Page 28 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

“Oh, let me think,” she murmured, searching her mind, and then smiled. “The first mention of your family was when she wrote to tell us that Cam had finally taken a wife. She told us all about his bride, Jo, and then a rather gripping tale of how one of the lasses she’d invited to the castle to meet him tried to kill his new bride, Jo, but that all had ended well and Jo had become good friends with many of the other girls, including one Saidh Buchanan, when they helped save her life.”

When he nodded, she continued. “The next mention was when Jo gave birth to their first child. Your sister and some of the other friends she’d made apparently attended the birth.”

“Aye,” Rory agreed. “’Tis how our Saidh ended up marrying Greer MacDonnell. She was traveling with one o’ the other lasses and their brother on leaving Sinclair. The company she rode with stopped at MacDonnell on the return journey. Our cousin Fenella was married to the laird there. But he had died, and Saidh stayed to comfort Fenella and ended up marrying Greer, who had arrived to take o’er as laird. Fenella and her husband had no children, so Greer was the next in line,” he explained.

Elysande nodded, and tried to recall the next mention her aunt had made of the Buchanans. There had been a lot of them over the years. “I think the next time your family was mentioned was something to do with one of your brothers and the lass who saved Jo in the first letter. Murine?” she asked, unsure she was getting the name right.

“Aye. Murine. She is married to me brother Dougall now. He and some o’ me other brothers rescued her from her brother, who wanted to use her for his own gain. Dougall married her, but her brother caused trouble later and tried to steal her back. Cam brought his army to join ours and a couple others who showed up to help resolve the situation.”

Elysande nodded. Aunt Bearnas had mentioned that in her letter. She’d revealed a lot about the Buchanans in her letters, so much that Elysande had almost felt like she knew them despite never having met them. Perhaps that was why she’d felt so comfortable with Rory so quickly, she thought. “The next mention was when another one of the ladies from the group who had befriended Jo had married another of your brothers. I think she said ’twas Edith? And that you had gone there to try to heal her from something?”

Rory’s mouth tightened. “Aye. Saidh was most concerned about her. She’d received a letter from Edith mentioning she was feeling unwell, but weeks had passed since then and Saidh hadn’t heard from her again, despite having written to her several times to ask how she was faring. Saidh was growing worried to the point that she had determined to travel to her home to check on her fer herself, which was giving Greer fits because Saidh was heavy with child. The only way we could convince her no’ to go was if I went to check in her place. Niels, Geordie and Alick accompanied me.”

“Was she well?” Elysande asked with curiosity. Her aunt hadn’t mentioned any of this in her letter.

“Nay. She was being poisoned and would have died had we no’ been there,” Rory said grimly.

“Oh,” Elysande murmured, eyes wide.

“She recovered once we discovered what was going on, and Niels ended up marrying the lass.”

Elysande nodded, and then said, “The next mention was when your oldest brother got married. Aulay?”

“Aye. Aulay married Jetta.”

When that was all he said, she decided their courtship must have followed more traditional lines, and went on. “And then she wrote to tell us that Conran had been kidnapped and, of all things, married the lady who had kidnapped him?” Elysande finished the sentence as a question, because she still had trouble believing that one.

“His kidnapping was purely by accident,” Rory assured her. “Evina meant to kidnap me, but mistook Conran fer me and took him instead.”

“What?” she squawked, shocked at the thought that Rory might have been kidnapped if not for a mistake. “Why the devil would your brother marry a woman who had kidnapped him? Aunt Bearnas never explained that so we thought she must have been mistaken.”

“Oh, aye, he was kidnapped,” Rory assured her. “Naked, unconscious and tied o’er the back o’ a horse. But Evina only did it because she was desperate. Her father was ailing, ye see. She originally came to Buchanan to ask me to tend him, but something went wrong, and rather than ask she ended up kidnapping Conran. The wrong brother. Fortunately, Conran had assisted me more than a few times dealing with the sick and was able to cure the man who then ended up becoming his father-in-law.”

Elysande stared at him blankly, her only thought that if not for that mistake Rory might have been married to this Evina and not here in England when she’d needed him most.

“Did she write about our Geordie and his Dwyn too?” Rory prompted when she continued to stare at him with dismay.

Elysande blinked away her own concerns, and nodded slightly. “She said your sister and the other wives copied her idea and gathered a bunch of eligible ladies together at Buchanan who could offer you and your still-single brothers advantageous marriages. The hope was that you would each find one you liked. She said you and Alick had not met anyone you wished to marry, but Geordie settled on Dwyn.”

“I would no’ say Geordie settled on her. He and Dwyn are quite in love . . . and as per usual with my family, their courtship was no’ as smooth as yer aunt’s letter apparently made it sound. But aye, they are married and he is laird o’ Innes now.”

Elysande pondered that, wondering how the courtship had not been smooth, but before she could ask, Rory said, “So, Lady Bearnas wrote to yer mother, and ye say she read her letters to you and your father by the fire at night?”

“Aye. Aunt Bearnas’s letters were always entertaining. Especially when she wrote about your family.”

“So, ye have the advantage,” he said, and when she looked uncertain, he pointed out, “In a way ye knew me before we ever met, whereas I had never even heard of you.”

“Mayhap,” she agreed with a faint smile. “But the last letter was quite a while ago. We have all been waiting patiently to see which brother would marry next. Have you or Alick married, or are the women in your family still trying to find you wives?”

Oddly enough, Elysande found herself a bit tense as she waited for his answer. It had never occurred to her that Rory might have a wife back in Scotland, awaiting his return, but now that it had, she found the idea distressing.

“Nay. Alick and I are no’ married,” Rory said.

Elysande released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“But aye, the women in our family are doing their best to change that,” Rory added, his mouth twisting slightly with disgruntlement. “Every time Alick and I return home we find the place packed full o’ prospective brides. ’Tis becoming tiresome.”

“Oh,” she murmured, but her lips twitched at his put-upon air.

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