Page 88 of Highland Jewel
“You’re here.” Maisie finally was able to draw out the words. She wiped at Fiona’s tears and her friend wiped at hers. “Are you well?”
She nodded, but she looked thinner. The fire in her eyes had dimmed a little. Maisie had a hundred questions that she wanted to ask, but the children were on their laps. She guessed there was much that Fiona would wish to keep from her daughters.
“When did you arrive?” Maisie decided it was a safe question to ask.
“Today. This morning. I arrived here…”
The wailing drone of bagpipes filled the chapel. Everyone stood and turned toward the door as Cinaed and Isabella entered.
Niall stood beside Maisie and put an affectionate hand on the small of her back and placed a kiss on her brow. Morrigan moved to the seat beside Fiona, and the two women whispered some soft words.
Happiness formed a knot in her throat as Maisie basked in the glow of having those she loved around her. Niall, Fiona and her daughters, and Morrigan. Her gaze shifted to Isabella and Cinaed. They made a magnificent pair, approaching the visiting bishop and his acolytes.
“I am a very happy man,” Niall whispered in her ear.
She looked up into her husband’s handsome face. “I am too. We have our family. All of us. Here.”
Before the bishop began with the prayers, Fiona leaned over and whispered what she was about to say before.
“I arrived… with Queen Caroline.”
CHAPTER36
No one saw her come in, just as Caroline wished it. All eyes were on the regal couple at the altar.
Flanked on either side by Mackintosh fighters, she stood in the back of the crowded chapel, watching the exchange of wedding vows and the blessing. Her son’s wedding. She was able to be present at Cinaed’s wedding. She was here, and yet still the certainty of it escaped her. It was like a dream. For too many years, she’d prayed, she’d tried, but they had never reunited. Until now.
She stared past the heads of the guests to the tall man standing before the bishop.
Her son. Cinaed. The son of Scotland.
She had lived her entire life bound by gilded chains, but her son was free. She’d been forced to marry to please others. Cinaed had chosen for himself.
And she was certainly lovely, Caroline thought. Isabella Murray Drummond. A widow. A university-educated physician. Quite capable too, thank God. An enemy of the Crown… a high honor in the queen’s opinion.
Isabella was a brave woman with resilience and strongbeliefs. She was a better woman than any she could have chosen for Cinaed herself. But she would never have even tried. She would never have forced him to marry anyone for power, for position, for the purpose of political alliance. Never. She would never do to Cinaed what had been done to her.
Her eyes burned with unshed tears as Cinaed leaned down to kiss his bride a moment before the congratulatory shouts rang out and the bagpipes struck up again.
Turning, Caroline left the chapel before anyone noticed that she was there. Her protective wall of Highlanders kept her hidden until Searc caught up to her.
“The laird’s study, Your Majesty,” the Highlander suggested. “The most suitable place, ma’am.”
She nodded and started for the door beside the chapel. “Remember what I asked.”
“Aye, ma’am. Cinaed alone. No one else.”
“No one else,” she repeated, and Searc backed out, closing the door behind him.
Lachlan’s study. Only a wall separated her from her son. She’d never been this close, so nearly within reach of him. And yet, she was so afraid that he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her.
She walked to the fire burning in the hearth. She was at Dalmigavie Castle. Finally. And he was here too. Mother and son to meet again after so many years. So many miles. The doubts, the fears, the lies that her miserable husband had invented and disseminated over the years all rose up around her like foul, pestilent spirits.
Caroline already knew that she was about to be called to London to stand trial before Parliament on charges of adultery. All based on falsehoods and accusations concocted by the man who made his mistress Caroline’s own Lady of the Bedchamber. The man who had neverin his life showed her one ounce of affection or respect, not even in public on the day they were married. The man who went on enjoying his luxurious and lascivious lifestyle, indulging in every imaginable excess. The man who now called himself king of England.
She had no fear of any trial. The people of England and Scotland and Ireland were on her side. They knew Prinny as well as she did. It was only a matter of time before Henry Brougham would blast their so-called evidence into a million irrelevant pieces, and the divorce proceedings would be abandoned.
A crackle in the hearth drew her attention back to the room. She hadn’t come here to think back over her disastrous marriage. She was also not here to think about how to punish vile Owen Woelk for his betrayal. At least, not today. Lachlan Mackintosh would take care of the other viper. She had no doubt Lewis Rainey, who had put a dagger in that brave young woman, would suffer a fate worse than death. But today was not the day for any of those thoughts.
