Page 72 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
Isobel squeezed her fingers. “Yer father is alive.”
The relief hit so hard that Ava had to sit down at once. The air left her lungs in a whoosh, and her knees trembled. She bowed her head and covered her mouth with her hand while the room blurred for a moment.
“Safe?” she whispered.
“Aye. Shaken, and I expect in a temper, but alive. A messenger came. The castle is lost. There was too much fire and too little time. But yer father is already on his way here.”
Ava squeezed her eyes shut.
MacKenna Castle was gone. The rooms where she had grown up, the corridors, the tower, the old, worn places of her childhood—all of it was either blackened or fallen.
The loss hurt sharply. Yet beneath it, stronger for this one moment, came pure relief.
Her father lived.
He was riding toward her.
She would see him again.
When she opened her eyes, Isobel was still there, watching her with quiet concern.
“I didnae ken how much worse it might be,” she rasped.
“I ken.”
“I kept thinking of him there alone.”
“He wasnae alone. He had men with him. And now he is coming here.”
Ava nodded, though tears had begun to well up in her eyes despite herself. She dashed them away with more irritation than grace. “I hate crying.”
“I ken.”
“I hate nae kenning.”
“Trust me, I ken that too.”
For a little while, they sat together in silence. Isobel stayed beside her and did not fill the room with false comfort. Ava breathed more evenly by degrees. Her father was alive, butMacKenna Castle was gone. One grief had made room for another.
Eventually, Isobel spoke. “He has been trying to see ye.”
Ava’s mouth tightened. “I ken.”
“He has brought food twice.”
“That doesnae mend anything.”
“I agree.” Isobel’s voice stayed gentle. “It doesnae.”
Ava rose and began to pace because sitting had become impossible again. The relief over her father had loosened her tongue along with the rest of her. She crossed to the fireplace and back, then to the window and back again.
“The fire isnae the only reason I have been miserable.”
Isobel said nothing. She only waited.
Ava let out a short, angry breath. “I daenae even ken why I expected anything else. He told me from the beginning what he wanted. A wife to fill the place. A body when he required it. Distance everywhere else. I heard him say it with me own ears.” She stopped and looked at her friend. “Then he gave me reasons to think he might mean something different, and the moment I truly needed comfort, he turned into a commander instead.”
“Ava.”
