Dare, Lydia - Tall, Dark and Wolfish

With a curt nod, Will left him and started for the staircase.

Ben rested his forehead against the wall. How could he make things right? There had to be something he could do.

The little maid from the night before bustled into Elspeth's room. It looked as though the young girl was blushing. "Lord William said you needed help getting dressed."

The reason for the blush was obvious now. Elspeth cleared her throat. "Thank ye."

The girl retrieved Elspeth's dress from the day before and shook out the wrinkles. Then she pulled back the counterpane and slid the gown over Elspeth's head. How awkward for someone else to dress her! She felt like a rag doll being pushed and pulled in odd directions.

"The major is so relieved you're awake, milady," the maid said as she smoothed the dress over Elspeth's body.

"How long have ye worked for the major?"

She shrugged. "A little more than a year now. Ever since he returned from the Continent."

"Is he a good employer?"

"The best, milady." The girl tugged the gown down around Elspeth's ankles. Then she pulled the counterpane back up to her waist.

"And honest? Does he seem honest ta ye?" Did she dare believe all that he'd told her? Did he really not know about her? Had her mother really not been in contact with him?

Clearly affronted, the maid raised herself up to her full height, which wasn't all that tall. "Who said otherwise? Major Forster is the most honorable of men!"

"That's quite all right, Molly," the major said from the doorway. "I'm certain my daughter was just curious."

"I—um…" Elspeth felt her face heat and was certain her cheeks were the color of her hair. She really must be more careful around Lycans, with their superior hearing.

The major laughed. "You remind me so much of her. It'll take some getting used to. For both of us, I imagine." He crossed the floor and took the seat Will had vacated earlier. Then he leaned forward, took her hand in his, and squeezed. "How are you feeling, my dear?"

"Fine," she replied softly.

One of the major's dark eyebrows rose disbelievingly. "Fine?"

She shrugged. "Just a little weak. I'll be fine in no time."

Her father pursed his lips. "You knew what would happen, didn't you? That you'd collapse?"

Elspeth's eyes dropped to the counterpane. She hadn't known for sure, but she'd had a pretty good idea. "I couldna let him suffer."

"He was furious with us for letting you put yourself in danger. If I'd known…"

"Ye wouldna have stopped me." She raised her gaze to his. "I ken he doesna feel the same about me that I do about him, but I could never let him be in pain."

Her father's features softened, and he smiled wistfully at her. "So much like Rose."

She hoped not. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life mourning Ben the way her mother had mourned her father. It was an awful way to live. "How did you go on without her?"

He snorted. "Badly. I was fortunate there was always a battlefield that required my attention. But at night there was nothing to distract me from my memories of her. Was she happy?"

"She missed ye. But she had me and my grandfather and the coven…" Her voice trailed off when she saw his countenance fall.

"I'll never forgive myself for listening to Fiona Macleod. I should have seen Rose with my own eyes. At the time, I didn't think I could bear to see her as another man's wife. I was a coward."

Elspeth's heart ached for him, and she understood completely. When Ben went on to find his happiness with another, she didn't think she could ever see him again. She couldn't imagine anything more painful. "I doona think ye're a coward."

He sighed and she noticed tears in his dark eyes. "You have a compassionate nature, my dear."

"Where do we go from here, Major?"

Her father shook his head. "Wherever you want, lass. I'm your humble servant."

"No' a servant," she choked on a laugh. "Ye're my father."

"I don't know how to make up for lost time, but I'll do whatever you need, help you anyway possible."

"Thank ye for that." She sat up straight and fought back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. "I'd like ta stay here with ye for a while. I'd like ta get ta ken ye."

A smile spread across his face, and he scratched his whiskered jaw. "I'd like that, lass." Then his brow furrowed as he regarded her. "But Benjamin?"

"Is free ta do whatever he wants."

"I'm fairly certain he wants to be with you, Elspeth. He guarded you with his life last night."

She shook her head. "I canna go with him." It would kill her to do so, to see him every day and know he didn't love her. She was safer here, where she could focus on her father and, hopefully, figure out how to go on without Ben.

Forty-six

After more than a fortnight of travel, Elspeth took her father's hand in her own as she stepped from the coach in front of her small cottage and took in the sight. A comforting breeze caressed her face. The witches knew she was home. They'd probably known she was coming long before she did.

"Are you all right?" the major asked. It was still hard to think of him as "Father," since they'd spent so little time together, but they had definitely grown closer as they traveled from London to Edinburgh. She'd learned all about her grandparents in Glasgow and hoped to meet them very soon. She also had several distant cousins and one spinster aunt, whom the major said would dote on her.

Elspeth closed her eyes and inhaled. It smelled like home, so much sweeter than the thick London air. "Aye, I'm all right." Then she looked over at her father. "Ye didna have ta come all this way just ta see me home, Major."

He chucked her beneath her chin. "I finally find out I have a daughter, and you want me to let you run off to Scotland alone? What kind of father do you think I am?" He chuckled. "Honestly, I have no idea what kind of father I'll be."

"And I've no idea what kind of daughter I am," she said, smiling in his direction. "We'll learn together." His eyebrows pushed together as his eyes took in the sight of the old cottage. "Does this bring back good or bad memories, Major? If it's too painful, we can go straight ta the Thistle and Thorn, and ye willna have ta spend time here."

"Actually, Elspeth, I'd like to go and pay my respects to your mother." He avoided her gaze, and her heart ached for him.

"Down the lane. In the church cemetery." She nodded her head in the right direction. Part of her wanted to go with him, but she knew he needed to do this alone.

"Will you be all right?" he asked.

Elspeth grinned at him. "I've lived here my whole life. I'll be just fine. Besides, I've got some things ta tend ta."

He caressed her cheek then loped off slowly down the lane, his gaze pointed toward the ground. It had to be hard coming back to Edinburgh after all this time. After all they had been through.

A coach rattled down the drive and stopped in front of her. Elspeth smiled as she recognized the crest. The door flung open with a bang; the inhabitant didn't even wait for the driver to dismount and open the door. Sorcha tumbled out, a vision in white with a coronet of white flowers in her dark hair. "Welcome home!" she cried, nearly knocking Elspeth to the ground with her exuberance.

"

Havers

, Sorcha! Ye act like I've been gone for years!" Elspeth said as she hugged the girl back.

"That's what it's felt like. Like ye disappeared from the face of the earth."

Elspeth laughed and tugged the girl's arms from around her neck, setting her back so that she could look at her.

"Somethin' is different about ye," Sorcha said, touching a fingertip to her chin as she regarded Elspeth from head to toe. "But I canna determine what it is."