His eyebrows rose in surprise and then lowered with concern. “Are ye no’ feeling well, lass? Rachel said ye were fully healed, but if ye’re no’ feelin’—”
“It isn’t that,” Beth said, stepping forward. She slipped her arms around his waist, but then leaned back to meet his gaze and said, “It’s just . . . as stubborn, stupid and arrogant as ye can be, I think I love ye too,” she admitted solemnly. “And I—”
That was as far as she got before Scotty closed his arms around her and ended her words by covering her mouth with his. Breathing a sigh into his mouth, Beth relaxed into his arms and kissed him back with all she had in her, hardly able to believe that it might work out. That he actually might love her and she him, and—
Her thoughts died and she gasped into his mouth when he suddenly scooped her up and carried her to the bed. He broke their kiss to set her on it, and then crawled onto it next to her, but when he reached for her again, she placed a hand on his chest. “Your mother?”
Scotty stilled, and then sighed and nodded. “Right . . . me mother.”
Grimacing, he settled on the bed next to her to sit with his back against the headboard, and then waited for her to sit up beside him. Once she had, he raised his arm and put it around her, drawing her to rest against his chest. After a pause, though, he asked, “Do ye really want to hear this, lass? I ken ye’re nothing like her.”
“I want to hear it,” she assured him solemnly. “Ye know my past. Let me know yours.”
Scotty nodded, and then leaned his head back and said, “Well, to start off, I should give ye some history on me da first.”
“Okay,” she murmured, settling in against him and waiting patiently.
“Me da was married before he met me mother. His first wife was the love o’ his life, and they were married for fifteen years ere she died. They were very happy together but for one thing—in all those years there was no hint o’ a bairn fer them.”
“How sad,” Beth murmured.
“Aye.” Scotty nodded. “And then there was me mother. She was a whore. No’ professionally. At least, she did no’ have a pimp or live in a brothel. However, she traded sexual favors for—” he shrugged helplessly, his chest moving under her “—basically for whatever she wanted. She slept with the king to gain favor for her father, and boost his—and by extension her—position at court. She slept with high-ranking officials, lairds . . . basically anyone who could do something for her that she wanted. And then she slept with me father.”
“What did she want from him?” Beth asked with curiosity.
Pausing, Scotty frowned. “As I recall, the story went, she wanted some bit o’ property he owned, for—” Scotty hesitated and then shook his head. “—for something. I’m no’ sure I was ever told what she wanted the property for, or what it meant to her. All I ken is a bit o’ land is the only reason I exist.”
Beth raised her eyebrows dubiously at that, and Scotty smiled.
“Truly,” he assured her, and then continued, “She showed up at the keep, in the midst o’ a winter storm. Da later learned she stayed at a neighboring keep for weeks ere the storm hit, and the minute it set in, she left and traveled to our castle.” Glancing down at her, he explained, “Hospitality was important in the Highlands, and turning her away would no’ have been hospitable, so it was pretty much guaranteed she’d no’ be turned away.”
Leaning his head back, he continued, “She promptly set about what she did best and seduced me father. Afterward, she simply expected him to sign over the deed of the land she wanted to her. Just like that,” he said with disgust.
“Thought that much of herself, did she?” Beth asked with dry amusement.
Scotty shrugged. “It had worked for her in the past. She was a beautiful woman, and apparently she was very skilled in bed.”
“But it didn’t work with your father?” Beth guessed.
“Me father was no’ a stupid man. He knew if he gave her what she wanted, she’d be on her merry way. It was, he told me, an especially bitterly cold winter with little to do, so he hemmed and hawed, and said he’d think about it and such. Well, my mother simply saw that as a challenge. She was so vain she did no’ for a minute believe she would no’ get her way. This went on until the spring, by which point Father was growing bored with her, and as the mountain pass thawed, he was growing more and more eager to send her on her way sans the deed. But then he began to suspect she was pregnant.”
“With you,” Beth said with a grin.
“Aye.” He smiled at her expression and squeezed her tighter briefly, then said, “Well, Da had always wanted children, or at least an heir. So to him, this was a blessed miracle.”
“And to your mother?” she asked.
“A bargaining chip,” Scotty said dryly. “In fact, to this day I do no’ ken for sure that MacDonald was me father, or if she was sleepin’ with one or several o’ his men to get pregnant, and claiming it was his to have that bargaining chip. However, he believed I was his and that was all that mattered . . . to both o’ us. He was a good father,” he assured her.
Beth nodded solemnly.
“At any rate,” Scotty continued, “once he realized she was pregnant, me da insisted she marry him. She refused, but said that if he signed that bit o’ property o’er to her, she’d give me to him when I was born. But Father did no’ trust her. He feared the moment he signed the deed o’ property over to her, she’d find a way to be rid o’ me.”
Glancing down at her again, he explained, “She’d been pregnant a time or two before, ye see. And none o’ those bairns had survived. Actually, I learned later that she had been pregnant many more times than even me father suspected. She was very fertile, but according to her maid, only three bairns survived to birth. Apparently she had a concoction that included wild carrot and I do no’ ken what else that she would drink to rid herself o’ unwanted babes. When that did no’ work, she got rid o’ the bairns by other methods after birth. One she apparently gave, along with some coin, to some peasants on her father’s estate to raise. I gather she was fond o’ the father o’ that child,” he said with a shrug. “Another she drowned at birth, and another she simply abandoned out in the cold on a winter night. She never knew if it froze to death, was rescued by someone or was killed by wolves. She didn’t bother to check.
“So, me father kenned about the other bairns and did no’ trust her,” Scotty said, returning to the tale. “There was no way he was going to sign o’er the property ere she gave birth. He suggested she carry the baby to term, give it over to him, and then he’d sign the deed. She refused that offer and insisted he do it now, or the bairn, me, would no’ make it to birth. A rather stupid threat to make if ye think about it,” he pointed out. “I mean, she was alone with naught but her maid, who was no’ very loyal, in someone else’s castle.”