Without a doubt, whatever Greer had experienced put that look there. A look that saw the demons plaguing her daughter’s past. Demons with sharper teeth than those of the pompous, ignorant men who’d been in her life since.
On several occasions, he’d been tempted to ask Greer what happened in the hallway the first eve he'd arrived at the castle. When she thought herself alone and spoke with such angst to who he now knew was Margery.
Though inclined to comfort her, he knew better. Even if Bartholomew hadn't interrupted, she wasn’t ready. Not yet. When she was, she would tell him. Whatever it was, the voice in her head walked hand and hand with her demons. For he’d never seen such torture on a lass’s face. Torture he recognized because he carried the same.
Self-blame and self-loathing.
“Good morn,” Greer murmured, pulling him from his thoughts. She blinked against the dim morning light before she realized her mother was there as well. “To you both.”
“Good morn, daughter.” Cecille smiled softly. “How do you fare?”
“Well, thank you,” Greer said on a yawn. “But then I was quite comfortable.”
When she looked at him sleepily, her eyes half-mast and dewy, he swore his heart skipped a beat. More than that, he realized just how much he wanted to see such every morning. Her against him, warm and safe in his arms. Not only that, but beautiful in every sense of the word. A type of beauty he knew would never fade, no matter her age.
“Oh, yes,” Cecille murmured. Her astute gaze never left them. “Very comfortable indeed, I imagine.”
Though she never elaborated, he knew Cecille saw what he felt.
The first stirrings of love.
In truth, he suspected he’d felt them far sooner, if not the moment he laid eyes on Greer when she protected Duncan at the castle. But when she awoke that morning in his arms, and her gaze turned to his face first thing, he began to get a sense of something much deeper. Something that finally made him understand what he saw between his brothers and their lasses.
Was such possible, though? Or was it too soon? Where Keenan and Fionna had known one another for years, Malcolm and Isabella found love rather quickly. Genuine love at that. Love seen plain as day when they looked at one another.
“So do ye think we will see yer Sassenach today?” Ada said, appearing at the entrance of the cave. She stretched and grinned when Greer finally pulled away. “Och, dinnae move on my account.”
He agreed because his arms felt too empty when Greer wasn’t in them. A sensation he’d never experienced with a lass. A sensation he didn’t much like.
“Unless something detains him, Edmund should arrive today,” he replied to Ada. “Until then, we wait right here. ’Tis too risky to do otherwise.”
She nodded and eyed the area. “Is there water to be had? My bairns will need some.”
“Aye.” He nodded. “Bring me yer skins, and I will see them filled.”
He would see to food, too, be it whatever he could find in the immediate vicinity.
As it turned out, the day proved blissfully uneventful, their fare that of river water and hare meat. Nevertheless, none came upon them, and the day wore on.
Though he worried how he would care for everyone if Edmund didn't show up, time still passed pleasurably. How else could it be with Greer and her inquisitive mind? With the real her surfacing even more now that she was free of her uncle's estate? He taught her how to lay a trap and skin an animal, which though she turned a wee bit green, she followed readily enough.
“It gets easier each time,” Duncan assured, giving pointers to Teagan all the while. “Ye’ll see.”
“Should she have to, though?” Besse scrunched her nose. “For Mistress Greer is a true lady.”
“And true ladies should know how to take care of themselves,” Greer counseled, flinching when Teagan showed her how to spear the hare on a spit and put it over the fire.
Besse sighed. “If ye say so.”
“I do.” Greer nodded at Teagan with reassurance when he wondered if mayhap her stomach was going to upturn altogether.
She was about to say more to Besse when he sensed something and put a finger to his lips. He gestured that everyone stayed put, unsheathed his blade slowly, and made his way toward the entrance of the cave. God above, let it be Edmund and not Randolph or Bartholomew. Let him get these lasses and bairns out of here safely.
Would it be his friend?
Or would it be his enemies?
Half a breath later, he found out.
Chapter Eighteen
Greer could say without hesitation that the more she got to know Teagan, the more she loathed him putting himself at the head of all incoming danger.
“Blast it, I need to learn to wield this better,” she cursed, clutching her dagger as they awaited word from Teagan, who’d just crept toward the front of the cave.
“Me, too,” Besse whispered in agreement. “At least yer ma doesnae say nay, ye’re too young.”
“Shh,” Ada hissed, watchful, her gaze glued to the cave entrance. She kept a hand hovered just over Besse’s mouth lest she speak again.
Greer barely breathed. Was this it? Had they come all this way only to be stopped at the threshold of true escape? Seized at the onset of their grand adventure?
Even as she feared for their lives, her mind wandered to what that kiss last night had felt like.
“’Twas wonderful, was it not?” Margery would have whispered, keeping Greer’s mind on the kiss, rather than the stark fear she felt watching Teagan await a possible enemy. Perhaps even impending death. “I told you years ago that someday we would kiss a man like that. We would feel what you felt. And just look, you did, so I was right!”
Yes, she was.
More than she could ever know.
There weren't enough words in any storyteller’s arsenal to describe it either. To convey how all-encompassing his kiss had felt. Intimate and loving. Passionate and lustful. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, a myriad of sensations coursed through her body. A heaviness in her breasts. An aching throb betwixt her thighs.
“’Tis all right,” Teagan called back, interrupting her thoughts. “’Tis Edmund.”
“Oh, thank Goodness,” Cecille exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Aye,” Ada agreed. She kissed the top of Besse’s head before she pulled her children close. “Though I never thought I’d say it of the Sassenach, praise God indeed.”
“Aye, lassie, and ye best not forget it,” Edmund called out, evidently hearing as well as Teagan.
Besse scratched her head. “The Sassenach sounds just like us.”
“Aye.” Ada rolled her eyes. “’Tis offending, to say the least.”
Yet Greer didn’t miss the twinkle of interest in her friend’s eyes when Teagan and Edmund ducked into the cave and joined them.
“’Tis good to see you again, friend.” Cecille smiled at Edmund. “So very good.”
He nodded graciously at Cecille and winked at Ada. “Where else would I be?”
“Dining with yer fellow Sassenach.” Ada muttered a vague thanks under her breath before peering out the cave entrance. “Have ye men with ye then?”