Chapter 4 #2
His wife was a strange one, but Lachlan didn’t point that out to Gair. Instead, he shrugged. “We are strangers. We will discover a way to make this work.”
With anger on her face, his mother stalked toward them and interrupted with a hiss. Lachlan narrowed his eyes as he watched Maggie. The last time she’d looked like that, she’d found out that he’d been caught sneaking into the tavern and tupping one of the girls. He’d been seventeen.
“A word, my son,” she all but growled.
Gair’s eyes widened, but he was no fool. Only a fool would stick around when his mother sounded like that. Quickly, he took his leave. “Mother,” Lachlan said carefully. “Ye doona seem happy.”
“I am not happy. Ye have married a child.” Glancing around, she grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the crowd.
“I have eyes, mother. Sloane is no child.”
“I am not saying that her mind or her body is like a child. Do ye know that she has never attended a wedding before?”
“Aye. She said as much when she bungled the wedding vows,” Lachlan said calmly. “’Tis not my fault Errol Fenton didna force the woman to do her duties nor is it enough to keep me from doing my duty.”
“Nay. Before I escorted her down, she asked me what would happen during the wedding. And after the wedding. Then the woman turned scarlet when she asked me about the wedding night.”
“Mother,” Lachlan snapped. He didn’t want to talk about his wedding night with his mother. “Please.”
“Ye need to hear this, Lachlan. This is the first time she has ever been away from Fenton lands. Quinn’s funeral is the first time she’d ever dined with a group of people.
From what I’ve gleaned, the girl was raised by servants.
Her father didna lift a finger to teach her anything.
She is delicate and terrified. I am telling ye this because, for once, someone needs to treat her with respect and I am asking ye to do that tonight. ”
Stunned, Lachlan ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “That explains so much.” Gazing over her head, he could see Errol and Ness Fenton walking toward them. Part of him wanted to throttle the man for not raising his daughter right.
“Thank ye for letting me know, Mother. I’ll take that into account. Ye should go dance and have a good time.” He didn’t want her to be there when he spoke to the Fentons. He knew that she hated Errol although he felt it ran deeper than just Quinn’s death.
While Errol Fenton was unlikeable and untrustworthy, Ness was a completely different story.
The younger brother of Errol, Ness was the heir of the lairdship since Errol had never fathered a son.
While Errol was welcome to lead his clan until his death, Lachlan wished that he would step down like his own father had.
It was time for a younger man to lead the prosperous Fentons, but he suspected that Errol liked the power too much.
Rumor was that Errol resented Ness. He made the man travel and kept him away from the clan.
This was the first time that Lachlan had met Ness and he found himself liking the man.
Unlike his older brother, Ness seemed a man of solid temperament and fair logic.
“Lachlan,” Errol said in a suspiciously oily voice. “Ye have thrown quite the celebration for us despite yer mourning. I appreciate that.”
Lachlan hadn’t done any of this. Freya was to blame and she had done it for Sloane and not her father. “The MacFarlanes will return to their mourning tomorrow. I am pleased that they have agreed to celebrate with me. Will ye be taking yer leave in the morn?”
“Eager to get rid of us?” Errol smirked. “I do have matters to attend to at home, so we will be taking our leave, but I will be back. I want to make sure that ye treat my daughter well.”
“Are ye insinuating that I wouldna?”
Ness quickly stepped between them. “Of course not,” he said smoothly. “Sloane is Errol’s only daughter and she is my only niece. I, for one, will miss her. I hope that ye will not take offense if I want to visit with her. She has a sharp mind and I will miss her wit.”
Having Ness visit would not be such a bad thing. Lachlan wanted to establish a friendship with the man who would be Laird. “Aye, Ness. As heir, I think it would be good if ye visited more. I am sure that Sloane would like to stay in touch with family.”
If Errol noted that Lachlan didn’t extend the invitation to him, he didn’t say anything. Instead, the two made their leave and slipped back into the group. Lachlan went in search of his bride.
Sloane heard him calling her name just as she was trying to squeeze herself into a corner in an attempt to make herself invisible. Not that it mattered. From the way that the people around her were acting, she seemed to already be non-existent.
It was her wedding celebration and only a small number of people had congratulated her.
They danced and drank and drunkenly toasted with crass predictions of what the night would hold for Lachlan, but they did not once turn their attentions to her.
Of course, the more she heard of the carnal tales that would happen tonight, the more she wanted to hide.
More than ever, she missed her private library and the solace that she found hiding in the storerooms and reading.
“Ye have been difficult to find,” Lachlan growled as he strode toward her. “I didna want ye to leave my side.”
The flames from the bonfire flickered over his handsome face and she forced a smile.
“’Tis easy to get lost in the madness. I have never seen such a celebration before.
” She’d abandoned his side as soon as she found a way to slip away.
He seemed to notice that she was avoiding the accusation, but he dismissed it.
“Are ye enjoying yerself?”
Sloane found it strange that her husband would seek her out simply to ask her a strange question. At what point would he think she was enjoying herself? She knew no one here. No one spoke to her. She was married to a stranger who’d accused her of being terrible wife material.
“’Tis an interesting time,” she said blandly.
“If ye are tired then ye are welcome to retire early.”