Page 98 of The Scot’s Secret

“I was scared.”

Her simple words stopped him, penetrated his hate. She was scared. Had been since the moment he’d confronted her. He looked at her shaking hands, her tears, and this time he saw her behavior for what it truly was.

Raw, unmitigated fear.

“Did he hurt you?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t nod or shake her head. His mother simply continued to look at him, to watch him.

He had hurt her. Alex would kill the man.

And was reminded that he was already dead.

“When we came here looking for you. . .”

“The man you met earlier is one of many loyal to me. But there are others loyal to the new lord, Godfrey’s son, who is just as cruel and cunning as his predecessor.”

“Is he here?”

She shook her head. “Nay, but he will return in a few weeks.”

“Does he—”

“He leaves me alone, for now,” she said. “But I give him no reason to remember that I exist.”

A prisoner in her own home.

“You can question anyone here. Everything I’ve told you is true. Most know my late husband for the cruel man that he was. But their fear hasn’t ended with his death. And they worry, as I do, that his son will be just as bad. Or worse.”

Alex didn’t know what to say. He’d hated her for so many years, resented her, it was hard to think of her in any other way. Could he really have gotten it so wrong?

And then the tears spilled down her cheeks in earnest. “I’ve missed you so much. Alex, you have no idea what it’s like for a mother to lose her own children. I’ve dreamed of travelling to Brockburg, of what you and your sister and brothers would say. I knew you’d hate me. I hated myself for so long.”

Alex went to her and engulfed the mother he had thought he despised in his arms. “After he died, I became careless.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Started bragging about my children, wanting people to know. I asked everyone who passed by here if they had word of you.”

He believed her.

The raw pain in her voice was real. He had never, not once, considered the possibility that she still loved them. That there might be a genuine reason for her abandonment. But he had no doubt Elkview’s retainers would validate her story. For now, he tried to forget the years of hate and misunderstanding that stood between them.

She cried for what seemed like hours, and he held her still. His mother. Who loved her children so much she’d done the unthinkable to protect them.

“Shhhh, Mother. I’m sorry for how I treated you—”

She held his face in her hands, her tears finally subsiding. “I do not blame you, son. It’s exactly the reaction I expected. When I heard you’d come looking for me. . . I was going to come to Kenshire, but I was so afraid that you would hate me for what I’d done. And John. . .”

He placed his hands over hers.

“The son,” she explained. “He’s never treated me as poorly as his father did, and I know you are grown men now. . .”

When her voice trailed off, Alex finished her sentence.

“We will protect you.”

She was coming home, to Scotland. She would never have anything to fear again. And if the new lord of Elkview thought to threaten his mother or his siblings, he would start a war, if necessary, to end that threat for good.

She nodded and tried to smile.

“I’m glad you found me, son. I love you so much. I’ve thought of nothing but you and your siblings, every day and every night, since I left.” She began to cry once again.