Page 17 of To Charm a Highlander

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Haydon kenned this question was coming once they’d all seen the change in his sister.But with so little information himself, would it help or hurt Donella to learn what they did ken?

“Let us retire to my solar.”As they began to walk, he said, “Before we begin this conversation, what happened at the village that made your visit no’ end well?”

“Callum and I went to the ale house and a mon from the Gunn clan insulted me.I’m afraid Callum took a bad slice in his arm defending me.Dorathia just finished sewing him up.”

She glanced over at him when he growled.“Before ye get any more upset, ye should ken that I had Callum put into one of the bedchambers.I dinna think he would get much care in the warrior quarters.”

Haydon’s brows rose.“Ye did, did ye?And since when do ye make decisions without consulting yer laird?”

She waved him off like a pesky insect.“By the time I would have been able to find ye, the mon would have bled to death.”

He was no longer stunned by the things Donella did and said since her head injury.He’d asked Dorathia many times if her memory would come back and the answer was always the same.She dinna ken and had no idea if it was permanent or no’.

What disturbed him most was they all kenned something happened to her when she was younger that changed her from a sweet, joyful lass into a shell of a person.

They were both caught up in their own thoughts as they made their way back to the keep and then up the stairs to his solar.No matter how many ways he thought of telling what she wanted to ken, the more confused he became.‘Twould be best to let her question him and tell her as much as he kenned.

Haydon had been stopped a few times on their journey.Donella seemed impatient as he was addressed by servants with troubles and a warrior wondering where Callum was since he’d heard the mon had been injured but wasna’ in the warrior quarters.Making it sound as though it had been Dorathia’s decision, he brushed the mon off before he could ask any more questions.

Once they were settled, with Haydon behind his desk and Donella sitting in the chair in front of him, she said, “Ever since I hit my head in the fall down the stairs, everyone has been acting strange.”

Before he said something that would make matters worse, he asked, “What do ye mean by strange?”

She sighed.“Whatever I do, or say, or wherever I go, someone seems surprised to see me or almost shocked to hear what I say.I kenned that the fall hadn’t changed my looks because I already asked Dorathia that question.”

Haydon studied her for a minute.He and Ainslee had discussed this situation at length, and the only conclusion they came to was something happened to Donella around her fourteenth summer that had changed her into the quiet, almost strange lass she’d been up until her fall down the stairs.

“Do ye remember anything about yer fourteenth summer?”

Donella shrugged.“Nothing in particular.”

He leaned his forearms on the desk and looked her in the eyes.‘Twas time to tell her what he kenned.He hoped it would not destroy the lass.

“You went missing that summer.”

“Missing?What do ye mean?”

“Missing for a few days, even though it seemed longer to us.Da had died only a few months before and I was wrestling with problems as the new laird.”

“How long, brother?”

“Four days.Ye were found wandering in the woods outside the castle walls.Ye refused to tell anyone where ye had been and what happened to ye.”

Donella sat verra still, putting fear in Haydon that she’d remembered and once again returned to the state she’d been in since that had happened.

Eventually, she said.“I remember naught.”

“Ye spent a lot of time with Mam doing gardening, but also wandered off—within the castle walls—for at least a part of every day.Ye seemed to be in a dream state.

“After a while, especially after Mam died, we just left ye to do what you wanted to do.Ye were responsible for the keep upon Mam’s passing, but ye dinna have the will, it seemed, to do anything but draw on parchment and walk in the woods.”

“Draw?I doona remember drawing.”

They remained silent for a few minutes, Haydon watching Donella to see if anything came back to her mind that would upset her.

Nothing.