Chapter 16
Lachlan studied his wife as they started getting ready for bed. She didn’t favor her side anymore which was good. Her lingering pain was gone, but there was something that he didn’t like reflected in her eyes.
“Ye were quiet at dinner,” he observed as he undressed and pulled back the blankets.
Sloane stripped to her shift and crawled in next to him but rather than settling by his side, she left a gap between them.
A growl rose in his throat, but he held it back.
If there was a reason that she wanted to keep her space, there was no point in pushing her until he figured out the reason behind it.
Rolling over on her back, she fit the blankets around herself and stared at the ceiling.
“I suppose I thought it would be different to have my father here. He wanted me to marry ye and I did. He wanted me to be a good wife and I am trying, but still, it feels as though nothing has changed between us. He doesna treat me as kin.”
“Say the word and he is gone, Sloane. Because we are allies doesna mean that I have to welcome him into our home. He doesna have to be yer family anymore. Ye married into my family and they adore ye.” Lachlan wanted to tell her that he adored her, but he didn’t want to add to her emotions tonight.
He would show her until he thought she was ready to accept it.
After a moment, Sloane finally turned on her side and faced him. “I thank ye for the offer, but I doona wish to toss my father out. I want to welcome him and maybe one day, he will welcome me.”
She really did have a good heart. Brushing his fingers up and down her bare arm, he tried to ease her anxiety. “How is yer wound?”
“It twinges some when I move, but ’tis otherwise healed.” She moved a little closer to him. “Ye doona have to worry about it any longer. I thought I made that clear the other morning.”
“Aye, but ye are…”
“Doona say delicate,” she snapped and tried to push away. Laughing silently, he grabbed at her shoulder and held her close.
His wife was a hellion when she was angry. “I wasna going to say delicate. I was merely going to say that ye are my wife and I have vowed to worry and protect ye. Sometimes, ye make that difficult.”
She got a strange faraway look in her eyes, and he quietly waited while she collected her thoughts. “I doona mean to make yer life difficult,” Sloane said finally. “I am not used to someone caring about what I do. I will make more of an effort to be more considerate.”
“Ye are already considerate, Sloane. ’Tis what made ye risk yer life for that of a child. Promise me that ye will not let yer father ruin that smile that ye have been wearing lately.”
“Actually, I believe ’tis good that he is here. He and I needed to have a conversation about my role here.”
“I hope that means that ye will tell him that he has no power here.”
“Aye. That is exactly what I mean.” Rising slightly, she placed a kiss on Lachlan’s lips. “What will ye and Gair and my father do tomorrow?”
“The recent hunts for the predator snacking on our livestock have failed, so I intend to organize another one tomorrow. I imagine that yer father willna want to be a part of it.”
“No,” Sloane said quickly. “I think ye should press upon him the importance of going. I think it would be good for him to bond with the two of ye. When he returns, I imagine he will be more receptive to what I have to say.”
His wife had something up her sleeve. Worried that she might get herself into trouble, he wanted to ask for the details, but it was obviously important to her. “All right. I will make sure he joins us.”
“Lachlan, I know that ye blame my father for what happened to Quinn.”
Widening his eyes, he meant to interject, but she put a finger on his lips.
“There is no reason for ye to deny it. I have heard the accusations myself. I cannae say that my father isna capable of taking a life. I happen to know that he is. I am asking that, for my sake, ye doona take vengeance against him without proof. He is still my father.”
“Sloane, I have suspected for some time that yer father killed my cousin. If I had planned to cut him down, I would have done it before now.” His chest knotted in pain from thinking of Quinn. “I doona plan on taking him hunting and burying my blade in his back.”
When she winced, Lachlan regretted planting such a colorful image in her head.
Drawing her in close by his side, he tucked her head under his chin.
“I miss my cousin, Sloane. More than I could possibly say, but he is gone and ye are here and ye are my wife. I may not be able to forgive transgressions against my family, but ye are my family now and I willna do anything to hurt ye.”
She didn’t say anything and her breathing slowed. Soon, she was sleeping, but Lachlan couldn’t let her go. He knew how much it upset her to have her father here and he loved the determination on her face. He hoped that by the time her father left, all traces of her self-doubt would be gone.
When Sloane woke up the next morning, Lachlan was already gone, but when she closed her eyes, she could still feel his arms wrapped around her.
Since she’d gotten hurt, they’d spend every night in bed and not just the hours that they’d made love.
He was there when she went to sleep and still there in the morning.
She was starting to feel like his wife and it gave her a purpose. She wanted to please him. She wanted to mean something to him and this clan and if that meant that she had to cut her father out of her life then that was what she would do.
It would hurt, but this was her life now. Her father had forced her into it, and now he would have to face the consequences of his actions.
Dragging herself out of bed, Sloane felt sick to her stomach as she dressed and prepared for the morning meal, but when she got down there, the great hall was empty.
Her stomach rumbling, she headed to the kitchen to try and sneak some breakfast, but she stopped at the private dining room when she saw that it was occupied.
Calder.
Humming to himself, the former Laird looked over some papers while he picked at his breakfast plate. He must have sensed that she was standing there because he looked up and beamed.
“Sloane, my dear. I heard that you missed breakfast. Care to join me? I slept a little late as well this morning and missed all the excitement.”
“Excitement?” Sloane asked as she cautiously entered the room.
Like Maggie, Calder was another member of the family that Sloane didn’t know how to act around.
Lachlan had such an easy relationship with his family and they seemed to welcome her with open arms. It upset her that it made her so uneasy.
“Aye. My son has decided to go hunting after the wolf and he’s demanding that Gair and yer father join him. He is also asking that his men stand down. Everyone is unhappy, but he is insisting that it will strengthen their alliance.”
Her gut churned. “Have they left yet?”
“Nay. Yer father wanted some time to get ready. He claims that he didna pack for a hunting trip.”
There was no judgment in Calder’s voice. Slowly, Sloane sat down at the table. “What are ye reading?”
“Reports. ’Tis not that I doona trust Lachlan. I do. I couldna be prouder of the man that he has become. He makes a fine laird, but I still like to be kept apprised of things. My son wishes I could relax, but this does relax me.” He winked at her and Sloane couldn’t help but smile.
“Lachlan does worry,” she admitted as she reached for the spread in the middle of the table. Spooning out some oatmeal in the extra bowl, she gingerly tasted it. Since the incident, there had been no more salty meals, but she didn’t think it would last.
“’Tis what makes him a good laird. ’Tis what makes him a good man. A good son.”
“And a good husband,” she finished for him. “He is all of those things and more. Ye are lucky to have him.”
Calder leaned back and cocked his head. “We know it too. I know that my clan has not treated ye fairly since ye got here. ’Tis because they love Lachlan as much as he loves them and I hope ye doona hold that against them.
They only want the best for him. Be patient and they will come to respect ye. ”
“What makes ye think that I deserve their respect? I know what they think of my father. That he killed yer nephew. I know they think that I am daft. I know they think that I am not worthy of being his wife. Perhaps they are right.”
“And why would ye say that?” Calder asked quietly.
“I think ye already know.” Miserable, she pushed her oatmeal away. “I was born into a clan, but I was raised in the deserted rooms of the keep. I have little idea about how to be a part of a clan or a family, let alone how to be mistress of one. Yer clan is right. I had no business marrying him.”
“My clan is not right,” Calder said in a surprisingly strong voice. “It seems to me that ye are blaming everyone else for yer problems.”
Sloane blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Errol Fenton was not a good father and ’tis easy to see that he is the source of yer doubts.
My clan hasna welcomed ye and now ye are using it to feed those doubts, but the truth is that when I look at ye, I see yer mother.
Not just the red hair and the lovely face but her fierce spirit and her inquisitive nature.
Ye are capable of doing so much and being so much, yet ye hide away behind those doubts and that, my lass, is no fault but yer own. ”
Wanting to demand where he got off saying those things to her, Sloane straightened and gripped the table, but deep down, she knew that he was right. She was hiding. If she was really ready to step away from her desire to please her father, then she needed to be strong enough to find her place here.
“Ye know, I thought ye were kind,” she said a little grouchily.
“I am kind.” Calder smiled jovially and reached for his bowl of soup. “Ye feel better, do ye not?”
“No. Not really!” Sloane couldn’t help but shake her head and chuckle.
“I asked Lachlan to take my father out hunting today. I thought it might do my father some good to get to know Lachlan and Laird Brisbane. I cannae explain it, but my father harbors some resentment toward the two of them. I thought if he got to know them better, he could let that anger go.”
Calder grunted and tapped his fingers on the table thoughtfully.
“’Tis an idea, but yer father’s hatred of Gair goes all the way back to Gair’s father.
Most people think the feud began when the king accepted Gair’s proposal fer part of the loch shores that border Fenton land, but it was just the final straw.
Yer mother married Errol by the decree of the king, but she loved another. ”
“She did?”
“Aye. She and Maggie were friends before she wed Errol. Gair’s father was widowed shortly after Gair was born like yer own father.
Yer mother was all set to marry him, but fate had a different plan fer her.
As far as Maggie knew, yer mother was faithful to Errol, but on the night that she died, she received a message from Gair’s father. He wanted to see her.”
Sloane shook her head. “Nay. That cannae be right. My mother died because she was sick.”
“Perhaps.”
There was something in his voice that made Sloane still. “How do ye know that my mother received a letter? Did my father tell ye?”
“Nay. Yer mother penned a letter to my Maggie that verra night. She was distraught, ye see, because the man that she loved needed to see her, but she had chosen to stay. She chose to stay fer you. The message didna arrive until after her death and by then, word of yer mother had already reached our border. Like ye, we were told that she died of an illness of the lungs.”
None of that made any sense to Sloane. It was clear that Calder was telling her that Errol hated the Brisbanes, but he couldn’t hate Gair.
The son had nothing to do with the father’s actions.
Besides, her father was trying to help Gair.
He wanted the marriage between Gair and Freya to happen and to be happy.
Didn’t he? She swallowed hard. What if her father had lied about how her mother had died? What if she’d gone out that night and he’d caught her?
It explained why her father was so filled with bitterness and hatred. Was she going to blame her mother for the horridness that was her childhood?
Before she could say anything, Calder’s gaze moved behind her and she turned her head to see her father standing there. “Sloane,” Errol said stiffly. “’Tis time that ye got up. Perhaps ye could share a private word with me before I leave on this ridiculous hunting trip.”
Turning back, she gave Calder a small smile. “Excuse me, please.”
“Take yer time. I’ll have the oatmeal reheated. I believe I’m ready for another bowl myself.”
Slipping out of the chamber, she followed her father down the hall and around the corner. “I apologize fer not being here fer breakfast,” she said. “I didna mean to sleep so long.”
“Lachlan mentioned that this hunting excursion was yer idea. Sloane, I didna travel here to track down a wolf. What were ye thinking?”
“I was thinking that ye might want to spend some time with the lairds with whom ye are allied. One of them is yer son-in-law,” Sloane said fiercely. Her father narrowed his eyes in anger, but she ignored it.
“Father, I know that ye are not here for me. I know that ye are here to make sure that Freya doesna do anything to endanger the agreement, but there is no need. Freya is in love with Gair and he loves her. She may not be happy about the circumstances of her impending marriage, but she and Gair are meant to be. Ye have no reason to doubt her, so I believe yer time here would be better spent getting to know Lachlan.”
“Ye impertinent child,” he hissed. “I am yer father. Ye doona tell me how to spend my time.”
Sloane took a deep breath and said the words that she had been practicing all evening.
“I am mistress of this keep and ye are a guest in my home, Father. If ye are here to cause trouble then ye need to leave. If ye are here to strengthen the peace then this is how ye do it. Make yer decisions, Father. I willna spy for ye and I ask that ye remove the spies that ye do have. This is not how the MacFarlanes operate. This is not how I operate.”
“Ye are no child of mine,” he growled.
“I doona think I ever was.” Pressing a hand to her abdomen, Sloane turned and walked away, certain that she was going to be sick at any moment.
Tears pricked her eyes and she knew that she was never going to earn the respect of her father, but at least now, she would no longer feel the burden of failing.