Page 92 of Defy the Highlander

Ye give me hope, Lilia. Hope that life can be good again.

For them, it finally was.

*

The busy, noisy tavern on the dead-end avenue was called The Copper Kelpie and it was filled to the rafters with people on this cold, misty night.

Brody wouldn’t have cared so much if it was only him. He could have found a warm corner to sleep in. But he had his wife with him and he would do everything in his power to secure a bed for her for the night.

He wasn’t beyond playing on sympathy for it.

The tavernkeep was a big man with an eye missing who listened to Brody tell a story of his rushed wedding and how all his wife wanted in the entire world was a bed and a fire for the night. Fortunately for Brody, the man’s wife overheard him and she offered them the only chamber they had left, which was a small attic room where the servants slept.

Brody took it, and happily so.

He and Lilia retreated to the chamber, which was up a tiny flight of stairs. It amounted to nothing more than a dusty little room with a small window, a brazier of hot coals to stave off the chill, and two beds that were hardly big enough for children to sleep in. While Brody went downstairs to commandeer a meal, Lilia dragged the mattresses from both beds onto the floor next to the brazier so they could sleep next to the heat. By the time he returned with a full tray, she was sitting on the mattresses, waiting for him.

“What’s this?” he asked. “Why are we on the floor?”

Lilia pointed to the timber and rope bedframes shoved up against the wall. “Because ye canna fit in those,” she said. “Besides… I want tae sleep next tae ye. ’Tis my right now, after all.”

He grinned as he sat down on the floor, putting the tray on the mattresses. “Good thinking, Lady McKay,” he said. Then, he paused, looking at her with an expression that relayed a heart that was full to bursting. “God, that sounds like music tae my ears. Lady McKay. I never thought words could sound so sweet.”

Lilia flushed, smiling bashfully. “Ye must say it every day, several times a day. I want tae hear it as much as possible.”

He laughed softly, taking her hand and lifting it for a tender kiss. “I promise I will,” he said. Then, he lowered her hand and focused on the tray, handing her a full cup of warm wine. “I’ve paid for a good deal of food. I hope ye’re hungry.”

Lilia was. She sat in front of the tray, cross-legged, inspecting the contents. “It looks like some kind of pies?”

Brody pointed. “An eel tart, stuffed eggs, bread, butter, and stewed apples.”

Lilia jumped in. The tart was delicious, as were the eggs, and she and Brody ate heartily as he spoke about the friends he’d left behind at the Ludus Caledonia and how he planned to return as soon as he could.

All the while, Lilia listened with a smile on her lips.

“For a place ye’d never heard of before, it has certainly become important tae ye,” she said. “Ye speak about it as if ye’ve been there most of yer life.”

He conceded the point. “I went there tae earn money tae pay for yer freedom, but I found much more than that.”

“Friends?”

He nodded. “Mostly,” he said. “Even the one they call The Eagle. His real name is Titus and even he has become something of a friendly acquaintance. But it’s more than that… when I went there, I told Cam that I was hoping tae find myself again.”

“What do ye mean?”

“I mean the man I lost when I killed those lads near Jedburgh,” he said quietly. “That man was confident and courageous and reckless. Afterwards, he was crippled with guilt for what he’d done and he lost everything he thought he was.”

“And did he find himself again?”

He nodded. “I think so,” he said. “I feel as if I’m on the right path. This journey north is part of it.”

“Oh?”

He nodded, slowing his movements as he thought on what the future would hold. “We’re going home tae the village of Ledmore, where my family has lived for generations. I’m going home tae face my father, which is something I should have done in the beginning. I know that now.”

Lilia was listening intently. “But ye did face him after that terrible event,” she said. “Ye said that he sent ye home.”

Brody grunted softly. “He sent me home because I refused tae admit that I’d been wrong, Lilia,” he said frankly. “I was convinced I’d been right and given that I couldna see my own faults, my da had no choice but tae send me home so I wouldna get myself killed. He did right. I want tae tell him that.”