The Arrow Read online

  “He has red hair,” Gregor said incredulously. “And freckles!”

  Cate stood, meeting his accusing stare. “How very observant of you,” she said, with a sharp look of warning not to say anything more in front of the children.

  She’d known the bright red hair and freckles would be a problem. The coloring, although common enough in the Highlands, did not run in Gregor’s immediate family. It was the first thing John had pointed out.

  But surely with the plethora of women Gregor had been with, there had been at least a handful of redheads?

  If the darkening look on his face was any indication, it seemed perhaps not.

  She knew she was searching for a straw to clutch, but even if she’d harbored more than a big twinge of doubt about Pip, she’d held out some hope for the little ones. It would be so much easier to convince him to let them stay if there was a possibility they were his.

  Proving that he wasn’t a completely unfeeling brute, however, Gregor bent down on a knee to address the little boy. “How old are you, Edward?”

  Cate winced at the same time that Eddie jumped. Even lowered, Gregor’s voice was deep and authoritative. Scary to someone not used to being on the other side of his questions. Cate, of course, had plenty of experience with that.

  Eddie, however, did not. When the little boy decided to use her skirts as a curtain to hide behind, Cate gave him an encouraging nudge forward. “It’s okay, Eddie. This is your new laird. Remember I told you about him? He’s been off fighting the nasty old English in the war. He won’t hurt you. He just wants to ask you some questions.”

  The little boy looked up at her with his big blue eyes and nodded. Peeking out from behind her skirt, he held up three fingers.

  “Come here, lad,” Gregor said in a gentler voice.

  Cate put her hand on the boy’s head. “I’m not sure that’s a good—”

  Gregor shot her a glare. “I’m not going to hurt him. I just want to ask him a few questions.”

  That wasn’t why she’d tried to stop him.

  “It’s okay, Eddie,” Pip said with a devilish grin.

  Cate shot him a look and started to explain to Gregor, but it was too late. Gregor had taken the boy’s hand from hers and drawn him forward.

  Cate said a silent prayer the little boy didn’t get too scared or upset.

  “When is your saint’s day, lad?” Gregor asked.

  Eddie gave him a big gap-toothed grin and Cate heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe it would be all right after all. “All Saint’s Day. Pip gave me a new ball ’cause I was sad.”

  “Why were you sad?”

  The smile fell as quickly as it had appeared. “I missed my mummy.”

  Gregor’s voice was even softer yet, and Cate felt her heart tumble from her chest. “What’s your mummy’s name, Eddie?”

  “Mummy.” His little jaw started to tremble. “I want my mummy.”

  Cate would have moved toward him, but Gregor put a firm hand on his back. “I know you do, lad. And I would like to find her for you, but I need to know her name. What did other people call her? Janet? Mary? Elizabeth? Christina …?”

  Eddie brightened with understanding. “Ellen! That’s what my Gram called her.”

  “And did your mum have nice red hair like you, lad?”

  Eddie nodded furiously.

  Gregor smiled, gave the boy a pat on the head, and stood. The smug look on his face did not bode well. The boy’s answer seemed to have convinced Gregor that he was not his father.

  The matter decided in his mind at least, Gregor turned to the little girl, who was wiggling in Ete’s arms. “And who is this?”

  “Mathilda, my laird,” Ete said. “A right heavy handful this one is.”

  Gregor frowned. “Doesn’t she walk?”

  Cate and Ete exchange a look. “Not really, my laird,” the older woman answered dryly. “It’s more of a run.”

  As if on cue, a determined “Down!” was added to Maddy’s wiggling.

  Gregor looked at Cate. “She talks?”

  Cate shrugged. “A few words here and there. We think she’s about sixteen months—give or take a few.” Cate held out her arms to a struggling Ete. “Here, I’ll take her.”

  But for once, Maddy didn’t seem to want Cate to hold her. She’d apparently overcome her temporary fear of Gregor and was eyeing him intently, while squirming and saying “no” over and over to Cate. Her face was growing redder and redder, and Cate feared those “no’s” were about to turn to a screech. That had to be avoided at all costs.

  “Here, you take her,” Cate said, thrusting the child into his arms and not giving him a chance to refuse. “I think she wants you.”

  The stunned look on his face would have been comical if Maddy hadn’t immediately quieted and started making a sound Cate had never heard from her before. In between sniffles from the cold she was still getting over, the cranky toddler—the very cranky toddler who hadn’t done much but scream for the past week—started to coo and goo, making eyes at him like …

  Good lord, did he have the same effect on females of all ages? It appeared so. The little girl was flirting!

  “I think you’ve made another conquest,” Cate said dryly.

  Some of Gregor’s shock had worn off, but he was still holding the little girl out like she had the plague. He did, however, grin. A devastating grin that made Cate suck in her breath. It was a grin that had made countless women fall at his feet, her included.

  “Apparently the lass has good taste. I guess that is something.” He examined her like a piglet at market. “She’s a cute little thing, if you like white-blond hair and big blue eyes.”

  She would have wagered he did, but something about the way he said it made her wonder.

  Gregor asked Cate what she knew of the child, and Cate started to tell him, but apparently Maddy had other ideas. She started kicking and bouncing up and down, reaching for Gregor to pull her closer. “My!” she said, then louder, “My!”

  “I think she wants your brooch, my laird,” Ete said. “She likes shiny things.”

  But it wasn’t the large gold broach set around an onyx stone securing the plaid he wore around his shoulders that Maddy wanted. It was the other shiny thing.

  As soon as Gregor pulled the little girl in closer, she reached for his face, putting her no-doubt droolly hand on his cheek. “My! Pretty!”

  There was a moment of stunned silence at the child’s proclamation.

  But then Cate and Ete took one look at Gregor’s horrified face, exchanged glances, and burst into laughter. Seeing Gregor’s horror at being called “pretty,” even Pip joined in.

  Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad if Eddie hadn’t started laughing, too. Thus they found out the hard way that the little boy didn’t release his bladder only when he was scared or upset.

  “Oh, no,” Eddie whispered, tugging her skirts. “I have to go.”

  Cate looked down and tried not to groan. “I think you already went, sweeting.”

  “What the hell?” Gregor yelled, jumping back and nearly dropping Maddy as the stream of liquid headed for his feet.

  Cate took one look at his face and knew the chance for a good impression was long gone. With nothing to lose, she gave in to the laughter and grinned. “John warned you to watch your feet.”

  After nearly having had his foot pissed on, the midday meal was blissfully anticlimactic. But Gregor was painfully aware of the woman at his side.

  As if it weren’t bad enough that his body was humming with attraction, she was aggravating his edginess with laughter. Hers, at his expense.

  “This is quite a pretty bowl, isn’t it, Gregor?” and “What a pretty dress that is, Màiri, don’t you agree, Gregor?” followed by “The heather was so pretty a couple of months ago, Gregor—too bad you could not have returned then.”

  Each time she said “pretty” with such teasing laughter dancing in her eyes, he itched to throw her back against the “pretty” tablecloth and kiss th