an icy gaze to Grif. “And what of our other agreement?” he snapped. “What of Mared?”
“Ach, now, Douglas,” Grif said, his smile fading. “Surely ye willna keep her in servitude when we’ve a way to repay our debt.”
“And ye would take her now and leave me without a housekeeper?”
Grif’s smile faded to a glower. “I donna give a bloody damn about yer lack of a housekeeper,” he said quietly. “Ye willna keep our sister in servitude another moment.”
No, of course he wouldn’t. Mared did not deserve servitude, and he tried frantically in those few wild moments to convince himself that if she was no longer his housekeeper, they might proceed with the original plan to marry. Quickly. As soon as this week, perhaps.
He tried desperately to believe that, but something inside him warned him that it could not be. Something inside him had died a little when she whispered the words, I’m free.
“Look, now, Douglas, we all know that ye hold her in high esteem, and we donna mean to disregard it, no’ in the least,” Grif said, his voice a bit softer. “But we canna allow her to spend even as much as one night more in the service of anyone. We’ll take her today, aye?”
Payton glared at Grif, hating him as he had never hated anyone in his life. “I urge ye to pay yer debt as quickly as possible, for I will seek the harshest of remedies if ye donna.”
With a cold smile, Grif nodded his assent.
“I’ll have one of the maids gather her things,” Payton said and strode from that happy family reunion into an empty corridor, where the echo of his boots was deafening to his ears.
Everything had happened so fast that Mared could hardly grasp she was leaving Eilean Ros, much less leaving the enormous burden of her curse. Much less leaving Payton. God help her but she couldn’t seem to think. Her mind was racing wildly around the news, and her exuberant family surrounded her, all speaking excitedly and at once of Edinburgh and the things they would buy. It was hard not to be swept up in the exhilaration of their mutual good fortune.
But she could not share their elation completely because of Payton.
“Think of the balls and gatherings you will attend,” Ellie said, having accompanied Mared to her room to finish packing her things. “You’ll be highly sought after, I predict. It will be such fun for a time.”
Yes, life in Edinburgh would be a far cry from the bucolic life of the lochs. Far from the accusing eyes of a superstitious people. And far, far from Payton.