CHAPTER 29
Shouts of greeting filled the house as soon as Ian opened the front door.
“Praise God, all of ye are safe and that ye brought her home to us,” his mother said. She hugged him and each of the other men in turn, while his father embraced Sìleas.
“Is my thick-headed son treating ye better now?” his father asked, with his arm about her shoulders. “Sometimes a man needs a good scare to clear his head.”
“Then my head must be verra clear, for she had me scared witless, da,” Ian said, laughing.
Ah, it was good to be home.
They caught up on news over dinner. Though no one was told of their departure, as happens on Skye, everyone knew of it within a day or two.
“Hugh’s supporters spread the rumor that Connor’s left for good,” his father said. “We hear from Duncan’s sister that Hugh is making promises he’s not likely to keep in order to gain support. Unfortunately, it seems to be working.”
That didn’t bode well at all. From the start, it was always going to be a challenge for Connor to take the chieftainship from his uncle, but they had counted on taking Knock Castle to swing support in Connor’s favor. Men love a victory. But it was too late now to gather men and mount an attack.
“With Samhain but two days away,” Alex said, slapping Connor on the back, “we’ll have to move quickly to let the men know you’re home and ready to take your place as chieftain.”
Time was too short. Still, there had to be a way to convince their clansmen that Connor was the right man to choose—or that Hugh was the wrong choice.
They discussed their strategies for the gathering over supper. But when they were done eating, they set aside the uncertainties ahead to celebrate coming home and the start of Ian and Sìleas’s life together.
Duncan pulled out his whistle, and the rest of them took turns singing verses to the old songs they all knew. As Sìleas sang and clapped with the others, there was a glow about her that warmed Ian’s heart.
He leaned back in his chair, watching the others.
He caught his father winking at his mother and knew how pleased his parents were that matters were settled between him and Sìleas.
Even Niall had come around. Although Niall had been cautious around him the day they left Stirling, his brother had warmed once he saw how happy Sìleas was.
Ian felt at peace here at home with Sìleas, his friends, and his family. He couldn’t remember a time when he felt so content.
“We’d best say our good-byes now,” Connor said, getting to his feet. “Duncan, Alex, and I will leave early in the morning—long before our pair of lovebirds are up. We’ll talk to as many men as we can before the Samhain gathering.”
“I’ll meet up with ye before the gathering,” Ian said.
“Sìleas, lass,” Duncan said in his gruff voice, “will ye be wearing that new gown ye was telling us about to the gathering?”
Ian almost fell off his chair. Duncan was a good man, making such an effort to bring Sìleas into the circle of their friendship.
“I must have been light-headed with weariness to be speaking about gowns with ye,” Sìleas said, a pretty blush coloring her cheeks. “I didn’t think ye were listening to my blathering about it.”
“I don’t talk all the time like some,” Duncan said, turning to raise an eyebrow at Alex, “so I heard ye well enough. It’s green to match your eyes, am I right?”
Ian exchanged glances with Alex and Connor, who appeared to be as startled as he was by Duncan’s conversation.
“It is green,” Sìleas said, giving Duncan a huge smile. “Tell me, will ye play your whistle at the gathering?”
“Ach, this little whistle is for when I travel light,” Duncan said, patting where he kept it on a cord inside his shirt. “When Connor is made chieftain, I’ll play my pipes—and perhaps my harp as well. My sister has been keeping them for me.”
The men stood up, preparing to go to the old cottage for the night.
Sìleas rose up on her toes and kissed Duncan’s cheek. “I’ll see ye at the gathering.”
“Careful, lass,” Duncan said. “I don’t want Ian’s dirk in my back.”
“I’ll risk it,” Alex said, opening his arms to her. “Remember, ye promised me a kiss when we were on the boat.”
“What promise—” Before Ian could get the question out, Alex had lifted Sìleas off the ground and kissed her right on the mouth.
No sooner had Ian pried her loose from Alex, than Connor said, “Since we’re leaving early, I’d best get my kiss now as well.”
Connor, wise man, settled for a friendly peck on the cheek.
“I’ve had enough of ye handling my wife,” Ian said, putting his arm around Sìleas and pulling her close.
“But I didn’t get my turn,” Niall said, stepping forward.
“Ye were alone with my wife overnight and lived to tell the tale,” Ian said, lifting his hand to ward off his brother. “Ye’d best be content with that.”
After the men left for the cottage and his parents had settled into quiet conversation near the hearth, Sìleas took Ian aside.
“I want to tell Gòrdan about us,” she said. “It’s not right that he should hear of it from someone else.”
Ian nodded. “All right. I’ll take ye up there in the morning.”
“I’d rather go now and get it over with,” she said. “Do ye mind?”
Ian recalled what his brother said about a long line of men waiting for Sìleas to lose patience with him. If she was in a hurry to tell the first man in that line to stop waiting, well, that was fine with him.
“I’ll walk up with ye and wait outside,” he said. “I don’t want ye out alone.”
A short time later, Ian was leaning against a tree under a moonless sky and watching his wife rap on Gòrdan’s door.
When Gòrdan opened it, a shaft of light fell over Sìleas and across the dark yard. Ian heard their murmured voices as they talked in the doorway.
Then he heard Gòrdan’s mother shouting, “The wicked lass has left her husband for ye, hasn’t she?”
Gòrdan was patient, as always, with his mother.
“Quiet, mam. I can’t explain now,” he called to her, before he stepped outside and shut the door.
The two spoke in quiet voices a while longer, then Sìleas left Gòrdan to walk toward the tree where Ian waited. Ian felt Gòrdan’s eyes on him in the darkness.
“Be good to her,” Gòrdan called out.
“I will.”
Ian held Sìleas’s hand as they walked home along the dark path. He didn’t ask about her conversation with Gòrdan; if she wanted to speak of it, she would.
Before they reached the house, he stopped in the path and turned to her. He brushed back the hair whipping about her face, but it was too dark to see her expression.
“I never meant to shame ye by not coming home,” he said.
“I know ye didn’t,” she said.
But the truth was that he had given her feelings little thought at all, and they both knew it.
“If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t be such an arse.”
“Are ye sure?” she said with a smile in her voice.
It was like her to try to ease his conscience by making light of it. He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on her head. “I’m sorry I hurt ye. I wish we hadn’t been forced to wed back then before we were ready, so we could do it now, and do it right.”
“ ’Tis true I wasn’t ready,” Sìleas said. “But I always wanted you to be my husband in the end.”
“That’s because ye are wiser than me,” Ian said, rubbing his chin against her hair. “I hate knowing that my wife will always remember the start of our marriage as the worst day of her life. I’d do anything to change that.”
Sìleas leaned away from him, and he felt the soft touch of her fingertips graze his cheek. “Then let’s count our marriage as starting now, and not five years ago.”
Ian realized she was right for wanting to tell Gòrdan tonight, to have all that done and behind them. They were embarking on their new life together, now that they were home.
Ian held her tight against him. “I’ll try to make it up to ye every day from now on.”