Chapter 37
Cam ignored all around him. All those who hailed him, stopped their work to speak to him, those with troubles, and those with no troubles at all. He was pretty sure that at one point he had pushed aside one who had the unfortunate circumstances to be in his way. It was all a little hazy, his intent focused on the cottage he knew Isla had taken Aislinn.
He would not let his father get away with this. This he could not forgive. The inner workings of a bitter old man, trying one last time to ruin his son. He would not accept it.
He saw the door in front of him. He didn’t know how it happened, his mind blank. He saw the door in front and next he found himself at the back of the cottage, Isla cage in against the back wall as he loomed over her.
Shaking himself free of his current state of mind, he took a step back, went to apologise. When he saw the look on Isla’s face he froze. She was not mad at him. She had the oddest expression, he had never seen her look so soft and approachable. He was already out of sorts and this sent him further off kilter. He wanted her to hit him upside the head as she had when he was a child. Tell him he was acting like a fool, and should not be dragging her here, there and everywhere.
“What?” Taking a deeper breath and steadying his voice. “What do you know? Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, please.” He didn’t often say please. Never begged, but he was close here. He needed something from her, Isla had to give him the truth.
“I was never going to pretend otherwise. I was going to come to you when all the pieces had come together. You need to stop jumping to conclusions you know nothing about.”
That just confused him further. Turning away and tugging at his hair, he tried to use the techniques he had before battle to centre himself. He could not look at her just yet. “Jumping to conclusions.”
“Yes Camdyn. Conclusions you seem to have come too for that face must have been huge leaps away from the truth I’ve found.”
Catching his attention, with both her tone of voice and her words, he could not yet give into the hope, but he was feeling a little lifted. “Explain.”
“I would, if you let me.” She made her way over to the barrel further along the wall and sat with a weary sigh. “I was cautious when I first met her. She is identical to the woman I now know to be her grandmother. The woman you call mother’s mother…”
“So it is true? She is my…”
“Do not interrupt Camdyn.” The sharp tone took him back to his youth for a fleeting moment. He knew he was wrong then, the hope blooming, though he knew he could not take it if it was flattened once and for all. “The woman you called mother. I did not say she was your mother. Aislinn was also never claimed by your father, he claimed David as his child and your mother never knew, and therefore, in that case Aislinn was never their child. David was your brother. The woman who gave up her son, claimed a daughter. She was not your sister there, and never had been. But more for the reason, your mother did not give birth to you.”
The hope had took root within him, but confusion was clouding the growth. “What do you mean, not my mother?”
“The woman who gave birth to Aislinn, Suisan, did not give birth to you.” His world stopped for the second time that day. It had finally hit what she had been trying to tell him. While one side of his life was now heading back on track, another part seemed to be falling apart.
“I have no idea where you are going with this?” But he did, he felt it deep down. There was something there. Something he had never known before. This he was so certain of.
“Fyfa’s grandmother, Gilbarta, had an interesting tale to tell. She can give you more on that than I can. I hardly believe it myself. All I can truly tell you is that through some act of fate, Suisan and Toren claimed you as their own. No one questioned it as you were claimed by the Laird but most of the elders at the time knew you were not their true son. Where you had come from no one could say. But Gilbarta knows. More than knows. She says she hails from the same place as you, only place seems to be a more moveable term within her story.
I’m not sure if I can fully believe the tale she tells. But one thing is certain. You have always been special. Meant for things greater than they appear here. You were not of Suisan’s flesh but she loved you as such. You were adopted into the family, as Aislinn was adopted out of it. You are not brother and sister, never have been and never will be. That is how I am so certain you are supposed to be together.” She clutched his arm and that was when he realised he had moved closer to her through her speech.
“Why would he say she was?” He could not bring himself to call the man father anymore. The man may have once tried, but in the end he had been a trainer and nothing more. There was a sense within him that he needed to find the truth from this.
“Oh Camdyn. What reason does he ever need to put you down? It used to hurt my heart to see the disappointment within you, how you felt you could never please him. Now I realise why. Can you not see? It is himself he is punishing. He thought he had the perfect plan. A son to inherit and a son to be second. A good plan. But in the process he lost a daughter and a son, in the space of a few months. The next daughter he receives he tries his hardest to make up for anything he sees he has done wrong. Only in the process, he creates a different problem in Larena. Don’t hate him Camdyn.”
Her hand cupped the side of his face in an affectionate move her did not receive often from Isla. “Pity him, a man close to the end, who thinks that he has finally lost control by admitting what he has done. Therefore tries to regain that control by any means possible. And even if it is at the cost of the happiness of someone else.”
She stood then and straightened her shoulders. The Isla he knew and feared was back, and he gave the smallest of smiles in response. “Now, I have a wedding to plan, and you have a betrothed to talk with.” A pointed look around his shoulder. Turning his head he saw her there in the dark corner shadow of the cottage. She was trying to give them privacy, while at the same time being there for him, when she felt he was in need. His heart gave a sudden thump. He felt such relief that he did not give her up. She was still his on the fundamental level he had grown to need as much as any other part of himself.
He tugged Isla into an embrace. “Your wedding? Well I think Aislinn may have something to say about that.” Chuckling despite the tension still in the air, he let her go. Knowing she understood how he felt.
She patter her hair back into her perfect braid and gave him a haughty look. “Yes Camdyn, my wedding, I helped raise you. That girl is too sweet to naysay me on this. I will be making sure this is a wedding they will be speaking of for generations.” Head held high, she brushed past him. He saw her stop and whisper with Aislinn for a moment before moving off. As Aislinn watched Isla around the corner he could not see. He turned back to look out over the forest in the distance. The sun was still beating down, though weakly, the warmth trying with all it’s might to reach them.
He felt rather than heard Aislinn come to stand beside him. Giving her a few moments, he was surprised when she summoned up the courage to reach out and interlock their fingers. Without saying a word he knew she understood. How he did not know.
“How much did you hear?” He stared out at two lonely birds still taking flight in the distance. When many had already left this land for warmer climes.
“Not much. I know you are not who they say you are. That your father is not the Laird.” He knew that she did not think less of him for that. Vika or Larena would have left at the first sign of his drop in status, even if it was only his perceived loss. Aislinn saw nothing wrong with him and that helped him not to drop into a cycle of self-loathing.
“Isla said there was someone I could speak to if I wanted to know the truth. I don’t know if I can.” He did not want to mention what her life could have been like, how different it could have been. The love she could have felt. It was a guilt that gnawed at him, but he felt, in this case, he was protecting her with withholding the knowledge.
“If you can’t talk to this person…then possibly…well.” She had caught his attention, she did not stutter and act this uncertain when it was just the two of them. While he found it endearing he also knew that he had to follow this, find out what she knew.
“Aislinn?” He turned and caught her face within his hands. “Now,” he smiled, “tell me.”
She appeared incredibly nervous. “What would you say if I told you I could see things? Things that had already happened, or had not yet come to pass.” She took a peek up at him, seeing him, and not able to tell anything of what he thought on the matter. And time seemed to slow down as she waited for his answer.