Page 88 of Her Reluctant Highlander Husband

“How did ye find yourself here with the Campbells?” he asked.

“I came here… You see, I lost my family, too. My husband and my boys. I tried to care for them all, your lasses and my men.” She sighed heavily.

“You took care of my family when they were ill?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I wasn’t able to do anything for any of them in the end. But I was there with Maggie and wee Isabel when they passed. I was no healer, but I tried my best to make them comfortable. There were so many sick. I’d lost Edgar and the boys the day before, and hoped I’d have better luck helping Maggie and Isabel. But I knew when I entered the house, they were too far gone.”

Tears filled the woman’s eyes as he stared at her dry-eyed, waiting to hear the rest of her story. How many times had he wanted to know the details? If his wife had hated him when she died? If his daughter had cried for her mother. For him. He’d found them in their beds and hadn’t known who had succumbed first.

This woman could tell him, if he was brave enough to ask.

He finally spoke, but his voice didn’t sound like his own. “How did they go?”

“Isabel went first. The morning before Maggie. I—I lied to your wife. She was so worried about your daughter, I told her Isabel was doing better. That she was eating.” The woman crossed herself. “I told her I only kept her away because I didn’t want the child to catch the sickness again. Maggie was able to relax then. She worried about you as well. She told me I must keep you away. That you were to return soon and she didn’t want you to be exposed. That night she grew weaker and she told me to tell you that she was so sorry to leave you. That she loved you. I told her you loved her as well, and she smiled and said she knew. It was easy to see the way the two of you felt about each other.”

She smiled at that, but her smile faded. “I wish I’d left a missive to pass on her words, but I don’t know my letters.” She hung her head.

“I understand.”

“I was so lost in my grief. My sister lost her husband as well. We were both Campbells before we wed MacKinlay men, so we decided to come back home together. I should have gone back to give you her message, but there were too many memories there I wasna willing to face. I hope you’re not angry.”

Bryce put his hand on hers and offered a brittle smile. “It comforts me to know they were not alone at the end. There was nothing you could have done to save them,” he said. The ague that had ravaged the village took many lives while leaving others unaffected. Some would call it God’s will, but what god would will the death of innocents?

“Aye,” she agreed. “There is nothing anyone could have done.” It was a simple phrase. One he’d been told many times by his friends and family over the years. But at that moment, the reality of those words hit with the force of their truth.

“I wouldn’t have been able to save them,” he said quietly as the meaning settled in.

The old woman’s hands gripped his tightly, holding him in place as he swayed from the impact of a decade of guilt suddenly pulling free from his shoulders.

“Nay. The only thing we can do for them now is to live the best life we can to honor their memories.”

Tears streamed down his cheeks. More came as fast as he could wipe them away. The old woman held him as they both wept. They must have looked a sight, standing there crying in the middle of the village, but he didn’t care.

He pulled in a breath, breathing deeply without pain for the first time in so long.

He was alive.

It was time he started acting like it.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“I’m so happy to have the chance to introduce you to our neighbors,” Harriet said as Dorie’s father handed them into the carriage. “How convenient for the duke to invite us to his home for a dinner party. There will be a number of wealthy landowners from the area. I know you like the country better than town.”

Her father gave his wife an indulgent smile and Dorie wondered if Harriet knew what she was missing. Dorie was certain no one but her own mother had ever seen the full force of the viscount’s emotions.

Dorie’s own smile slipped when she remembered Bryce’s smile and how guarded it was. How it was also always missing something.

He hadn’t loved her. And she hadn’t been able to love him enough to bridge the gap between them. Swallowing back the pain, she forced her lips up and straightened her shoulders.

Harriet had encouraged Dorie’s maid to take special measures with her hair and dress this evening.

Dorie felt excitement rise in her chest. Perhaps tonight would be the night she would meet the man who would love her. A man who could heal her wounded heart and allow her happiness.

These men would be from the country. Surely one of them would be a good match for her.

She only needed to give them a chance and certainly one of them would touch her heart.

Or so she’d hoped.