Forget Me Not, My Scottish Love by Allie Palomino
Chapter Five
Cameron heard them before he saw them.
“You are an embarrassment, Diane! Speaking for her at the ceremony?” Haynsworth yelled in rising crescendo, his hand rising as well.
“I wouldna strike her, Haynsworth. I’m itching for a fight and ye’re the one I’d like to use to scratch it,” Cameron said, as Haynsworth lowered his hand.
“What do you want?”
Cameron ignored him and spoke to Diane.
“Lady Haynsworth, I will be departing now with Abigail and will be needing her belongings.”
Diane’s mixed emotions showed on her face. While she was glad that he would protect her daughter, she was sad that she was leaving. Would she see her again? She remembered asking herself that same question the night she married Elliot.
She turned to get Abby’s things.
“I’ll see to the marriage’s annulment. I’ll be damned if my daughter will be married to you,” Haynsworth bit out.
“The marriage will stay firm, Haynsworth, unless yer daughter canna get with child. And, yes, verra damned ye are.”
“If Abigail cannot get with child, ‘twill be your fault, Scot. Your seed is faulty, causing a weak lineage.”
“John! That’s enough!”
“Stay out of it, Diane!” Haynsworth said, his breathing shallow, his agitation rising.
“Here you are, Laird MacPherson. Her baggage is meager. For obvious purposes, she isn’t concerned about appearances. Nothing concerns her. Her mind…,” Diane broke down. She began weeping.
“Enough! Get the hell out, Scot. This will not be the last you see or hear of me.”
“Nor ye of me, Haynsworth. We’ve unfinished matters between us,” Cameron promised, his gaze measuring.
“What are you speaking of, Laird?” Diane asked, her cheeks wet from tears.
“Stay out of it, woman!” Haynsworth said cuttingly. “You cannot prove anything, Scot.”
Cameron took Abby’s satchel, gave him a hard look, and left.
When Cameron returned to his family and Abby, his breath caught in his throat. They had managed to comb her hair and straighten her disheveled appearance.
Abby looked beautiful.
Her hair had been plaited and whimsical blond strands had freed themselves. Her green eyes were bright as she looked at him. She immediately smiled when she saw him.
“Cameron.”
“Hello, Abby.”
“Seems to be the only thing she says. Even her mother was in awe that she had managed to say yer name. She willna speak, though,” Alice said.
“Of course, Mother. I told ye, she is mute,” Catherine said in a voice as if she were instructing a child.
“She’s nay mute if she spoke his name, Catherine,” Aidan said.
Alice turned to Catherine and Aidan to give them a stern look, and then spoke to Cameron again.
“She cried when ye left and the only way I managed to stop the tears was by speaking of ye,” Alice said smiling.
“Doona give me that smile, Mother,” Cameron said reservedly. “We must leave. Now.”
“Now? But dark is falling, Cameron. Is it safe?” Catherine asked.
“D’ye think I’d hear the end of it from Peter were it not safe, Catherine? I doona know how ye managed to convince him to care for the children while ye came here for the wedding,” Cameron said with a half-smile.
Catherine crossed her arms and stared at her older brother. Her toes tapped on the floor in a sign of impatience.
“He loves me and gives me everything I want.” She looked pointedly at him. “Ye should learn.”
“Actually, ‘tis more like ye drive him so daft with yer incessant chatting that he gives ye what ye want in order to have a moment of quiet,” Keith said, laughing.
“Really, Keith?” Amy looked at him with this new discovery as she crossed her arms. Keith’s smile vanished. Cameron smirked.
“Come, Amy. Let us await them outside,” Catherine said, her smile widening and chin lifting up a notch as she made eye contact with Keith. She fairly pranced as they left.
Cameron laughed. “I’ll never be wrapped around any woman’s finger.”
Keith pushed him, making Cameron laugh harder.
Witnessing the teasing sibling banter, Abby laughed as well. Cameron looked over at her. Her eyes gleamed and her smile was wide. Was she mimicking them or did she understand their playful chat?
He couldn’t help but admire her beauty.
Was this wrong? he asked himself. Was it wrong to be attracted to this woman- a woman whose mind is broken and who is mute?
Mute wasn’t so bad, but her broken mind? She was very innocent and naïve, almost child-like.
He shook his head. Heavens, no! That would be sick if he thought of her as a child. Nay, she was naïve and fragile.
He cleared his throat.
“Let us depart. ‘Tis late,” Cameron said, turning.
“I thought we would stay for a night.”
“No. We’re leaving now, Mother. ‘Tis best.”
Alice helped Abby out of the chair and held her hand.
“Cameron?”
There was an uncertainty in her voice. Her face looked troubled.
He turned around to her, noting the spooked look on her face. Her eyes mirrored her worry. Their green depths were now a rich emerald color. He sensed her urgency, and her need to be reassured.
“Ye are nay staying behind, Abby. Ye’ll be coming with us.”
Abby looked somewhat relieved, but still untrusting.
“Cameron, give us a moment. I am going to help change her into something more comfortable for traveling,” Alice said. She looked in a bag, took out a light yellow dress. “Come, Abby. Let us get ye changed so that we may leave.”
Abby had not taken her gaze off Cameron for a moment and neither had he taken his gaze off her. He saw the uncertainty in her eyes. She had lived through horrible atrocities alone. Not being able to speak and having Haynsworth as her father would force anyone’s mind to break.
“I’ll remain here, Abby.”
She followed Alice out, but looked back once to make sure he was there, and then disappeared around the corner.
“She has eyes for ye, Cameron,” Keith said.
“Do ye remember her?” Cameron asked.
“Who can forget her?” Aidan asked, smiling. Cameron shot him a irritated look.
“I remember her, Cameron. She was the young girl that night,” Keith said.
“Aye, she was. I remember seeing the light dim in her eyes. I saw the lucidity leave her only to be replaced with bleak horror. Her life changed that night,” Cameron said, staring into nothing.
“Aye, and it changed yers, too,” Keith said seriously.
“Doona be so damned histrionic, Keith,” Aidan said.
“‘Tis the truth, Aidan. He hasna been able to think of another woman since that night. He’s often thought about her.” Keith knowingly stared at Cameron.
Cameron ignored his perceptive and intuitive brother.
“Get her belongings out. We must leave,” Cameron said, moving towards the door.
“See there. He avoids the topic.” Keith raised his hand. Cameron looked back at them with pursed lips and a clenched jaw.
A few moments later, Cameron, Keith, and Aidan were side by side. The clansmen faced the entrance of the holding, while the brothers had their backs to it, as Cameron addressed his men. As Cameron spoke, he noticed that their attention was no longer on him. Something behind him distracted them.
“What has ye distracted?” Cameron asked impatiently when he’d seen the tenth set of eyes look behind him. He turned around.
He forgot how to breathe.
Abby stood next to his mother in a pale yellow dress. The bodice was a little too low cut for Cameron’s liking. Her skin was fresh and creamy porcelain. He wondered if it felt as velvety as it looked. She was beautiful and he felt the blood within his veins pump faster.
“Who is she, Laird?” one young warrior shouted.
He turned back to his men and was struck speechless by the lustful look in their eyes. Possessiveness surged through him.
“Lady MacPherson,” Cameron responded in a hard voice.
“Nay, Laird, we’re talkin’ ‘bout the beauty in the yellow dress,” another clarified.
Both Keith and Aidan laughed. Cameron clenched his jaw.
“So am I,” Cameron said through his teeth.
All of their gazes lifted to meet Cameron’s hard stare.
“Our pardon, Laird,” one spoke in Gaelic. All murmured their apologies as well.
Aidan smirked, and said in a forced thick accent of mockery, “Lord above, my bollocks shrank jost lookin’ at yer face.”
Cameron rolled his eyes, and Keith laughed.
Cameron asked Keith to ride with Abby, since he would be continuously moving from the front to the back of the pack. Alice helped Abby get comfortable and arranged her gown atop the horse. Abby wasn’t cooperating but finally gave in after glancing at Cameron one last time. Catherine and Amy were already seated on their mounts.
Alice walked over to Cameron.
“How is she mother?” His lips were still twisted as he stared at his men.
“She is only calm when I speak of ye, Cameron. She doesna like letting ye out of her sight.”
Cameron didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nodded. “Is everything ready?”
“Yes,” Alice said curtly. She disliked his dismissive attitude.
“Let’s go then. Move!” he yelled the order and mounted his powerful steed.
Minutes later, they made their way home. Cameron kept noticing Abby looking back at him as he trailed behind the last of the packhorses.
What the hell was going on? He ignored it for the moment.
Although their journey to Wexford’s holding was relatively quick, it would take slightly longer to return home. It was getting late and the moving darkness required more vigilance at a slower pace. Warriors flanked the front and back of their procession.
As the sun fell in the sky, he kept seeing Abby look back at him. Keith maintained his posture sitting forward.
“What is going on in there?” Aidan asked.
“I doona know, but I’m going to find out,” Cameron said and kicked the horse to gallop faster.
Abby turned again, and a fleeting expression of horror passed over her face until her eyes found his. He saw relief then.
Was she trying to see that I followed, to make sure that I hadn’t left her?
Cameron gained a good bit of speed, and as he came alongside them, he plucked her out from in front of Keith. He looked back and saw his brother grin.
Cameron ushered the procession forward and nodded to Aidan, as he slowed to a trot.
“Ye’re riding with me.”
Abby studied his eyes seriously, her focus shifting from eye to eye. Her gaze was intent.
“Th-thank y-you,” she said, mouthing the words awkwardly. Her eyebrows crinkled as if she was thinking through the process of speaking.
It looked almost as if her mind’s haze was lifting, Cameron thought to himself.
Cameron was surprised to hear her speak. Her voice was throaty from years of silence, he assumed, but it sounded like he remembered. She hadn’t spoken much then, though. He had only heard her say her name, but her voice had been melodious.
He couldn’t stop himself from raising his hand to her face. He cupped her chin and his thumb stroked her cheek. She closed her eyes and a smile slowly appeared on her face. She sighed in his hand. Her trust in him surprised him, but it pleased him.
“Come, let’s go,” he said gruffly, adjusting her more securely on the warhorse and in his arms. She grabbed his knee out of fear.
“It’s alright, Abby,” he said, as he placed an arm around her waist.
She relaxed against Cameron and looked up at him. He was staring ahead but dropped his gray gaze down to her green ones, and she smiled. He smiled back.
“Ye must be tired, Abby. Rest. We’ll reach my home soon,” he said, and she turned back around to look forward. “Our home.”
He felt the tension leave her body as she slowly fell asleep. He had noticed the dark circles under her eyes.
She must have been in a constant state of tension at home with Haynsworth.
Abby was so petite and thin. His hands could span her waist. She looked so fragile and scared. He could only guess at the abuse she must have suffered at the hands of her father. Emotional abuse was certain and he didn’t doubt the possibility of physical abuse.
It was a year of marriage and no more, unless she carried his bairn. From experience, he knew that she would not get with child. His seed never took root. He always looked longingly at his nephews and nieces. He wanted a bairn of his own, but none of the women he had been intimate with ever got with child. That was when he realized that one woman was just like any other, and for that reason, he took only one woman as his mistress- Gillyanne. They were all the same. None of them conceived and he wanted to blame them, but he knew the fault lay with him.
His thoughts returned to Abby as she moved more into the shelter of his arms. She huddled closer to him, burrowing in his warmth. His arms tightened around her. Cameron remembered how fragile she was and was going to loosen his hold, but then she contentedly sighed.
She likes being held by me.
A profound feeling of protectiveness and possessiveness filled him. She was his.
But only for a year.