Page 73 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

“’Tis Tom and the boys. Oh, and there is Betty and Eldon.” She was off at once, waddling up the beach toward the quickly growing group.

“Did she just call Conn, Inan, Fearghas and Donnghail ‘boys’?” Aulay asked with amazement.

Rory waved away his brother’s outrage and hurried after his wife. The woman was remarkably quick for her size, and she had nearly reached the group before he caught her up. He was about to take her arm to draw her protectively to his side while he sorted out what was what, when she suddenly squealed again and put on a burst of speed that carried her past Tom and into the crowd where she was enveloped in the arms of an older woman. Her old nursemaid, he realized when she said, “Ethelfreda! You are here! Thank you, I was so worried you would not agree to come.”

“Of course I came, love,” the old lady murmured, hugging Elysande tightly and rocking her from side to side. “I’d go to hell itself and even come to Scotland for you and those bairns I see you’re carrying.”

“Oh, Ethel,” Elysande sniffled, pulling back to kiss the woman’s cheek before her gaze landed on someone else, and she opened her arm to include a younger maid in the hug, crying, “Betty! Thank goodness you are all right. I was so worried for you.”

“I am fine, m’lady,” the young maid whispered as she stepped into Elysande’s arm.

“But she nearly wasn’t,” a young lad with a fresh scar running down his cheek announced, rushing to the women. “De Buci beat her something awful, m’lady. As bad as he did you. But she didn’t tell him nothing. She was ever so brave,” he told her, and then bit his lip and admitted, “It was me who told him ye’d headed north, m’lady, and I’m sorry I did. Ever so sorry,” he added, tears in his eyes. “I didn’t tell him when he was beating me, but I couldn’t bear to watch him beat Betty another minute. He was surely gonna kill her and I couldn’t bear to watch. But I’m sorry I told. Really, I am. Please don’t be angry and send me away.”

“Oh, Eldon,” Elysande sighed, releasing Betty to hug the boy. “You did the right thing. You saved Betty, and despite your telling, de Buci didn’t catch us. I am not angry. All is well.”

“Thank you, m’lady,” the boy said on a sob, and buried his face against her stomach as she hugged him.

“He’s been fretting that she would be angry all the way here,” Tom murmured, watching his mistress soothe the boy.

Rory nodded, but then turned to the MacGregor as he dismounted, noticing only then that the man alighting from the horse beside the clan chieftain’s was his brother Niels.

“Niels,” he greeted with surprise, hugging him and thumping him on the back. “What are you doing here?”

“I was on my way back home from business in Glasgow when I came across your men and their escorts,” Niels said with wry amusement as they stepped apart. “I thought I’d best join the party too to make sure they all got here safely.”

Rory chuckled at the claim. “Two women and a boy hardly merit . . .” His voice trailed off as he realized what Niels had said. Your men and their escorts, not your men escorting this small group. His gaze slid to the MacGregor, and then to the other men who had now moved forward to join them. He recognized most of them and each were heads of clans: the Douglas, the Ferguson, the Kennedy, the Wallace, the Stewart, the Erskine and the MacGregor.

“Escorts?” Rory asked uncertainly as Aulay and Alick joined them.

“Ah, m’laird,” Tom said suddenly, drawing his gaze around to see that the English soldier was looking extremely uncomfortable and rather nervous. “I know we were really only sent to bring back Betty, Eldon and Ethelfreda, but ye see . . .”

“The others wanted to come too,” Donnghail announced when Tom faltered.

“The others?” Rory asked carefully, his gaze moving toward the group surrounding his wife to see that it wasn’t all soldiers as he’d first assumed. It was women, and men, and children he had never seen before, all in English dress, and at a rough count he could see at least thirty of them crowding around his wife.

“Aye,” the Kennedy said, amusement on his grizzled face as he took in Rory’s dismayed expression. “It seems yer wife and her parents were well loved by their people. Not surprising, I suppose. I hear Lady Elysande’s mother was a Scot born.”

“Aye,” Rory said with a frown as he tried to count exactly how many servants there were. It was hard to tell, there were so many soldiers crowding about now.

“’Tis just unfortunate the servants and all are English,” the Ferguson said now. “When my man came to tell me there were at least fifty English traipsing through with a passel o’ Scots, I had them stopped. O’ course, soon as I realized it was yer men and yer wife’s people and that they were headed to you, I rounded up me men to help escort them. No telling what trouble could ha’e befallen them their being English and all. Some clans would no’ take that well.”

“That’s about what happened when they reached my land,” the Douglas announced. “And I gathered some men to join the escort too.”

The others quickly added that it was the way it had been with them too, and Rory nodded and murmured a thank-you, but then turned to Tom and asked, “Fifty? Ye brought fifty o’ them back?”

“And more are coming,” Fearghas announced. “They’re just moving a bit slower because o’ the sheep and all, so we left them behind with Conn and Inan to escort them while we brought this group here. I’m guessing the others’ll get here in a week or so.”

“More?” Rory squawked. “What sheep? What the—”

“Oh, husband!”

Rory snapped his mouth closed as Elysande rushed up beaming happily.

“Is it not wonderful?” she cried, hugging him tightly. “So many more survived than I’d hoped, and they all wanted to come live with us.” Pulling back, she told him, “Why, now we have a blacksmith, a cook, a miller, two grooms, the alewife, our own seamstress and maids and—oh, just a whole castle full of people!”

“But no castle to put them in,” Rory muttered, reaching up to rub his forehead.

“Not yet, but soon,” she said at once. “Why, with the men the king sent to help we should have a castle in no time.”

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