Chapter Ten
Iona
Half an hour after the rest of us left the house, Rafe and the boys walk out the front door. Rebecca and I waited on the front porch, though not to spy. We couldn't hear a blessed thing anyone inside the house said. Thane and Ramsay had decided to stay in the backyard with the animals. Rafe seems quite calm, almost sober. Toby and Eric are relaxed but not quite happy. I reckon the conversation involved some painful revelations, though I have no idea what the men said to each other. I'm guessing.
Eric and his best friend head for Toby's car.
Rafe simply watches while they drive away. Once the car travels out of sight, he shoves his hands into his trouser pockets and bows his head. He still hasn't noticed me or Rebecca, since we're in the shade at the other end of the porch. Watching Rafe, I suffer an oddly powerful impulse to hug him.
Bod an Donais . What is wrong with me?
Rafe steps off the porch and starts toward his car.
"Not yet, Rafe," Rebecca calls out. "We aren't done with you yet."
His shoulders droop, but he doesn't look at us. "I suppose it was too much to hope that my trials were over."
Rebecca and I get up off the porch swing and trot down the steps, but she turns right toward the gate to the backyard. "Take your time, Iona. We'll wait for you two."
"Take my time with what?"
She winks, as if that explains everything.
I walk up alongside Rafe. "Are you all right?"
"Do you care if I'm not? Of course you don't."
"Stop assuming you know what I feel or what I want."
He grunts. "I'm despicable and vile and odious. That's what you believe and feel about me."
"I take it your chat with Toby didn't heal your relationship with him."
He shrugs. "I told him everything he wanted to know. Then he announced that he needs more time to think."
I desperately want to ask him what he and Toby needed to discuss, but it's none of my concern. Maybe Rafe and I had a poke once, but that doesn't give me the right to question him about his life. If he wants to tell me, I'll listen. Aye, that does conflict with my journalistic nosiness. But I can find a way to separate the two things if I feel like it.
"Why don't we go into the backyard?" I ask. "Animals can have a powerful calming and soothing effect on humans."
He raises his brows. "What sort of animals?"
"Come with me, and you'll find out."
Rafe gazes at me for a moment, his expression impossible to interpret. Then he exhales a full breath and nods. "Let's go."
For about one-tenth of a second, I debate whether to hold his hand. Then I make the decision. If he doesn't like it, sod it.
I slip my hand into his palm.
Rafe stares at me with stark panic in his eyes, but it only lasts for a few seconds. Then he clasps my hand. We stroll across the lawn without speaking, and I keep hold of his hand even while I unhook the latch on the backyard gate. Rafe closes the gate after us and even remembers to hook the latch.
We don't get far before Rafe meets his first obstacle.
He stops dead, but he doesn't seem all that surprised. Maybe he has seen this sort of critter before. When the animal approaches him, he...smiles and pats the creature's head.
"Who is this?" he asks me.
"His name is Odin, and he's a llama. Thane treats Odin like a pet, but the beautiful laddie has a job too. Odin protects the homestead."
Rafe scratches under Odin's chin, and the llama licks his face. "I've heard that llamas are quite good as protectors. Does Thane harvest wool from Odin?"
Before I can answer that question, Thane saunters up to us. "Aye, once in a while I'll shear him. I might get a sweater and a scarf out of the wool."
"My parents have had sheep for my entire life. They create all sorts of clothing and household items from the wool, not to mention selling the milk."
"Do they harvest the milk themselves too?"
Rafe smiles as Odin kisses his cheek. "Yes, milk production is a significant portion of their operations. But the White Knight Family Farm is strictly small scale, and we never sell our sheep for meat."
I think I must be gaping at Rafe. I cannae picture him shearing sheep or milking them---or caring about the welfare of sheep. A strange tingle sweeps through me, awakening my nether regions. This is not the right time to get aroused. I vowed I would never have a poke with Rafe again, yet learning more about him is changing my perspective.
Maybe I could shag him again. Just once more.
No, no, no, you bampot. Keep your hands off Rafe.
I should heed that self-provided advice. But Rafe just grinned and laughed, and now I'm getting warm and slick between my thighs.
Rebecca walks over to us and stops beside me. "You okay, sweetie?"
"Um, aye." That was entirely convincing. If Rebecca were a very stupid person.
She gives me a knowing smile.
I slant toward her to whisper, "Dinnae look at me that way. What you're hoping for won't happen."
"Uh-huh, whatever you say." That knowing smile now comes with a knowing tone of voice. "Getting it on with a man who drives you crazy might not be a bad way to pass the time. And if it turns into something more..."
"There won't be anything more. And I will never 'get it on' with him again."
Only after I spoke those words a touch too loudly do I realize Rafe and Thane are staring at me. They must have heard what I said. Ugh, what am I meant to do now? Spout the dumbest possible excuse, naturally. "As I said Rebecca, driving crazily might be one way to pass the time, but if you turn into something, it could be dangerous."
Four mature adults give me a variety of confused looks.
Ramsay puckers half of his mouth and tilts his head slightly to the side. "Iona, are you having an early-onset senior moment?"
"What? No, you cacan . Why would you say such a thing?"
Before Ramsay can speak, Thane intercedes. "Rafe, would you like to meet the chickens?"
"Yes, I would."
I just manage to stifle a sigh and stop myself from seeming unusually relieved. The five of us amble across the backyard to the chicken coop. Thane loves to tell newcomers about his animals, and he makes no exception for Rafe. The man who gave me an epic poke listens intently while my brother discusses the ins and outs of having chickens. And of course, he introduces Rafe to his brood.
"This is Wallace," my brother tells him. "He's named after the famous hero of Scotland. The hens are Agatha, Prudence, Ginger, and Henrietta."
"Lovely names," Rafe says.
Rebecca only half stifles her laughter. "Thane named the hens after women he screwed when he was in the MOD."
My brother smiles tolerantly at his fiancée. "I've told you many times, gràidh , that I never shagged any of them."
She kisses his cheek. "I'm just teasing you. But you did actually have sex with that horrible Ava Marston-Baines back when she was your handler."
"In the line of duty."
"Uh-huh." Rebecca makes an exaggerated wink. "You didn't enjoy it at all, right?"
He smirks. "Well, I never said that..."
I roll my eyes. "Are you two done flirting? I have a job, you know, and I can't neglect it forever."
Thane lifts his brows. "An article about sheep herding? Or are you finally writing that story about Raghnall MacCrum's cows that you've been threatening to inflict on the village for months now?"
I know Thane isn't being rude. My whole family, and many of my friends, have been teasing me about my lack of meaningful news stories because they know I've fallen into a slump. I did hear something intriguing at the café yesterday, but the one-sided conversation didn't give me much information. If only that British gent would stop in at the café again...
"Our baby sister is getting an idea," Ramsay says with a smirk. "Maybe she's uncovering the history of that vile, despicable, odious Rafe Knight."
Why do my brothers keep smirking at me? It's bloody annoying. And what in heaven's name does Rafe have to do with our conversation? Older brothers are such a nuisance.
Thane smiles with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "Aye, she must be exposing Rafe."
"It's called an exposé, but that's not what I'm doing with Rafe."
Ramsay adopts the same mischievous expression as Thane. "Are you sure about that, Iona?"
"Yes. I'm positive." But I have no clue what I've just declared that I haven't done. My brothers are confusing me on purpose. "Would you two go away? I've had enough of your childish banter."
Thane smirks again. "This is my house, Iona. Rebecca and I can't go away."
"Leave poor Iona alone," Rebecca says with a look of motherly disappointment. "She's right. You guys are being childish."
Now it's my turn to smirk. "Thank you, Rebecca."
"But your brothers aren't completely wrong. You and Rafe need some alone time to figure things out."
"There's nothing to figure out."
"Is that why you were holding hands a few minutes ago?"
Bod an Donais . I forgot about that. Why couldn't Rebecca forget about it too?
Now Rafe is smirking. That expression is becoming an epidemic.
"Thane and I are driving out to the distillery," Rebecca says. "And Ramsay will be going home in his car, so that means Iona will need a ride from someone."
"I can ride with Ramsay."
"No, ye can't," my brother declares. "I'm driving Finlay to his first day at university, and that's all the way in Edinburgh."
"But Leith could give me a ride."
My brother shakes his head. "Sorry, gràidh . Leith is on Skye right now, refurbishing an old house for a young couple who just got married."
Rafe develops the most adorable look of confusion. "Your son is in the sky?"
"No," Ramsay says with a chuckle. "Don't you know about the Isle of Skye? It's one of the northwest islands. That means it's part of Scotland."
"Oh, yes, of course. I knew that. It's only that you didn't call it the Isle of Skye, and that's what confused me."
Rafe seems to be desperately trying not to sound like a British person who has never been to Scotland before or even watched a documentary about it. I don't think he's faking his confusion. No, I'm now convinced that he honestly doesn't know about the northwest islands. How can that be? Even Americans who visit this country for the first time have heard of Skye. But I don't want to embarrass the man, so I take pity on him.
I swerve my attention to Rafe. "I've changed my mind. It would be lovely if you could drive me home."
His deer-in-the-headlights expression is somehow endearing. He shakes it off quickly, though. "I would be happy to do that."
The five of us leave the backyard, making sure to latch the gate behind us. Odin has occasionally escaped from his wee pasture, though only when one of us forgot to secure the gate. The llama doesn't like to stray far, anyway. He has developed an interest in Raghnall's cows, though.
Rafe and I climb into his car and wave at my brothers and Rebecca as we drive away. I twist around in my seat to watch them. All right, yes, I'm verifying that their stories are true. Ramsay does indeed get in his car and leave. Thane and Rebecca climb into their pickup truck and also drive away.
Once their vehicles have gone out of my sight, I face forward and settle in for the brief ride to my home.
Rafe chuckles. "You assumed they were lying about needing to be somewhere, weren't you?"
"The fact that they all drove away doesn't prove their stories."
"Ever the journalist, eh? You need facts and proof of everything."
"What's wrong with that?"
He shrugs one shoulder. "Nothing. It's another tidbit of information about you, though."
"You have many tidbits about me, but I still know very little about you."
Rafe navigates around a corner, heading in the general direction of my home. "What would you like to know?"
"Were you really struck by lightning?"
"Yes."
" A Dhia . Cannae imagine what that did to you."
He turns down another street, the one that leads to my cottage. "What does ' a Dhia ' mean?"
"It's Gaelic for 'Oh God.' Would you tell me about your lightning strike? I've heard that sort of thing can create long-term issues."
"Let's wait until we're in your house. I don't want to accidentally drive us into a telephone pole."
Talking about it will upset him that much? Double a Dhia .