Larena grinned. “At least with Galen gone for a few days we’ll have some left over.”
“Larena!” Cara cried and tossed flour at her.
Isla found herself smiling at their antics and the way the women interacted, as if they had been lifelong friends. They had come from different paths of life, but they had all found common ground with each other.
They made the best of their lives despite the war that raged around them. They kept laughter and love and light among them, a testament to the Druid magic that filled the castle.
“You have flour on your face, Larena,” Sonya said with a chuckle.
Marcail rolled her eyes. “It just gives Fallon a reason to kiss her.”
“As if you have any right to talk,” Larena said with a knowing grin. “You and Quinn run off every chance you get.”
Sonya grinned. “And they think no one notices.”
Marcail shrugged away their comments, but Isla saw the satisfied smile on her face. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”
Cara snorted. “More like the MacLeod brothers are insatiable.”
Larena, Cara, and Marcail all busted out laughing, nodding their heads in agreement.
Isla felt a pang of remorse as she recalled the times she and her sister had shared such laughter. These women might not be bound by blood, but they were bound by family, and sometimes that could be stronger.
Sonya rolled her eyes at them as she continued to knead the dough. “I think I’m the only one with a sane thought around here.”
Marcail and Cara exchanged a look. Larena just shook her head.
“So,” Marcail said and turned to Isla. “Can you cook? Or are you like me and hopeless when it comes to preparing food?”
Memories of baking sweets with her family filled Isla’s mind. “I used to be fairly good, but it has been a very long time.”
“What’s your specialty?” Larena asked.
Isla glanced at the expectant faces around her. “My father was a baker. I learned early on many of his recipes.”
Cara clapped her flour-covered hands. “Wonderful. Do you remember any of them? Another set of hands in the kitchen would be a tremendous help.”
Being needed as she was at that moment left Isla breathless. These women didn’t seem to care that she had spent the last five hundred years immersed with evil.
“I’ll see if I can recall any,” Isla said. “I cannot promise that anything I prepare will be edible, however.”
Sonya set aside the dough and leaned her hands on the work table. “I don’t think the men taste half of what they eat, they cram it down so fast.”
“Only so Galen doesn’t get it,” Cara joked.
Larena scratched her chin with the back of her hand. “Poor Galen. Everyone teases him so.”
The hours flew by as Isla stayed in the kitchen and listened to the conversation. Occasionally she would speak, but mostly she listened. There was much laughter, much teasing, and obvious love between all of them.
And to have been included brought a longing to Isla she didn’t want to feel.
The hope swelling within her, the inclusion in the MacLeod “family,” and her fascination with Hayden could only spell one thing: disaster.
TWELVE
The day passed in a blur for Isla. She was so occupied with making herself useful to the others she didn’t realize how fast the day was going until supper arrived.
With three of their members gone, the tables seemed to lack something. Hayden was one of four others who decided to continue to work on the cottages instead of stopping to eat.
Isla hated to admit that she missed being able to look at him. It was shameful, her need to gaze upon him and his sculpted body.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen her fair share of handsome men, but with Hayden it was more than just his good looking face. It was him, the man. His manner.
It was a good thing she had never encountered Hayden while in Cairn Toul. If Deirdre ever discovered Isla’s interest in Hayden … Isla shuddered just thinking about it.
When they finished cleaning the table Isla looked up to find Cara smiling at her.
“Are you ready to see your new chamber?” Cara asked.
Lucan walked up behind her and put his hands on Cara’s shoulders. “She’s wanted to show you ever since I brought the bed up.”
“I would love to see it,” Isla said.
Cara hurried to the steps with Lucan not far behind her. Isla followed them both up the stairs to the second- floor corridor.
“It isn’t much,” Cara explained as she glanced back over her shoulder at Isla. “I can get more furniture to the tower soon.”
“It will be perfect,” Isla said, hoping it soothed Cara’s anxiety.
Lucan smiled at his wife, the love shining in his eyes for the world to see.
When they reached the entrance to the tower after many twists and turns, Isla looked up the winding staircase.
“It’s a beautiful view,” Lucan said. “Cara was right to pick this tower.”
Cara wrinkled her nose. “It never occurred to me to make the towers into chambers before. That gives us three more chambers if need be.”
Lucan laughed and motioned Isla forward. “Your new chamber awaits.”
Isla licked her lips and placed her foot on the first step. The stairs coiled high above her, nearly making her dizzy. She reached the top and opened the door to find a round chamber with the bed opposite the window and a small table beside the bed. There was a lone chair and a chest for her clothes.
“It isn’t much, I know. I’m mending a tapestry I found that I can hang above the bed,” Cara said, her voice low and sorrowful.
Isla turned and looked at her. “This is perfect, Cara. Thank you. I need nothing else.”
Cara’s smile was blinding as joy swept over her face. “I have a couple of other gowns I’m mending to fit you.”
“You do too much.”
“We take care of ours,” Lucan said and wrapped an arm around Cara’s shoulders.
Isla nodded, her throat thick with emotion. She didn’t have the words anyway.
“We’ll leave you now,” Lucan said. “Let us know if you need anything.”
Once alone, Isla turned to face her chamber. She ran her hand over the comb and hand mirror that had been placed on the bedside table.
She lowered herself onto her bed and just sat there. This was her chamber, not one loaned to her, but hers while she was at the castle. She hoped her stay would be a long one, but Isla feared Deirdre would gain her powers sooner than expected.
But until then, Isla had found a home. Her first true home in over five centuries.
It was dark and well past supper when Hayden made his way to the castle. He didn’t see Isla in the hall or the kitchens where he stopped to grab cold meat and bread.
He didn’t like that he searched for her, but he couldn’t prevent the concern for where she was and what she was doing. She might be trying to harm the others, or at least that was the excuse he used for his feelings. She hadn’t been on the cliffs, that he knew since he had searched. She had to be somewhere in the castle.
