Page 36 of A Highland Duke to Claim Her Heart

“Yes,” he said gruffly. “I suppose we should.”

And yet, he did not move. Another long moment of silence passed. Then Cassandra stepped closer.

“What was she like?” she murmured. She tilted her head toward the door. “Annabelle’s mother.”

The question caught him off guard, and for a long moment, Ewan just stared at her. Then he cleared his throat.

“She was…”In love with someone else. Bitter. Angry.“Strong.”

“Strong…”

“She did not like the Highlands,” he explained. This was true enough. “But she adapted as well as she could. It is a tough place for many who have spent their childhoods in London. I admired how hard she worked to find a place here. And then, when she was expecting, she was very eager to become a mother.”

Cassandra smiled softly. “You said she wanted Annabelle to be a proper young lady.”

“Yes. She had many ideas for how to raise our daughter, if the child was indeed a girl. But then, of course, she did not get to do so…”

It had been in this very corridor where he had paced back and forth, listening to her screams. Even now, five years later, the memory of it sent a shiver through him, made his stomach churn and his hands begin to shake. He clasped them behind his back.

But it was too late. Cassandra had noticed his distress. She took another step forward, and he instinctively stepped back.

“She died in childbirth, did she not?” she asked.

Ewan nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“I am very sorry.” Cassandra looked down at her own hands. “That must have been terrible.”

“It was,” Ewan said. He hesitated, then, “They would not let me into the room. I think they were afraid I would make things worse. Maybe I would have. But I did not get to help. I was entirely useless…”

“But there was nothing you could have done to help,” Cassandra said gently. “You are not a physician. And childbirth is verydangerous. Every woman grows up knowing that. Fearing it.” She swallowed. “I am sure that she knew you were with her. In… spirit, at least.”

Ewan did not respond. He was not sure Margaret had known that, or that she would have wanted that. She had never been interested in having him with her, in body or spirit.

But he did not want to tell Cassandra that; not when she was looking at him with so much gentleness, perhaps even admiration.

“It was difficult, after she passed,” he said. “I am sure you heard from Miss Ashworth that I do not usually attend the Midsummer Festival.”

She blushed and looked down, confirming his theory.

“It was difficult for me, and I withdrew much from public life,” he said. “My focus became my tenant farmers, working on their fields, and of course, Annabelle. I threw myself into raising her, into giving her as much love and care as she could get. There was so much that was out of my control, but those two, Annabelle and the estate. Those I could try and control.”

Cassandra nodded. “Annabelle is very lucky to have a father like you,” she murmured. “Many gentlemen would hand their daughter off to a nurse or a distant female family relation, rather than raise a child themselves. I know many such cases inLondon, of little girls brought up by aunts and cousins, rather than their fathers, after the deaths of their mothers.”

“There were some who counselled me to do the same,” Ewan admitted. Christopher was one of them, but he had chalked that up to his brother’s youth and immaturity. Now, he was not so certain. “But it never crossed my mind to let Annabelle be raised by others. I wanted her here, with me.”

“And now that she is older,” Cassandra, “are you discovering that she is actually just as difficult to control as the rest of life?”

Ewan laughed. “Yes, I will admit, it gets harder and harder by the day.”

They had walked all the way together down the corridor to their adjoining bedchambers, and they stopped in front of Cassandra’s. For a long moment, they simply gazed at one another, then Cassandra curtsied.

“Goodnight,” she murmured. She had just pushed open her door when Ewan stopped her.

“Wait.” The word sounded clumsy and rushed. “Before you go. I wanted to ask you not to make plans for tomorrow.”

“Really?” Cassandra’s eyes were wide. “Why not?”

“There is something I want to show you,” he said.