Baodan decided that we should stop at Cameron Castle to check in on his mother on our way back to McMillan Castle. I tried to gently persuade him otherwise, but he’d not relented. I didn’t blame him, of course. Naturally, he worried after she’d been so ill very recently.
Still, it didn’t make the thought of meeting her any more appealing. He could sense my nervousness and leaned forward to nibble at the base of my neck, but ended up with a mouthful of hair.
“Ye have lovely hair, lass, but how do ye have so much of it? I doona even think Artair here has as much as ye do. Did yer parents have locks such as that?”
How little we truly knew about one another. He didn’t know anything about who I’d been before I came here, not that I’d been orphaned, or that I’d been married. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t very important. Those were all things he could learn in time and, while they played a part in making me who I was, he didn’t need to know them to see the person I was now.
He could see what lay inside me without knowing anything and, as long as he accepted that, I supposed it didn’t matter how long we’d known one another. After all, I’d known Brian for years, and I would bet money that he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone my favorite color, movie, or even birthday. Time meant little if the person you spent it with was a total numb nut.
“No.” I leaned into him, relaxing my head against his chest. “Well, I actually don’t know. I never knew either of my parents.”
“Ach, lass, I’m verra sorry. What happened to them?”
“I don’t know. They may still be alive actually, but part of me likes to hope not. I know that sounds horrible, but if they died, it means they didn’t want to give me up.”
He reached up to brush my hair so that it draped over one shoulder as he rested his chin on the other, his face pressed gently against mine. “Give ye up?”
“Yeah, it happens sometimes, if the parents feel they can’t care for the child. I was bounced around from home to home until I was fourteen.”
He dragged his hands up and down my thigh, rubbing them in comfort. “And what happened to ye then?”
“I was placed in the home of an old woman named Lilly, the only home that ever stuck. She was the closest thing I ever had to a mom, and I loved her very much. She passed away a few years ago, right after I graduated college.”
“Ye know we took in Eoghanan much the same way ye speak of. All suspect it, but few know the truth of it. ’Tis no always blood that makes someone kin, aye?”
“Yes.” It pleased me to hear him say such a thing about Eoghanan. Perhaps his guilt of assumption as to who assaulted me would soften him toward E-o and help him realize that no fault lay with Eoghanan.
He squeezed me tight and let out a soft sigh of sympathy, but I could tell he wanted to ask something.
“What?” I turned my head to kiss his cheek, and he grinned against my lips.
“What is college?”
I looked up to see several riders coming toward us. I tapped his knee to get his attention. “I’ll tell you later, looks like we have visitors.”
He smiled again as he spurred the horse on. “Indeed we do, lass. It seems that we are to cross paths with me mother.”
*
She travelled in a small group. Two men, one of them Baodan’s cousin, the laird of McMillan Castle, Griogair Cameron. The other a trusted friend called Henson.
As soon as we reached them and hellos were said all around, everyone dismounted. His mother surprised me by bypassing Baodan and coming straight over to me to greet me properly.
“I’m Kenna. Ye must be, Mitsy. I was right about ye, aye? Ye fell prey to one of Morna’s spells?”
“Um…yes and, yes I did.” Baodan glanced over at me before whisking the two men a little farther away. I supposed he didn’t want to have to explain what his mother meant.
“And ye did find yer friend, aye? Did ye no wish to remain with the Conalls?”
I warmed suddenly. What should I say to her? Yes, I did find her, but now I’m going to live with your son a while. Just so we can, ya know, see where it goes. I did not want to be the one to explain anything to her, that was Baodan’s job. “I did see them, yes, but Bri is very busy with her baby and I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Ah, so ye thought ye would play upon me son’s sympathies and rely on his charity, aye?”
I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with his mother, but her assumption seemed uncalled for, and I wasn’t one to stifle what I thought just to make a good impression. “Excuse me? That’s not what this is at all. Perhaps, you should talk to your son about it.”
She smiled and laughed softly before moving to lace her arm with mine. “I like ye, lass, and so does Baodan. Just look at the way he keeps glancing over here at ye. I haven’t seen him look that way in a verra long time. I only spoke in jest. I’m pleased to know that ye are no a lass to be ruled over.”
I laughed shakily and smiled down at her, now much more at ease. “Where are you going? We were headed to Cameron Castle to see you.”