“I suspected I would find you up here. She’s sleeping peacefully at last.”
Rosalyn MacKiernan MacAlister’s words danced across the high windswept parapet of Dun Ard, ringing in Caden’s ears. He felt more than heard her steps across the rain-slicked stones, so the gentle touch to his shoulder came as no surprise.
“She’s a Daughter of the Fae.”
“Are you sure?” He didn’t know why he even bothered to ask. If anyone would know, it would be his mother, a Daughter herself. Perhaps it was because it would be so much easier if she were wrong. “Did she come here from the Faerie Glen, do you suppose?”
His mother pushed a bundle toward him. “Do any of these have the look of our Glen to you?”
A faint peach scent wafting up through the cloth confirmed what he held without his having to examine the contents. The clothing Elliedenton had worn. He could almost imagine the feel of holding her, the warmth of her body still clinging to the damp bits of cloth, though, of course, that was ridiculous.
“They’ve no the look of anything I’ve seen before.” Nor had the woman who’d worn them. “If no the Glen, then where could she have come from?”
“You dinna for one moment suppose the Fae confine themselves or their exploits to our fair Glen alone, do you? They would have no reason for such.” Again his mother softly touched his shoulder, directing his attention up to the spot in the night sky where she pointed. “Do you see that one wee star shining his light from among those clouds?”
Caden nodded, remembering all the times he had studied the sky with his mother from this very spot. “Aye.”
“We see only him, but we ken the existence of all the others we canna see. It’s the same with the Fae, son. They walk the lands among the mortals, whether we see them or not.”
“As you say.” Other Fae, like the Duke and his brother who’d come to Dun Ard nine years ago, threatening those dear to Caden. Exposing what he should have seen on his own. Changing his life forever. “Why do you suppose she’s here?”
“I’d say she’s another tossed through time. And I’ve the feeling she’s here for a reason.” Rosalyn adjusted the plaid she’d wrapped about herself, pulling it tighter against the cold, blowing mist. “Though whether the reason is hers or ours, I’ve no a clue.”
“Ours?” Caden turned to search his mother’s face. “What need would we have for a descendant of the Fae to appear on our doorstep?”
Both his mother’s eyebrows rose before she answered. “It’s no a secret that the Fae do what they do for reasons of their own. Reasons that often are no clear to us until their plans are well in motion.” She paused as if an idea had just occurred to her, a half smile lifting one corner of her mouth. “Perhaps they, like yer own mother, believe it’s high time the MacAlister men went about the business of finding their life mates and starting a family.”
A familiar litany from his mother.
“You believe she’s been sent for Colin or Drew?” It would be good to have one of them settled and about the business of providing a MacKiernan heir.
Rosalyn shrugged and turned her back toward the door. “Time will tell. You’d best come in soon, lad. Yer no going to solve the problems of the world staring at the heavens this night.”
He nodded his agreement absently.
At the doorway she stopped. “And I suppose we’d best dispose of that bundle as well. There’s enough trouble in our lives without worrying about having to explain those strange things of hers.”
“Dinna fash yerself, Mother. I’ll do what needs to be done.”
He meant that. About the woman as well as the bundle in his hands. If she were here for good, so be it. But he’d learned his lesson about the Fae nine years ago, along with an even more potent lesson about the hazards of trusting women.
His people, his family, Dun Ard. They were all he had. All he would ever have. He’d allow no Daughter of the Fae to endanger any of them.
He’d do what needed to be done. And discovering the true reason for Elliedenton being here was first on his list.