Highlander’s Frozen Heart by Shona Thompson
Chapter Four
Adelleine had to admit that she had been quite taken with Magnus from the moment that he stepped foot into her house. She doubted that there were many people who wouldn’t be just as fascinated by him, a man who wasn’t just a Laird, but who was also smart, well-spoken, and seemingly kind to the point where he would travel for weeks just to fulfil his friend’s last wish.
She didn’t want to lie to him. She didn’t want to tell him that everything was alright, because it simply wasn’t. Ever since she had found out that her aunt would give her to the highest bidder—who just happened to be a man that she didn’t want, a man that she would never want or love—Adelleine had been facing the hardest decision of her life.
She never minded her poverty, even though the first decade of her life, when her parents were still alive, had been spent in luxury, when her parents were still alive. She never minded having to share everything that she owned, from her clothes to her own bed sometimes, when her aunt was going through a particularly rough period.
What she minded was the prospect that she would end up living the rest of her life in misery, with a man who was old enough to be her father.
Ever since her aunt had informed her of her dire situation, Adelleine had decided that she had to act. She had to do something, anything to save herself from such a fate.
Still, she couldn’t bring herself to burden him with her own troubles. She hardly knew the man; it would only be unfair to him to have to deal with her own problems.
“I’m alright,” she assured him with a small smile, “Aunt Victoria is . . . well, she can often be misguided, but she is a kind woman. She has raised me as her own, and for that, I am grateful.”
“Misguided?” Magnus asked, “How?”
“Oh . . . I don’t wish to trouble you with such things,” Adelleine said, waving a hand dismissively, “It’s truly nothing. I have had a good life here, even though we are poor. I have never gone hungry, I have never needed anything that my aunt didn’t give me. She does what she can with what she has. Ever since my uncle, her husband, died, it has been very hard for her to raise me and me cousins.”
“Aye, I’m sure,” Magnus said, a hand coming up to scratch at his beard. Then, he stopped dead in his tracks, and doing so yanked Adelleine into a halt, connected as they were through their arms.
Magnus extricated himself from her, then, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, carved compass. He took Adelleine’s hand in his, and he placed the compass in her palm, making her close her fingers over it.
“This was yer brother’s,” he told her, “I’ve had it for years . . . I dinnae even remember when he gave it to me. But I want ye to have it noo.”
Adelleine looked at the compass in her hand, and suddenly, she could feel her eyes watering, the tears streaming down her face and splashing onto the metal cover. She cradled the compass in her hands as though it were the most precious thing in the world, and then she looked at Magnus, a small smile spreading over her lips.
“I . . . thank you,” she said, “That’s very kind of you, but are you certain I can have it? If you’ve held onto it for so many years, it’s yours by now.”
“Nay, nay . . . it’s yers,” Magnus assured her, “It was Jacob’s, and I want ye to have it. I doubt ye have anythin’ else of his.”
Adelleine shook her head, confirming Magnus’ suspicions. When they were growing up, they had few things, and when Jacob had left, the only things that he owned were necessities, nothing that he could leave behind for Adelleine to keep as a memory.
She had his letters, of course. She had kept all the letters that he had sent her throughout the years, not bearing to part with them. They were still in a drawer in her room, wrapped carefully with a piece of cotton fabric, safe and protected.
It was nice to have something that he used to carry with him, though. Adelleine felt as though she was holding onto a part of him, something that he used to have on him at all times, an extension of himself.
“You don’t know what this means for me,” she said, “Thank you.”
Silence fell between them once more, but this time, Adelleine didn’t feel the need to fill it, and it seemed that neither did Magnus. They were comfortable in the silence, happy to simply enjoy each other’s company.
It had been a long time since Adelleine had met someone new. Naturally, she knew everyone in Dalelry, small as it was, and they rarely had any visitors in that town. Magnus was a breath of fresh air, and he was perhaps the most charming man that could have visited a town like Dalelry.
A part of her, though, worried that her aunt would try her best to marry her off to Magnus. She had to confess that out of all her options—which were admittedly limited—Magnus seemed like the best one. Simply because he seemed like the best one, though, it didn’t mean that he was.
Adelleine didn’t want to marry a man that she didn’t know. She didn’t want to commit to someone that she had only met once or a few times, at best. No, she wanted to fall in love, to get to know the man that she would marry before she could make any life-changing decisions such as agreeing to a marriage.
She also didn’t want her aunt to scare Magnus away. He seemed like the kind of person that Adelleine would want as a friend, a confidant even, and he was one of the few links that she had to her brother. Magnus seemed to have known Jacob better than anyone, perhaps even better than she knew him, and that made her want to keep in touch with him even more.
Soon, the two of them returned to the house, and just as Adelleine had expected, her aunt continued to fawn over Magnus, monopolising the conversation and doing her best to impress him.
She loved Aunt Victoria. She had been like a second mother to her, ever since she and Jacob had lost their parents, and though she had made mistakes, she was a kind woman. Still, there were moments when she could be infuriating, and that was one of those moments.
She considered trying to intervene, but she didn’t even know where to start. People would often tell her that she was a little too chatty, a little too boisterous, but those people must have not met her aunt, she thought, or they would know that compared to her, Adelleine was quiet as a mouse.
So she stayed silent instead, allowing her aunt to lead the conversation and only speaking when she was spoken to, until fatigue caught up with Magnus and his men.
“I believe me and me men should head to the nearest inn,” he said, “We shall be returnin’ to the castle tomorrow mornin’, but until then, we all need some rest.”
“Oh, please, I can’t let you go to an inn!” Aunt Victoria said, “I don’t have much space here, but I have enough beds for all of you to be comfortable. My daughters can share beds, we have four to spare.”
“I wouldnae want to be a burden,” Magnus said, “It’s nae a problem for us to go to an inn.”
“You won’t find a good inn in these parts,” Aunt Victoria said, “I insist. I will prepare the beds for you, and then tomorrow morning, I’ll make you all a nice, big breakfast, so you won’t be hungry when you’ll be travelling.”
Magnus glanced at his men, and Adelleine could see that no one had anything to say that could convince her aunt to let them rent some rooms. Adelleine herself knew that it was a losing fight; once her aunt had made up her mind, there was no changing it.
“Verra weel,” Magnus said, “Thank ye, yer verra kind.”
“You boys make yourselves at home,” Aunt Victoria told them, before she rushed to the bedrooms to tidy up.
Adelleine followed her, knowing that she would need some help, and soon, everything was ready for the guests, though Adelleine’s cousins were less than thrilled with their new sleeping arrangement.
It didn’t take long for everyone to retire to their chambers, and then Adelleine was left alone in the kitchen, unable to sleep. She was restless, not only because of all the excitement of the day, but also because once everyone was gone, once the house had quieted down, she was left alone with her thoughts.
She had not forgotten about the baron. The thought that she would be forced to marry him lingered at the back of her mind, waiting for the right moment to overshadow everything else, and it seemed that the moment had come.
The more she thought about the fate that awaited her, the more Adelleine realised that she simply couldn’t bring herself to go through with such a wedding. The mere thought of marrying the baron left a bitter taste in her mouth, and it made her hands tremble and sweat in ways that even the most terrifying bedtime stories hadn’t managed to do when she was a child.
It was too much to bear, and yet Adelleine saw no hope in sight. Surely, her aunt wouldn’t care about her own feelings and whether or not she wanted to marry the baron in the first place. After all, she had expressed her opposition earlier that day, and she had only been met with reassurances that the baron was a kind enough man to not hurt her.
It didn’t sound like much of a reassurance to Adelleine, and the baron didn’t sound like much of a kind man either.
It was a spur of the moment decision. The thought crept into her mind quickly, and the moment it did, Adelleine knew it to be her only option.
She had to run away. She couldn’t stay there anymore, not when her entire future was at stake.
Where would she go, though? Her first instinct was to head back home, to her hometown in the south of England, but she had no family left there. Everyone she had ever known was either gone from her hometown or dead, and there was no one left to take her in.
Then, she thought that she could perhaps head to London, but she knew that the baron had connections there, and if his mind was set on marrying her, then he would track her down and find her easily. Edinburgh was also out of the question, as her four cousins, those who had already left Dalelry in search of a better life, all lived there and would certainly contact their mother regarding Adelleine’s whereabouts.
That left her with France, but just like her hometown, she had no one there. She would be all alone, and that seemed like a worse fate than being married to the baron.
Adelleine had her own little sum of money, hidden safely under her mattress, but that would only be enough to last her a little while. After that, she would have to figure out a way to survive, and though she was knowledgeable in many things, from French to the best ways to remove stains from cotton, she knew that there was little demand for women like her out in the world.
There were poor women everywhere. She wasn’t anything special.
She had no other choice but one, and even though the prospect terrified her, she still had to ask. She had to ask Magnus to take her with him back to his home.
It was the perfect plan, Adelleine thought. The Highlands were a strange land, filled with strangers, but she would have Magnus, at least. A part of her brother would always live through him, and even though Adelleine could never get Jacob back, she could at least have what remained of him in the memories of others.
She was also rather certain that Magnus would allow her to stay at the castle. She was more than happy to work there, perhaps in the kitchens or as a caretaker to the children of the castle’s nobility, and as long as she had food and a roof over her head, she didn’t need anything else.
The only thing that was left to do was to gather the courage to ask Magnus to take her with him.
That was easier said than done, of course. Adelleine soon found herself chewing on her bottom lip until it was bloody, her fingers lacing and unlacing around each other as she paced around the kitchen. It was a lot to ask from a man that she had only just met.
Besides, she didn’t want to do the very thing that she had worried her aunt would do; she didn’t want to scare Magnus away.
Even so, she found herself standing in front of her aunt’s chambers, where Magnus was spending the night, while her aunt and her two cousins had crammed themselves into one room. She stood there, staring at the door as though she was trying to will it to open on its own, so that she wouldn’t have to knock.
What other choice did she have? What else could she do to save herself from a life full of disappointment?
Adelleine raised a hand and knocked softly on the door, her fingers lingering over the wood as she waited for a reply.
There was no going back anymore.
