34 OUR OWN PATHS TO TREAD
LIZA’S MOUTH CURVED. “Really?”
Rae’s attention shifted to her, his own smile widening. “Aye.”
Warmth bloomed across her chest. “Thank ye.”
His expression sobered. “Did ye believe otherwise?”
“We had our doubts,” Alec admitted. “We’re both new to our respective roles … and recent events have tested us.”
Rae shrugged. “That’s true enough … but ye have shown yerselves capable, and worthy of respect.” He paused then, his features tightening. “All those who lead … myself included … have their trials.”
“Certainly not ye, Rae?” Alec teased. “Ye give the impression of a man in control.”
Rae grimaced. “Aye, well, even an experienced laird makes mistakes. I try not to imagine what my wee brother has gotten up to in my absence. Jack might be finding my chair a little too comfortable.”
Alec snorted a laugh at this, and Rae’s mouth curved. “My time away from Dounarwyse has done me good though,” he added then. “After Donalda died, my life drifted into an unhappy pattern … but things will change upon my return.”
“What will ye do?” Liza asked, intrigued. During Rae’s stay, she’d been too worried about his judgment to consider his situation.
His gaze shadowed. “I haven’t been much of a father to my sons of late. They’ve run wild. I will take them in hand and see about finding a firm local woman to mind them.”
“Sounds like ye need a duenna,” she replied.
A groove etched between his eyebrows. “What’s that then?”
“A stern older woman hired to chaperone young ladies in Iberia … or in this case, unruly lads.”
“Aye, our grandfather told us of them,” Makenna added with a grin. “He said ye never wanted to cross a duenna.”
Rae sighed, flashing them a wry smile. “If only I had such a woman at my disposal.”
“I could fill the role, if ye wish?”
Kylie’s announcement made silence fall like a hammer blow at the table.
Liza’s gaze snapped to her older sister, expecting to see a teasing light in Kylie’s eye. But on the contrary, her spine was straight, her chin held high, as she met Rae’s gaze.
Mother Mary, she was in earnest.
“Ye are too young for such a role, Kylie,” Liza replied, deliberately brushing off her comment.
“I’m thirty, Liza,” Kylie answered firmly. “And I’m not interested in remarrying.” Her gaze never wavered from Rae’s as she spoke. “I’m good with bairns, Maclean … although I’ve never had any of my own … and rest assured, I shall tolerate no nonsense.”
Rae’s fern-green eyes narrowed at this. “Are ye sure, Lady Grant?” he asked, inclining his head. “I’d not wish to encumber ye with my situation.”
“Ye wouldn’t be,” she assured him. “I shall expect a wage for my services … but in return, I will serve ye well.”
An awkward pause followed before Rae glanced Liza’s way. “Would ye object?”
Liza gave a soft snort. “I’m not Kylie’s father.”
“And he wouldn’t object either,” Kylie replied, irritation creeping into her voice. “Indeed, ye will be doing him a favor, for otherwise, I will be underfoot at Meggernie Castle.”
Rae’s features tightened. “Ye won’t stay on in yer late husband’s broch?”
Kylie shook her head. “I can’t … after Errol’s death, I discovered that his debts are many … one of his creditors now owns his broch.”
Liza stiffened at this admission. Meanwhile, Makenna’s lips had parted. This was news to them both. “Ye never said,” Makenna murmured.
Kylie tore her gaze from Rae’s then and looked her way. Her oaken eyes were shadowed, faint spots of color upon her pale cheeks. “I was ashamed,” she admitted. “Da still doesn’t know.”
An ache rose in Liza’s chest at this admission. Kylie was stoic, private—too much so. She held things close, things that should be shared.
“Aye, well … if ye wish for a position at Dounarwyse, ye shall have it,” Rae spoke up then, shattering the tension between the sisters. “I’d be happy to have yer assistance with Lyle and Ailean.” He huffed a sigh then. “Lord knows, I need it.”
“I wish ye’d told me,” Liza said softly as she watched her sister make neat stitches upon the pillowcase she was embroidering. “There was no need to suffer in silence.”
Kylie glanced up and grimaced. “As I said … I was embarrassed. The MacGregor pride is strong, is it not?”
Liza snorted a laugh. “Aye.”
Like Kylie, she’d been known to weather storms without telling anyone. She’d kept her unhappiness during her marriage to Leod secret, hadn’t she?
“Are ye sure ye want to be duenna to Rae’s sons?” she asked then. “They sound like a lot of work.”
“They’re just bairns who’ve lost their mother,” Kylie replied firmly. “And aye, I didn’t offer my services just to avoid slinking back to Meggernie Castle and having to explain myself to Da … although it didn’t escape me either.” She paused then, determination hardening her eyes. “I see ye, and the purpose ye have … and I wish to have something to strive for in life.” She shook her head then. “Like Leod with ye, Errol never shared anything with me … I didn’t know of his debts until after his death. There were times when I felt like a ghost in our broch, drifting from chamber to chamber, trying to make myself useful yet never quite succeeding.”
Liza nodded. “I understand.” And she did. Hadn’t she felt the same way here once? “We are capable of so much,” she murmured.
Rising from her desk, where she’d been counting out coins to pay her bailiff, she moved across the sheepskin-covered floor of the lady’s solar to the window. It was another lovely day, and the sky was the color of a robin’s egg. Leaning against the stone sill, she gazed outdoors, smiling at the sweet scent of summer grass that wafted over her.
A bairn’s laughter reached her then, and she glanced down to see Craeg throwing a stick for Rae’s dog. The Highland Collie gave an excited bark and bounded after the stick as it skittered over the stones.
Liza’s mouth curved. Her son loved dogs. She’d talk to the hound-master soon and find out when the next bitch would whelp. She wished to give Craeg a puppy as a Yuletide gift this year.
Her gaze traveled over the barmkin and halted upon two figures who sparred with wooden practice swords.
Murmuring an oath under her breath, she watched as Alec attempted to kick her sister’s legs out from under her. However, Makenna leaped nimbly aside. Alec’s low laugh reverberated off stone. “That’s better … ye learn fast.”
“What is it?” Kylie appeared at Liza’s side, watching as Makenna leaped under Alec’s guard and tried to knee him in the bollocks—only his quick reflexes saved him. Kylie then made a strangled sound in the back of her throat.
Liza glanced her way to see her elder sister now wore a look of stern disapproval. “Who is that censure aimed at,” she said, frowning. “Alec or Makenna?”
“Both of them,” Kylie muttered. “Makenna for insisting on such mannish behavior … when she’s supposed to be readying herself to become a wife … and Rankin for encouraging her.”
“Makenna believes Bran Mackinnon will forfeit his father’s oath to ours … especially once he learns he was lied to,” Liza replied, arching an eyebrow.
Kylie scowled. “Da should never have promised the Mackinnons his eldest daughter … intending to hand over his youngest instead. The young clan-chief will see it as a slight.”
Liza snorted. “In that case, Makenna will likely be spared.” Her gaze held Kylie’s then. “Anyway, aren’t ye proud of our sister for daring to be different?”
“Makenna isn’t just different ,” Kylie said with a sigh. “She flies in the face of convention.” She gestured to the barmkin below then, where Alec and Makenna now circled each other, and he was giving her instructions. “And just like yer man, Da indulges her.”
Yer man .
The words, carelessly spoken, warmed Liza’s chest.
Heedless to her reaction, Kylie continued. “These days, whenever ye remind her of her responsibilities, she gets testy.”
Liza eyed her elder sister. “Ye have done so, I take it?”
“Aye. Someone must.”
Shaking her head, Liza moved close to her sister and placed an arm around her shoulders. Kylie stiffened a moment, surprised by the spontaneous affection, before leaning into her.
They stood like that for a few moments, watching the goings-on in the barmkin below before Liza broke the silence between them. “Dear sister,” she said softly. “Ye care greatly for us all … and only want what’s best for us … but we all have our own paths to tread.” She squeezed her shoulders then, catching Kylie’s eye. For once, her sister’s expression was unguarded, her brown eyes vulnerable, and Liza’s throat tightened in response. “Aye, sometimes we shall falter … sometimes we will fail … but ye must let us.”