“Yes. They’re leaving in a matter of weeks. If all goes well, I, too, will be a member of the party. In fact, it is quite a coincidence that I should meet you at this time.”
“Oh?”
He smiled and leaned toward her. “Dear lady, if you were to rise now and walk to yonder corner, you might find yourself most pleasantly surprised.”
Brianna frowned uncertainly. She felt the oddest tingling sensation in her body, as if she should be aware of something that she was not. “I—”
“Please,” Luke said with a grin, and then he turned to the lord mayor. “Sir, would you—”
“Excuse you, too?” The lord mayor asked a little tartly. “By all means, boy. If the girl has kin here, she must see them.”
“Here!”Brianna gasped.
Luke laughed. He was already on his feet, helping her to hers. “Come, please.”
The tingling sensation had become such that she would not have managed to rise without Luke’s assistance. In the far corner was a group of men, all somberly garbed in deep browns and grays, their heads bent to their conversation. They ceased as she was led to them, and then she stood dead still herself as the slimmest of the men lifted his head, and saw her.
Oh, he was so very thin and fragile in appearance. But his deep, dark eyes were dearly familiar, as was his compassionate face, the wisdom of his gaze, and the dark hair that hung to his shoulders. So familiar! So loved, and so well remembered!
“Robert!” Brianna gasped out. “Robert Powell!”
He stood quickly, and Brianna instantly fretted that he appeared too pale as well as far too slender, and she was shocked by the fierceness of his hold when he came to her, hugging her with a look of joy.
“Brianna! Where—what—”
She smiled very sadly, and not knowing anything at all about the others present, she spoke very simply. “Pegeen is dead, Robert.”
He was studying her face intently, thumbs and fingers touching her cheeks and chin as he assured himself that she was real—and well. “I’m so sorry, Brianna, so very sorry for thee! She was a dear woman, and surely sits with God our Maker.”
“So I am sure,” Brianna murmured.
“Ah, but you have grown!” Robert said, shaking his head as he clutched her hands next, standing back to take in her full appearance.
“I should hope so! I was but a child when last we met!”
His touch was so gently warming, and she felt that seeing Robert, she had come home. It was all she could have hoped for; it was what she had longed for when she had first left Scotland.
But that was before she had fallen in love with Sloan. And now, no matter how great her pleasure in seeing Robert, it was blurred with pain. Things couldn’t have worked out any better! She didn’t have to go through any difficulty at all to find the Powells—she had found Robert without lifting a finger.
Suddenly, in her heart, she was praying that she hadn’t found him at all. She still wanted a way to stay with Sloan.
She lowered her lashes quickly, frightened that she would begin to cry. “How is your mother, Robert? And your father? And—”
“Everyone is fine, Brianna. We have aged, as is God’s way, but we do well. But you’ve no thought of leaving without seeing mother and father, have you?”
I’ve not thought of leaving at all, she replied in silence, wincing against the pain when she thought of leaving Sloan. She raised her eyes to his. “Robert, I—I have longed to reach you and your family since Pegeen died.”
What had happened, she wondered then, what had she said? Nothing, nothing at all. But something must have slipped into her voice, something that echoed all the heartache and agony she had endured, for her cousin’s arms were suddenly around her, holding her, and his slim fingers were gently soothing her hair.
“Thou art with us now, dear cousin, and while we breathe, none will hurt you again.”
Don’t! Oh, don’t be so terribly kind, she wanted to cry out. She was trying to stand on her own feet, but he made it so very easy to lean against his shoulders! What would he think if he knew the whole story; that she had been condemned as a witch, that she had earned her passage by playing a whore.
That she loved a married man with all her heart and soul, and now needed protection against herself, rather than him.
Someone cleared his throat; Brianna and Robert both started to see that Luke and the lord mayor were standing quietly to the left of them.
“My dear girl!” the lord mayor said, perplexed. “What is going on here?”
