Page 138 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

Her voice was scarcely more than breath.

Roy knelt beside her. He could offer carpenters, timber and labor. He could rebuild every box in the garden before the next season. Yet, he knew repair could not restore the precise angle of Lachlan’s hammer marks or the memory of his hand beneath hers.

Donaldina reached carefully beneath the broken edge and lifted one frame. The upper comb had melted, but part of the lower section remained intact. Bees moved across it, dark with smoke but alive.

“This one survives,” she whispered.

Roy leaned closer. A queen could not be seen among the moving bodies, but workers clustered protectively near the center of the frame.

Donaldina examined another section. “The brood is sheltered here.”

“Can it be moved?”

“Aye. If the queen lives.”

She rose and went to the next hive. The outer wood had been scorched, but the lower frames remained protected beneath the soaked cloth thrown over them during the fire. One corner had warped from heat, though the box still stood.

“And this one,” she said.

Farther along, two of the newer hives remained almost untouched except for smoke stains along their roofs.

Donaldina drew a slow breath. “They destroyed less than they intended.”

“They always do,” Roy replied.

She turned toward him. The meaning passed between them without need of explanation.

Cormac had intended to destroy the marriage, leaving both clans fighting together under the same banners. He intended to take Donaldina’s choice and died before witnesses who heard her refuse him. He intended to burn the garden and had left living bees beneath the ash.

Donaldina looked around the ruined grounds. “They can be rebuilt.”

“Aye.”

“Some of the old wood may be saved.”

“We begin at dawn.”

She glanced at him. “Roy, half the castle requires repair.”

“Then the carpenters will be busy.”

“The wounded require tending.”

“They will be tended.”

“The hall is destroyed.”

“It remains standing.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Ye intend tae argue with every objection.”

“Aye.”

Something softened in her expression.

“The old hive first,” she said. “We preserve whatever hasnae burned.”

Roy nodded. “And the surviving colonies must be moved before nightfall. They willnae endure the cold in damaged boxes.”