Echoes From the Mist (19 page)

Bridget slapped away her hands. "Faylinn! We must hurry! You—"

Faylinn sighed and grabbed for her shirt again, getting a better hold this time and tugging firmly. "Bridget, please—"

"Faylinn, I mean it! There’s no time to—"

"Stop! By God, Bridget will you calm down and get back onto this bed? The Crown is
not
hunting me down. I’m pregnant!"

Bridget’s jaw hit the floor.

Faylinn cringed.
Just wonderful.
"I didn’t mean to tell you like that."

Bridget blinked stupidly.

"Since coming to the mainland I haven’t… I mean, I never got my…." Faylinn just shook her head. "At Katie’s insistence I visited a mid-wife in town." The older woman’s stunned silence sent Faylinn’s mind racing and her speech grew faster. "Please understand, Bridget. Cyril expected, no,
demanded
more heirs." She sighed and rubbed her temples with trembling hands, not wanting to think about the wretched nights her husband would visit her bedchamber and forcibly remind her of her wifely duties. Her stomach twisted into a solid knot. "By my heart, it was
never
my choice."

The room was as quiet as a grave and Faylinn was seconds away from an all out panic. Then she squinted through the near darkness and took in her companion’s ghostly pallor. "Sit down, love. Before you pass out." She gave Bridget’s sleeve another tiny tug and it tore away from the rest of the shirt, ending up a rag in her hands. She rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

The candle hissed and released a tiny plume of inky smoke before the room went black.

Bridget dropped limply back onto the bed. She looked to where she knew Faylinn was sitting and with eyes as round as saucers exclaimed—

*  *  *

"Pregnant?" Kayla and Liv chorused.

Badger burst into laughter and slapped his kilt-covered knee. "Oh, lasses, that’s just what Bridget said."

"Wow," Liv said. She blinked a few times, trying to absorb the news. "I didn’t see that coming at all."

Badger nodded. "And according to family legend, neither did Bridget."

"Cyril was a first class asshole," Kayla muttered darkly, her thoughts still swimming in the past. "How could he do that? He raped her."

Badger’s and Faylinn’s expressions both went very serious. "Ay, that’s what people would say today."

Kayla glanced up at him and he wasn’t surprised to see a storm brewing behind her eyes. Faylinn reminded her so much of Liv that she couldn’t stop herself before the words were out. "Are you saying differently?" she challenged.

"Kayla," Liv warned softly. She could feel the upset in her partner and wondered if perhaps it wasn’t time to leave Cobb Manor and come back another day. The restless waves of dark, edgy energy flowing from her lover were causing an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. "He didn’t say that."

The white-haired man met Kayla’s level gaze, his own every bit as steely. "No, lass. She was taken against her will and that the man was her husband doesn’t change that. Although at the time I don’t believe that Faylinn herself would have called it rape, it was that. What I was laughing at before was the surprised expression on both your faces when I told you she was with child. Not how she got that way."

Kayla suddenly felt ashamed and she glanced down at her hands, threading her fingers together nervously. She twiddled her thumbs a few times.
I need to get a grip. It’s over and done with. I can’t change it or help. It’s not Liv. She’s right here, looking at me as though I’ve lost my ever-lovin’ mind.
"Of course. I uh…." She paused and chewed the inside of her cheek. "I just said the first thing that popped into my head. And I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry."

"Well." Awkwardly, Badger stood and cleared his throat. "No harm done. As I said before, some of the tale is dark in the tellin’." He tried to smile at Kayla and let her know that he wasn’t angry, but she refused to meet his eyes.
Lord knows the first time I heard the tale I was fit to be tied myself.
"Do you lasses have to be getting back to town? There’s more to tell if you’re willing and have the time."

Liv’s worried eyes shifted from her lover to Badger. "I’m not sure." She turned back to Kayla and moved aside a dark shock of hair so she could rest a reassuring palm on the back of Kayla’s neck. "Maybe we could just take a break?"

"Aye. Of course." Badger stretched his thick arms above his head. "Let me get some blood moving around in these old legs. I think the last tour for the day should be coming through the parlor soon." He looked at Liv, his eyebrows raised in question. "I’ll drop in on them and say hello, then stop back?"

Liv smiled kindly and mouthed ‘thank you’ to their host.

Badger gave her a ghost of a wink and left the room without a sound.

As soon as he cleared the doorway Liv focused on Kayla. "You wanna tell me what just happened?"

Kayla’s eyebrows pulled tightly together as she thought.

The silence went on so long that Liv was sure she wasn’t going to answer. Then, seemingly out of the blue she said, "This is why I spend my time alone. I don’t know how to do this."

Liv hadn’t been expecting such a serious, general answer.
Oh, boy.
"Do what, honey?"

Kayla gestured aimlessly. "This. Talk. Chat. Be nice."

"You
are
nice," Liv insisted, stroking Kayla’s neck.

"Uh huh. That’s why after one evening together on vacation you knew more about my own sister than I did. That’s why your brother Dougie looks at me like he’s afraid I’m just going to lose it any second and cause him to wet his pants. That’s why, when we go someplace together, taxi drivers, waitresses, hotel stewards, all of them, talk to you and not me and look grateful that they have a choice."

Liv’s mouth went a little slack at the steady stream of words coming from her quiet partner.

"That’s why Glen deals with all clients unless they insist otherwise. My telling them to ‘go to hell’ or walking out in the middle of a meeting if I don’t think they’re sincere in their claims is always a great way to win friends and succeed in business." Her eyes begged Liv to understand. "I’m just not good at this."

For a second, Liv was stunned. She let her hand drop from the warm neck she was stroking, wrapping her fingers around Kayla’s instead. "The way you’re good at everything else?"

Their eyes met and Kayla felt as though Liv was looking right through her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, that was a little part of it too. Her eyes darted back to her hands. "I suppose."

"It’s really okay, Kayla." Liv softened her voice and that did the trick as Kayla’s head lifted, and once again they were looking eye to eye. "Badger wasn’t angry and I do understand." And she did. Being a genius gave Kayla obvious advantages in almost everything she tackled. She’d succeeded most of the time – so long as intellect was the key. But when it came to the highly illogical and volatile things like emotions, Kayla was truly a babe in the woods. At heart she was a loner, and many social situations were trying at best.

"You do?" Kayla eyed the blonde woman warily.

"I think so. You’re a natural introvert and no amount of socializing is ever really going to change that. As a teen you were taller than everyone else, gangly," she paused and smiled affectionately, "probably clumsy and definitely impossibly beautiful—"

Kayla opened her mouth but Liv silenced her with a raised finger. She wasn’t finished yet.

"You liked girls not boys and were so smart that nobody knew what to do with you."

A startled look planted itself on Kayla’s face.

"As if all that wasn’t enough, you had special telepathic abilities that set you apart from everyone else and even you couldn’t fully understand and appreciate them. People hurt you because of it, and you moved deeper inside yourself where you felt safe and comfortable." She leaned forward and kissed Kayla’s forehead. Her lips lingered on the spot. "And you’ve been living in there as much as possible ever since." She sighed and backed away. "I know that interacting with people is hard for you and doesn’t always work out the way you want. But
that
will change with practice," she assured. "I promise."

The painfully open expression on Kayla’s face made Liv’s heart clench.

"You think?"

Liv nodded. "I know so. I’m not shocked in the least that you’re a quiet person who is more comfortable in their own head than anywhere else. After everything you’ve been through, I’m actually surprised you don’t stay there more often."

The younger woman’s face relaxed into a smile. She was utterly charmed by Liv’s keen insight and the fact that she’d obviously taken the time to understand her on a level that no one else had cared enough to even consider. "The answer to that’s easy, Liv" She knocked on her own head. "It’s lonely up here."

As quickly as the words were out, Kayla watched in fascination as tears welled up in her partner’s eyes. She cupped Liv’s chin tenderly. "You’re out here." She gestured to the room. "And now I’m not lonely anymore."

Liv sniffed and despite herself a tear splashed onto her cheek. Her smile was full of affection. "I’m not lonely anymore either." Her voice cracked and she sniffed again.

Kayla carefully wiped the salty tear away with her thumb.

They neither one quite remembered how it happened, but somehow their lips met and what started out as a kiss of comfort and affection sparked into something much deeper and infinitely more passionate.

"Well, now," Badger boomed from only a few feet away, his hands on his hips. He grinned. "I can see that everything is back to normal. If I came into the room and you two weren’t kissing, I’d think something was wrong."

Liv and Kayla separated and looked up at Badger with twin guilty grins and flaming cheeks. They’d been so absorbed in each other they hadn’t even heard him come in.

The old man scratched his white whiskers and shook his head. "Shall we give it another go?"

Kayla rubbed her red cheeks furiously, trying to remove the blush. How many times was she going to let Badger catch her making out with Liv like some horny teenager? Just then Liv scooted a little closer and the smell of her lover’s shampoo and skin gently flooded her senses, surrounding her in a sensual fog. She knew that as many times as Badger left her alone with this enticing woman was as many times as he’d catch them kissing.

Kayla smiled to herself and glanced at her watch. "We can stay for a while longer. But not too long." She nudged Liv. "Our readings from the Keith House should be ready to go within the hour."

Liv nodded and settled the blanket that had fallen to the floor during her groping of Kayla back on their knees. "Anything you can start and finish in an hour, Badger?" she asked the old Scot, seeing an immediate spark of competitiveness flare in wise eyes.

"Aye." He puffed up his barrel-chest a bit. "I am the family storyteller, you know. I think I can manage."

Kayla and Liv both nodded gravely and Kayla bit back a smile. If she sat back and was quiet long enough, she figured she was sure to learn a lot about handling people from Liv. "We know," Kayla said as she finally let go of her impatience at Badger’s insistence on spinning his tale according to his own time line and not hers. "We’d love to hear more."

He sensed Kayla’s quiet surrender and gave her a respectful nod as he moved back to his seat. "Very well." Badger tugged at his belt and shifted back and forth in the seat until he groaned happily.

Liv figured that meant he’d finally found a comfortable spot.

Badger smoothed his kilt with one hand, tempted to take out his pipe. But his audience was ready and so he would have to wait for a soothing smoke until later, when he could annoy Sylla with the stench. "Faylinn was with child and though Bridget cursed her brother’s name for the way he treated his bride, she loved Faylinn no less for it. She vowed to take care of both mother and child as best she could, loving them with all her heart and protecting them with her dying breath. But no matter how Faylinn reassured her, she knew that only having one good arm would be a constant source of worry and self-doubt. So she set about fixing that problem the only way she knew how. And in doing so, she got back two pieces of her life that she thought she’d left behind on Cobb Island forever…."

Virginia (Mainland)
January, 1691
New Year’s Day

B
RIDGET SAT COMFORTABLY on a large driftwood log on the beach. She watched the short, foamy waves crash rhythmically against the shore, sending up a spray of salty mist as water met land. A strong, cold breeze blew her hair from her eyes and caused her cloak to billow and flutter. She’d taken the long walk here every day for a week. And waited.

Cobb Island loomed dark and barren in the distance, and she was bound and determined that no ship would dock there without her knowledge. It was, she knew, almost time for the Royal Navy to return. They would have undoubtedly heard of Cyril’s death by now and would ferry her nieces, and whatever slaves that hadn’t already escaped, to a larger port in South Carolina or perhaps New York, where they would book passage on a ship returning to England. The girls’ tender ages and the lack of a male guardian in the house would insure they would not be permitted to stay on the Island.