Chapter 8 #2
Fiona held onto her temper. Sarcasm was a way of hiding.
What did this man want to keep hidden? Perhaps in his case, Erik was wrong and she should try charm.
She didn’t rise to his bait. “Nay, my aspirations are far less grand. I really do wish to ken what ye think we are lacking. What would make life better for Ross?” She opened her hands in a show of willingness to listen, then laid them on the table top.
Osgar’s gaze followed the movement and stayed on her hands a beat too long. She drew them back to her lap and waited, her pulse racing but her expression calm. She kept an eating blade in her skirt pocket and grasped it now, below the tabletop and out of his view. Would she need to use it?
Instead of lunging forward, as she half expected, he leaned back and crossed his arms, his posture lazy, even pompous.
“So ye come here, a stranger to this clan, to this part of the country, no less, and think ye will solve all our problems? What have ye accomplished? Why was yer former clan so eager to be rid of ye that they married ye off within a day?” He nodded.
“Aye, everyone kens that tale. What sort of arrogance makes ye so certain ye will have the answers to clan warfare? And to incursions by the islanders or the royalists, with Ross caught in the middle and men like me forced to fight and die for other men’s greed or vanity?
” He leaned forward. “What makes ye think ye belong here? Ye dinna.” He snorted his disgust. “Ye want to ken what we need? A strong leader like Donas Ross was. No’ a man intent on alliances.
Ross needs one who will make us the biggest and strongest clan in the Highlands.
We shouldna live like this.” He waved a hand to indicate the meagerness of the cot.
“We should take over a castle, toss out our enemies and make it a stronghold Ross can be proud of. No’ build a puny curtain wall and a few more cots.
A village is no’ defensible. Villages are made to burn. ”
His words gave Fiona chills, but he wasn’t wrong. “I fled Inverness when the bridge over the River Ness was burned. ’Tis a miracle the wind kept the flames away from the town. So I ken what ye mean. But ye ken Erik is doing what he can with what we have. Are ye a stonemason? Do ye ken any?”
The man’s insolent stare gave her his answer.
“There ye have it. We can build a wooden palisade. Stone walls will be built. For now, we do what we can with what we ken. Do ye have any other suggestions? Or needs?”
Osgar laughed. “Every man has needs. Are ye offering to satisfy those as well?”
Now Fiona did frown, regretting her choice of words. “Ye ken I am no’. And unless ye wish to face my husband, ye will keep such ideas to yerself.”
A shadow fell across the table. Fiona looked around to see Erik filling the doorway. “Osgar, I suggest ye leave. Now. I’ll deal with ye later.”
The man’s bravado fled the moment he saw Erik blocking his escape. He paled at his laird’s words, stood and moved carefully around where Fiona sat. “Of course, Laird Ross.”
Fiona thought she must be seeing things. He appeared to be trembling. With fear of the man he disparaged as too weak to lead the clan?
Erik stepped aside and allowed him to leave, then came in and closed the door behind him. “What did I tell ye about meeting alone with any of the men?”
“He arrived, ye and Tormod were gone, as were the other men. I left the door open and didna let him get between me and it. What else was I to do? And now that I think about it, why was that man no’ helping ye like all the others?”
“I’ll ask him that question myself. Later. Now, dinna attempt to distract me.” Erik’s brow drew down over eyes glinting with anger. “I warned ye no’ to do this. And Osgar, of all men. The one ye already noted doesna approve of ye.”
“Aye, he made that clear in what he said to me.”
“And what else do ye think he made clear?”
Erik had likely heard the words from the man’s own mouth. “That he was thinking of assaulting me,” she admitted. “I warned him off just before ye arrived in the doorway.”
“Yer words wouldna have stopped him if he truly meant ye harm.”
“Ye make my point for me. He didna.”
“Nay, but the idea was there and given time to examine and enjoy it, he could still take action ye would bitterly regret.”
“But he didna. Ye came back and stopped him.”
“Today. But the idea is still there. He’s made ye a target.”
“He is one man, and we ken the danger he thinks he presents, so we are prepared. I am. I canna live in fear, some frightened coney with nose twitching, starting, and running at every cross look.”
“I’d rather that than for ye to live with the memory of what he thought to do—and later did.”
“What any man might do to any lass at any time he finds one alone.”
“Ye ken all men are no’ like that. But ye must be aware of those who are.”
“Did I no’ just say that I am? That we are? What else do ye expect me to do, Erik? If I am to be lady of this clan, I canna cower before its bullies. I must be a strong and stable presence to support ye and what ye are doing for the clan.”
Erik moved to her and took her in his arms. “I ken that, Fiona. But I fear I have brought ye into an impossible situation, and I will blame myself if aught happens to ye.”
“So ye are worried more for yerself than for me, is that it?” She pulled out of his arms and faced him, hands on hips.
“Nay. Nay, ’tis no’ what I meant. Dinna twist my words. I have told ye I care for ye and I need ye here with me. ’Tis up to me to protect ye. If I fail in my duty to ye, what kind of husband or laird am I?”
“Ye are a man, Erik. No’ a god.”
“That wasna me ye called out for the other night?” He grinned. “Mayhap I am no’, but I am the man who pleases ye.”
Heat rose in her face. He had done so before they left Rose, and made a memory that she cherished.
But since they’d arrived at Ross, they’d had no time for a repeat.
And no energy left at the end of the last few long and exhausting days.
“Now?” Surely he didn’t mean that. He’d been furious only moments ago with Osgar and ready to do violence if need be.
He gave her a wry smile and ran a hand through his hair, a sign of frustration. “Nay, I must return to work. And deal with Osgar before he thinks he got away with something because I’m a weak leader.”
Fiona went to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Ye are never that. Ye are a wiser leader than yer predecessor. Remember that when ye deal with him.”