Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Iask only a very simple question, me laird,” Beatrice called after him. “It was nae intended to offend ye.”
Leo heard her footsteps following him, running to keep up with his long strides. Was he offended? No, he was angry. What did the lass mean by talking about “forever”? It was foolish talk at any time, but even more so in the arrangement they had.
“Ye kent I had a child,” he snapped. “Everyone kens.”
“What? Of course, I kent. Vaguely. That’s nae the point. I only asked how ye want me to talk to Effie. I daenae want to say anythin' wrong. Please, Leo!”
Abruptly he stopped, hearing the sincerity in her voice and feeling his temper soothed by it. She almost ran into him and he saved her from the stumbling of her feet with a steadying arm, finding that he welcomed the weight of her against him.
Ah, this was not Beatrice’s fault. She might not even have realized how her words sounded to me.
“Ye and I cannae talk of forever,” he said firmly, setting this ground rule. “It leads to…other things. Ye must trust me, Beatrice. It is for yer own good as well as mine.”
“Very well,” Beatrice agreed, her hand still lightly resting on his arm as though both of them had forgotten it was there, or were pretending to have forgotten in Leo’s case. “Tell me only what to tell Effie.”
“If ye’re sincere, ye could tell her that ye’ll always be her friend,” he offered. “There’s nae harm in that, if ye mean it.”
“I’d find it very easy to mean it,” Beatrice answered with a smile. “Effie seems very easy to love and I’ve always liked children.”
“Back there, ye were sweet with her,” Leo reflected. “Ye spoke like she was yer own daughter. I’m nae used to that.”
“Didnae ye like it?” Beatrice asked anxiously. “She is sweet and I wouldnae ken how to be otherwise.”
“I liked it,” Leo sighed and began walking again, more slowly this time so that Beatrice could keep up. “I suppose I was afraid that it wasnae just Effie ye were thinkin' of. Nay forever, nay love…”
“Shall I promise to love Effie and never to love ye, Laird MacSween? Is that what it would take to set yer mind at rest? We could make that our private weddin' vow.”
Leo now laughed, both at her joke and at himself. It was impossible to be cross with this woman for long. She seemed to understand him too easily.
“Aye, it can be our private weddin' vow,” he chuckled. “We can make our own service and take out all the parts we daenae mean.”
“Nay love, but plenty of honor,” Beatrice suggested impishly. “Ye like obedience too, daenae ye?”
“I am the laird,” Leo replied, smiling and gesturing to the castle around him. “I will have obedience from all in me clan, including me wife. Now as to other traditional vows…nay, we’d better leave those too.”
It would not do to dwell on promises of fidelity and togetherness any more than love. A pause hung in the air between them until Beatrice laughed in a soft lilt and raised her sparkling hazel eyes to his.
“Ye’re insufferable,” she told him, smiling back. “Do ye ken that?”
Leo instinctively raised his hand as if to touch her face but then thought better of it and pulled back with a little laugh.
“The whole world kens it, lassie, and yet ye came to me,” he said.