me.”
Ceasing her pounding, Catriona looked up. “Oh?”
Heather nodded. “We — Eliza and I, and Angelica, too, but she’s three years younger, so not yet nearing her last gasp, but Eliza and I especially have been searching. . well, for the right gentleman.”
Catriona’s lips curved. She glanced down. “Searching for your hero?”
“Yes! Exactly. We know what we want — what sort of man he has to be. But. .” Unbidden, the image of Breckenridge filled her mind — not as she’d so often seen him, the epitome of polished sophistication prowling the ton, but as he’d been while he’d held her hand and they’d walked through the hills. What had she been searching for? What manner of man?
A man who loved her.
Breckenridge didn’t qualify, not in that respect.
Pushing his image from her mind, determination firming, she refocused on Catriona. “It’s clear I’m not going to find the gentleman for me, not now this has happened, so I’ve decided that as fate has effectively decreed that I won’t find love, then instead I want to devote my life to helping children who are homeless and alone — who don’t have what we, the three of us and our whole family, were born with. So I wondered if I could stay here and learn from you. I know you oversee the care of a small army of such children. I thought that I might stay up here for a time, until summer comes and any scandal over my abduction has blown over. By then I’ll have learned so much from you and your helpers, I’ll be able to go home to Somerset and see about setting up a similar system there.”
“Hmm.” Frowning, Catriona reached into a hessian bag of herbs, drew out a handful, and added the leaves to the mortar. Picking up the pestle, she looked at Heather, paused, studying her, then looked down and started grinding again. “That’s a laudable ambition, and not one I would discourage. However, you have to remember that for me, looking after stray children is but one activity that’s part of a greater whole. I’m the Lady of the Vale, and that’s my vocation — the position and the job I was destined to fill. Looking after my strays is a part of that.” She paused and met Heather’s eyes. “But it’s only one part of my larger life.”
Heather frowned. “I’m not sure I follow.”
Catriona worked at her herbs. “What I’m saying is that before you create such secondary aspects of your life, you need to focus on the core, the central plank. . I suppose what I’m saying is that first, you need to define and secure your destiny.”
“But can’t my destiny be to look after stray children?”
Catriona raised her head and looked at Heather. A look from vivid green eyes that searched and somehow saw beneath skin and flesh to the essence that lay beneath.
Heather held still, unflinchingly met that incisive green gaze.
After a moment, Catriona visually drew back. “That isn’t what I see, what I sense, for you.”
When Heather looked her question, Catriona’s lips curved, faintly rueful. “Your destiny is intertwined with that of some man’s.”
“You can see him?”
“Not in terms of flesh and blood, face and features — I see his. . aura, if you like. His inner being.”
“And my destiny’s tied to his?”
“According to the Lady, your destiny lies in dealing with a man. . if not Breckenridge, then someone like him, of his ilk.” Catriona’s lips quirked. “A man like your cousins — the Lady knows, I can recognize their like well enough.”
“So. . I’m destined to find my hero after all?”
“Indeed. All you have to do is. .” Catriona frowned. “The word I’m being pushed to say is ‘see’ him — perhaps that means recognize him.”
Heather thought about that. Catriona’s prophecies didn’t come often, but they had a startling propensity for coming true. “Perhaps. . after I learn about looking after children from you and go back to Somerset—” She broke off; Catriona was shaking her head. “No?”
“To the Lady, your plan to learn about looking after stray children is a diversion. . at least at present.” Catriona tipped her head, as if listening to something far distant. “She views it as you trying to avoid the life you’re meant to live.”
After a moment, Catriona refocused on Heather, studied her face, then wryly said, “I suspect you won’t want to hear this, but all my instincts are suggesting you should look more closely at Breckenridge.”
“He doesn’t love me. He only wants to marry me because he feels honor-bound to do so.”
“Are you sure?”
Heather frowned. “All I can go by is what he says. .”
“Has he told you he
“No, but. .”
“But he’s said nothing to lead you to believe he does?” When Heather nodded, Catriona smiled. “That, I have to tell you, means nothing. Whoever your hero is, he is definitely like your cousins, and dragging an admission of love from men like them is never easy. They positively hate exposing their finer feelings, even admitting they have such things, not if they can help it. . ” Catriona paused, looking struck.
“What is it?”
Lips curving, Catriona met her eyes. “It just occurred to me that the current situation between you and Breckenridge. . if he was in love with you, given what I’ve just said about men of his type, don’t you think he would seek to exploit the situation so that he could marry you without ever having to declare his heart?”
Heather didn’t even have to think to know the answer. “He’s as devious and as manipulative as they come.” She grimaced. “So I truly will have to consider him more closely.”
Catriona nodded. “And in doing so you might want to remember that the love of such a man — as I and your brothers’ wives and all your cousins’ wives will freely testify — is very much worth fighting for.”
Heather humphed. “If only I had some confidence that if I scratched that oh-so-polished exterior, I might find my hero. .”
“Love rarely comes with guarantees of any kind. And with a man like him, you’ll have to be prepared to risk your heart to have any chance of him exposing his.” Catriona paused, then added, “One observation that might stand you in good stead. Breckenridge is truly a hedonist to his toes. The counter-side to that, however, means that if he actively pursues a goal, you can be sure that goal is something he truly wants. Otherwise he wouldn’t bestir himself.”
Given what Heather knew of him, that rang very true.
She sat and considered. Catriona went back to working her herbs.
Minutes ticked by as Heather thought over all Catriona had shared, and she felt something within her settle, accept. So. . her search wasn’t over yet. And she wasn’t finished with Breckenridge yet.
Looking up, she met Catriona’s understanding, knowing gaze.
“Lots to think about?”
Heather nodded. “Yes — and thank you for. . reading me. I know you don’t do that for everyone.”
Catriona’s lips kicked up. “I was told to.”
“Ah.” Heather slipped off the stool. Being around Catriona when she was being the “Lady” could be a trifle disconcerting. “I think I’ll go up and see the children—”
“Wait.” Catriona checked her mortar, then set it aside. “Finally that’s done.” A faintly puzzled light in her green eyes, she looked at Heather. Then she shook her head. “For some reason, I’m supposed to give you this.” Reaching into her apron pocket, she drew out a chain, fine gold links interspersed with small, round, purple beads with a pink stone pendant, a crystal of half a finger’s length.
Walking around the table, Catriona raised the chain; reaching Heather, she slipped it over Heather’s head.
Catching the hexagonally cut crystal, Heather studied it. “There’s something written on it — etched into the sides.”
“The language is so old not even Algaria knows what it is.”
Heather glanced up. “It’s old?”
Catriona nodded. “My mother’s, and hers before that. I used to wear it before I married Richard.” Reaching inside the neckline of her gown, she drew out the pendant depending from the chain she wore — a similar, delicate
