Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“You have been in your head today,” Eleanor said, leaning in close to Margo.
Looking away from the three women threading flower chains, Margo willed her eyes to focus on her sister’s face. She blinked twice before admitting, “I did not get much sleep last night.”
Even now, sitting with her group of girls in her chambers, the door connecting her room with Cameron’s stared back at her. The maid who had shown her upstairs after supper the previous night had made a point of showing her the lock. As soon as she had left, Margo had disengaged it.
I still do not know what possessed me to do it.
“I understand,” Eleanor murmured, scooting a bit closer. “This ceilidh is for you. You will be the centre of attention. It would make me nervous as well.”
Margo gave her a tight smile. Her sister was not wrong, necessarily.
But she did not need to know that it was not just the impending celebration.
All night, Margo had stared at the door, expecting Cameron to come through, to join her in bed the way he had promised he would when they returned to the MacLeod Castle.
She realized now that he had likely requested the separate rooms; that he was never going to test whether or not she had locked him out.
“What are the two of you talking about over there?” Marian asked, setting the flowers and twine down on the low, oak table in front of her.
“Just some jitters,” Margo said honestly, reaching forward and retrieving her mug of lukewarm tea. “Nothing serious.”
“I bet you are having pre-wedding jitters,” Anna said helpfully, her fingers deftly stringing the delicate flowers together.
“You said that you were not expecting your wedding to take place. It’s just…
a delay in their arrival. I know that I was a right mess before Hugh and I were wed.
Though I suppose our situation was not exactly standard. ”
“As time goes by, I am more and more convinced that no marriage is truly standard,” Lilly said without looking away from her own work. “Men are such fickle things sometimes.”
“I cannot say that I disagree with you,” Margo said with a light laugh.
“The fickle ones make the best husbands,” Marian said decisively. She seemed to have completely abandoned her task, waving over a maid to carry away the finished decorations. “There is never a dull moment, even if you are just trying to reason why he behaves the way that he does.”
The conversation paused for a brief moment, when several servants rushed in the room.
One of the women was carrying the dress Margo would be wearing for the ceilidh.
Marian stood gracefully, helping Lilly to her feet as Anna helped clear the area.
A lightning strike of nerves zipped up her spine.
The Gathering was only a few hours away.
She was certain the first attendees would be arriving any minute now.
“I have spoken with one of my friends in England, and I am fairly certain that Highland husbands are much more entertaining,” Anna said, going through the ribbons laid out on the desk in the corner. “I am much happier being married to a Scotsman than I ever would be with a stuffy Englishman.”
“They say that about us,” Lilly tutted as her hands grazed Margo’s spine. Each button she unfastened gave a dull pop, barely audible above the frantic beating of her heart. “‘Stuffy sassenach,’ or whatever it is they like to say.”
“Wee sassenach is what I hear most often,” Marian said, rolling her eyes as she carefully loosened the braid in Margo’s hair. “Though Lachlan typically uses my name.” Stepping in front of Margo, Marian asked, “Do you get called sassenach?”
“No,” Margo said, blushing for reasons she could not quite name. “Cameron doesn’t call me anything other than Margo.”
“He did call you confusing last week,” Eleanor pointed out, her focus entirely on the blue gown one of the maids had hung on the privacy divider. “Though I do not think that counts. He didn’t do it in place of your name.”
“No, that doesn’t count,” Lilly giggled as she helped Margo out of her casual dress. “It is quite funny, though.”
“It is especially funny that he would say that about me, when he is the one who is endlessly confusing!” Margo exclaimed before she could stop herself. Almost immediately, she started explaining herself, saying, “It is simply that he hardly speaks to me. He spends half his time avoiding me.”
“He stares at you, though,” Eleanor said, a mischievous smile settling on her lips.
“He most certainly does not stare at me!” Margo argued, only keeping herself still because Lilly was fastening her into her ceilidh gown.
Though perhaps I have been making a point to avoid looking his way.
Anna and Marian exchanged a look before the two started giggling. As soon as Lilly finished getting Margo into her gown, Margo’s hands found her hips as she stared at the two women incredulously. She sputtered, unsure of how anything she said was funny.
“Cameron stares plenty. Men imagine themselves being subtle when they are anything but,” Anna said when she recovered. She looked at Marian then and asked, “Do you think we should go with a blue ribbon or a white ribbon?”
“I was thinking that we leave her hair down,” Marian said, carrying on with preparations as if they had not just said something that shook Margo to her core.
Anna huffed, walking over to the desk to exchange the ribbons for a comb. As she approached Margo and Marian once more, she said, “Hugh behaved the same way when we were first married.”
“It is not the same,” Margo said, unsure of why she was protesting so hard.
I’m trying to protect my heart. It is better if I do not read into any of this past the surface level.
“I think that it might be similar,” Lilly said, walking back to her chair with her hand resting on her belly.
“I would have felt the same way if someone told me that Lachlan’s behavior was romantic at first,” Marian hummed, steering Margo toward the window seat. As she pushed her onto her rump, Marian said, “It feels different when you are in the midst of it.”
Margo huffed, but said nothing else. Letting Marian and Anna fuss over her hair, she reached for her sister’s hand. Eleanor squeezed their palms together, smiling when they met each other’s eyes.
“You know,” Marian said when she was satisfied with Margo’s hair, “I first met Cameron at my wedding.”
“Is that so?” Margo asked, clearing her throat to combat the dryness that had accumulated.
“He looked like being at the wedding physically pained him.”
Before Marian could continue, Anna burst into laughter. She dropped the comb she had been carrying. As she bent down to pick it up, she said, “I am sorry, so sorry. It is simply… I can see it in my head.”
Margo could, too. Cameron was such a serious man. She could not imagine he would be anything but sour at a wedding. He did not even look as if he wanted to be attending his own handfasting.
“Cameron barely spoke to anyone,” Marian said as she took the seat on Margo’s other side. “He glowered at every single couple dancing. I am surprised he did not flee before the vows were read.”
I should not feel so glad to hear these stories.
But, for the first time, she felt as though she were hearing about the man that Cameron was. Yes, she knew that he was dutiful, that he was respected by his people and allies alike. It was a different thing to hear how he behaved when he was tasked with being nothing more than a person.
I’m finding that I like the human parts of him.
“There’s nae a soul to stop me,” Cameron muttered to himself as he poured himself a second glass of whisky.
The Solar had been empty for the better part of an hour.
As soon as the first guests started arriving, Lachlan disappeared, promising he would greet the rest of them once the ceilidh officially began.
Hugh had gone to the kitchens a short while after Lachlan left, claiming he was retrieving more whisky; though if Cameron had to guess, he was taking first pick of the refreshments in the kitchen.
Even Gavin had abandoned him, wandering off with claims of alliances.
“Perhaps I should be more concerned with the social aspect of this entire event,” Cameron grumbled as he settled heavily in an armchair near the hearth.
His mind, as it had been since he had taken her into his life, kept drifting back to Margo.
He had spent half the night staring at the door connecting their rooms and the other half with his back to it, pretending that it did not exist. Even though he had not given in to the temptation, it was still draining.
And now I will have to see her, dance with her. Put on a show for the crowd that came to see her.
He did not know how he had kept the feeling of her lips out of his mind.
Now that he had declared they would be lying together, it was nearly impossible to think about anything but the way she had gasped into his mouth.
Even now, his palms ached to hold onto her waist and pull her firmly against his body.
He longed to taste each breath she took, to drink her in from the source.
“This is a mistake,” Cameron growled before finishing his drink in one long gulp.
As he slammed the crystal goblet on the table next to him, Lachlan’s words echoed in his head.
Ye are nae yer father.
It seemed that everyone around him believed the sentiment, but Cameron just could not accept it.
He saw every single similarity up close, and hid the ones that were too damning.
No one understood the pervasive desire that coursed through him to claim Margo, to make her irrevocably his in every single way.
Some days, he understood his father’s savage hold on his mother. His own heart felt much more settled when he knew where Margo was, when he knew that she was safe. He was sure that if he confessed it to Lachlan or Gavin, they would say that was different.
Any sort of controllin’ a person, takin’ from them… It is all the same.
A single, sharp knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. As he looked away from the rim of his empty cup, Marian stepped in, looking entirely too pleased with herself. She waited until she was sure she had his full attention before speaking.
“Your wife is ready,” she announced giddily. Her eyes swept over the empty Solar, the corner of her mouth ticking up as if she had just told herself a joke that he was not privy to. “Everything is prepared. We shall all be waiting for your arrival downstairs.”
Cameron stood. He cleared his throat, preparing himself to thank her for relaying the information. Marian spoke once more before he was able to respond.
“Try not to look too stunned, Laird MacLeod,” she said, her voice dripping with suspicious innocence.
Her declaration stunned him for a moment. In that time, she turned on her heel and slipped out of the door once more, the hem of her dress swishing as she rounded the corner. Shaking his head, Cameron ran a hand over his face.
I daenae ken what that woman has planned, but I am already regrettin’ agreein’ to it.