CHAPTER 10
As soon as Ian sat down at the table to join his brother and Alex for breakfast, Niall jumped to his feet, sending his spoon clattering to the floor. After giving Ian a murderous look, he stormed across the room and out of the house, slamming the door behind him.
“Nothing quiet about this family,” Alex said, his mouth twitching. He stretched his arms in a dramatic yawn. “A fearful noise woke me last night.”
“I’m warning ye, Alex, not another word,” Ian said.
“I take it that the wedding night did not go as well as ye hoped,” Alex said. “Do ye need me to give ye pointers, cuz?”
Ian started to lunge across the table, but he checked himself when Alex shot him a warning glance.
“Good morning, Sìleas,” Alex called out.
“Is it?” Sìleas said in a clipped tone. Ignoring the empty place beside Ian, she walked around to the far side of the table and sat next to Alex.
Alex raised an eyebrow at Ian and commenced to shovel porridge into his mouth.
Ian cleared his throat. “Morning, Sìl.”
She pressed her lips into a tight line and set to stirring her porridge with a good deal of vigor. For the next several minutes, the only sound in the room was the scrape of spoons in bowls. For all the attention Sìleas gave her porridge, she didn’t appear to be eating much.
Finally, she set down her spoon. Looking past Ian as if he weren’t there, she said, “Where is Niall?”
Ian cleared his throat again. “I believe he went out for some fresh air.” He tried desperately to think of something else to say to her.
“Some fresh air would do ye good as well,” Alex said to her. “You’re looking peaked. How about I take ye out fishing today and let the sea breeze put the color back in your cheeks?”
When Ian kicked him, Alex lifted the finger resting against his cheek to signal that Ian should be patient.
Sìleas narrowed her eyes, considering. Then she said, “I’d like that verra much. I haven’t been fishing in years.”
“Meet me on the beach in an hour, and I’ll show ye how it’s done,” Alex said.
What the hell was Alex up to?
The door to the kitchen swung open, and Dina came in, wiping her hands on her apron. “Are ye finished?” With a sly smile for Alex, she added, “Or will ye be wanting more?”
“Can ye see to Payton’s breakfast, Dina?” Sìleas said, as she got to her feet. “I have some things to attend to. And then I’m going fishing.”
Without waiting for Dina to respond—or sparing a glance for Ian—Sìleas left them and disappeared up the stairs.
· · ·
The icy wind froze Sìleas’s cheeks and made her eyes water. Despite Alex’s smooth, sure strokes with the oars, their little boat bobbed in the choppy water.
Sìleas’s emotions were as wild as the sea today. She was furious with Ian for sneaking into her bed without even asking her. After keeping her waiting for five long years, he had expected her to be grateful—grateful!—that he had decided to “accept the situation.”
She was not a “situation.”
Ian’s kisses had sent an unfamiliar storm of emotions raging inside her.
She was so hungry for Ian’s affection, and the desire he stirred in her was so overwhelming, that she had almost lost herself to it.
But she knew that for him it was only a physical need.
Ian wanted her, but for the wrong reason—or at least not for the reasons she needed.
“You’re not afraid of a wee bit of weather, are ye?” Alex called out, grinning.
Sìleas shook her head. Like him, she was an islander and as comfortable on the sea as on land. “All the same, I’d say it’s a poor day for fishing.”
“Well, ye don’t believe I brought ye out here for the fishing, do ye?” Alex said.
She shook her head again and watched as he skillfully maneuvered the boat around some rocks to a sheltered cove, where the sea was quieter.
“ ’Tis time we had ourselves a talk.” He rested his oars and leaned forward. “You and I have some scheming to do.”
She pushed back the hair whipping across her face. “Scheming?”
“Aye, scheming,” Alex said, and waggled his eyebrows. “Now, you and I both know that ye love Ian and always have.”
“Ye don’t know my feelings.”
“I am on your side, lass,” Alex said. “So let’s not waste time lying to each other.”
She folded her arms and looked out to sea. “I’ll no spend my life hoping Ian will care for me.”
“I’m no saying ye should accept less than your due,” Alex said. “But I suspect Ian cares for ye more than he knows.”
“Seems to me,” she said between her teeth, “that not knowing that he cares is the same as not caring.”
“Sometimes a man needs to be pushed a wee bit,” Alex said. “Hitting him over the head with the skillet a couple of times was a good start.”
Sìleas felt her cheeks grow warm. “Ian deserved it.”
“I haven’t a doubt that he did,” Alex said. “But ye can’t blame him for trying to get ye under the blankets.”
“Hmmph.”
A seal popped his head up and looked at her with its black eyes for a long moment before disappearing again below the waves.
“Do ye remember how the four of us lads used to sail to Knock Castle to take ye out fishing with us?” Alex said. “It was always Ian who talked us into it. Not that the rest of us didn’t like ye, mind, but we were lads off having adventures. We wouldn’t have brought ye along if Ian hadn’t insisted.”
“He just felt sorry for me,” she said.
“Aye, Ian always did have a soft heart,” Alex said. “But he liked having ye around. He was always talking about the funny things ye said or how quick ye were to learn something.”
“I was a wee girl,” she said. “He doesn’t know me now.”
“So give him time to get to know ye again,” Alex said. “That’s all I’m saying. Don’t decide against him so quick.”
“Why are ye trying to convince me?”
“Because I know ye will make Ian happy,” Alex said, his expression serious for once. “He’s a good man, Sìleas. That’s why ye waited for him so long.”
“Hmmph.” She was more confused than ever.
Alex narrowed his eyes at the clouds on the horizon. “We’d best head back. A storm is coming.”
The waves grew wild on the way back, bouncing them like an egg in a kettle at full boil. Sìleas held tight to the sides of the boat, enjoying the rush of the water and the sting of the sea on her skin.
“ ’Tis grand, isn’t it?” Alex shouted, and they grinned at each other.
The rain was pelting the sea not far behind them as Alex rowed hard for the beach.
“Is that Ian?” Sìleas shouted over the wind, though she knew that was him pacing up and down the beach.
“Ahh, perfect,” Alex said. “Even from here, I can see he’s in a state.”
Ian had seen them now and was standing with his hands on his hips, glaring out to sea in their direction.
“Shall we stay out a bit longer?” Alex said. “The man deserves to suffer, wouldn’t ye say?”
“What are ye about, Alex?”
“ ’Tis all part of my plan to make Ian appreciate ye.”
“Appreciate me? Ian looks as if he’d like to murder us both.”
“What fills the eye fills the heart,” Alex said. “Trust me, ’tis a good sign.”
She crawled closer to Alex so she could hear him better over the wind. “Ye said ye had a scheme, but ye never told me what it was.”
“Well, one part is to make him jealous,” Alex said.
“Jealous? Of you?”
Alex laughed. “Believe it or not, most women find me irresistible.”
Though Alex wasn’t for her, it was easy to see the appeal of the sea-green eyes and Viking warrior looks combined with all that charm.
She turned to see Ian striding through the surf to meet them. He had that dangerous look about him that made her heart beat fast.
“Are ye sure this is a wise idea, Alex?” she asked.
“I’ll make a wager with ye,” Alex said. “If I’m right and ye have Ian groveling at your feet within a fortnight, ye must give me a big kiss on the mouth in front of him.”
“Ye are a devil,” she said, unable to keep from laughing, despite the tension she felt with Ian bearing down on them. “And if ye are wrong?”
A slow smile spread across Alex’s face. “Why, the same, lass. The very same.”
Ian must have been bewitched by faeries to let his cousin take Sìleas out in the boat alone.
You’re no doing so well on your own, Alex had said to him. Let me see if I can help her to see things your way. Ye know how persuasive I can be.
Ian knew precisely how persuasive his handsome cousin could be. Women fell over each other to make fools of themselves with Alex.
The sea was rough, and heavy, black rain clouds were rolling in as Ian paced the beach. Where in the hell were they? What was Alex doing keeping her out with this storm coming? The weather was getting worse by the moment.
He reminded himself that Alex had a second sense on the water, as if a Viking ancestor was whispering guidance in his ear. All the same, Alex shouldn’t be taking chances with Sìleas in the boat.
Ian glanced again at the old, leaky boat resting high on the shore. He was almost desperate enough to take it out to look for them, when he caught sight of their boat as it appeared and disappeared between the troughs. By the saints, he was going to kill Alex.
As they neared shore, Ian waded out into the rough surf to help haul the boat in. Neither the icy water nor the cold, wet wind on his face cooled his temper. It burned hotter still when Sìleas moved to Alex’s end of the boat and her laugh traveled across the water.
He caught hold of the side and steadied it as Alex dropped into the water. Instead of taking his side of the boat, Alex lifted Sìleas out. Alex headed for the shore, carrying her in his arms above the reach of the waves—and leaving Ian to drag the boat alone as if he were a damned servant.
“Mind the boat!” Alex shouted over his shoulder. “We don’t want to lose her.”
When Alex reached the sandy beach, he turned with Sìleas still in his arms to watch Ian do his work for him. For God’s sake, why did the man not set her on her own two feet now? And there she was, smiling up at Alex, as if she were enjoying herself.
As soon as he had secured the boat, Ian stomped across the beach to join them. “Is my wife injured?”
“I wouldn’t let harm come to my favorite lass, now would I?” Alex said with a broad wink at Sìleas. “But I couldn’t risk letting her get tossed about in the surf. ’Tis a stormy day, if ye hadn’t noticed.”
“I suggest ye set her down before I break your arms,” Ian said. “Better yet, I’ll take her.”
“I can stand,” Sìleas said. “Put me down.”
“Whatever ye say, lass,” Alex said, and set her down.
Ian itched to give his cousin a clout across his smiling face, but he wanted some answers first. “What in the hell were ye doing, having her out on the water with that storm coming? And don’t tell me ye didn’t see it.”
“ ’Course I saw it coming,” Alex said, easy as could be. “I may have cut it a wee bit close, because we were having such a grand time, ye see. But we made it in all right.”
Ian glared down at Sìleas and did not feel at all badly when she trembled. With her color high from the wind and her hair wild about her, she looked like a sea nymph come to shore hoping to be ravished.
“What were the two of ye doing out there so long?” he said to her. “I didn’t see any fish in the damned boat.”
“It was a poor day for fishing,” she said.
Now that he thought of it, there wasn’t even a net in the boat.
“Then just what were ye doing all this time?” he yelled, with the image of her arms around Alex’s neck as he carried her to shore vivid in his mind. “Is it not enough that ye have Gòrdan Graumach eating out of your hand?”
“Ye may find it strange, but I enjoy being with a man who doesn’t shout at me,” she said, shouting herself.
“Enjoying Alex, were ye?”
With her green eyes flashing and her hair whipping about her face, she looked like the magnificent Celtic warrior queen, Scáthach, herself.
“Ye have no call to accuse me of what ye are,” she said, poking her finger into his chest.
Her statement calmed him a bit. Sìleas wouldn’t lie to him.
“Ye should mind how it looks when ye go about with other men,” he said. “I won’t be made a fool of.”
Sìleas sputtered what might have been curses but was lost in the wind. When he reached for her hand, she kicked him in the shin. He stood dumbfounded as she turned and ran up the beach to the path above.
Ian looked to his cousin, expecting commiseration—and the apology he was owed.
“What in the name of heaven is wrong with ye?” Alex said, raising his hands in the air. “Did ye have to yell at her?”
“Me? You’re blaming me for this?”
“Accuse me of anything ye like,” Alex said, with a hard edge to his voice. “But there’s no excuse for insulting Sìleas.”
“I hope you’re telling me that nothing happened between ye out there,” Ian said, clenching his fists.
“I was out there doing my best to persuade her that ye are not the idget that ye are. You’ve somehow managed, in spite of yourself, to get the perfect wife, and now ye seem to be doing all ye can to lose her.”
Alex, who was usually hard to rile, was pacing back and forth and gesturing with his hands as he ranted.
“Sìleas is not just lovely, but she’s sensible and kind as well,” Alex said. “Adding to this miracle, your family adores the lass.”
“I’ve told her I want her,” Ian said. “What more does she want from me?”
“Why have ye done nothing to make amends to her?” Alex said, spreading his arms wide. “Would it be so hard to show her that ye admire her, that ye care for her? I tell ye, I’m disgusted with ye.”
With that, Alex turned and left Ian alone on the beach staring after him. He was still standing there when the heavens opened up and drenched him.