Chapter 6
“Ye didnae meet a single man of interest the other night at the cèilidh?”
Emily knew that her mother was only attempting to be helpful, just wanted to gossip with her eldest daughter and keep their minds on lighter topics, but she was far too close to learning that there had been one man who wouldn’t leave Emily’s thoughts, no matter how hard she tried to make him.
“Does it even truly matter anymore, Maither?”
Iona sat back on her heels, pulling her gardening gloves from her fingers slowly as she looked over at her daughter. “Of course, it does.”
Emily chose to focus more on the weeds in the garden bed in front of her, on yanking the things from the roots and tossing them into the basket that was already half full.
A part of her knew that it would benefit her to start thinking of what she was going to say before she spoke. But there was only so much self-restraint that she possessed.
“Faither is going to find me someone to marry yet again, so it hardly matters what I choose. Us women daenae get to choose our own lives.”
Iona’s face creased with hurt. “It isnae always such a bad thing to have yer husband chosen for ye.”
Emily sighed. “I daenae mean that it doesnae work for some people. I ken that ye came to ken and love Faither. I ken that he means well. But this marriage business is turning him into a beast, and ye cannae deny that!”
“And who is to say that the man yer faither chooses willnae be a good man that ye can come to love in time as well?” Iona asked with an arched eyebrow.
Emily wasn’t going to answer that question.
There were things about the first man that she had been engaged to that she wasn’t going to tell anyone.
It would only hurt her mother, and she had no desire to be the reason that her mother ached.
It would kill her father, and she could not allow herself to be the cause of that either.
She sat back on her heels, wiping her brow with the back of her gloved hand, no doubt getting soil on her forehead, but she didn’t much mind. It wasn’t as if she didn’t already have dirt all over the dress that she had chosen this morning anyway.
Iona squinted at something behind her, and curiosity made her turn around to see two men, one much taller than the other, walking up to the castle doors. “Who is that?”
Emily pushed herself to her feet, knocking some of the loose soil from her skirts and then clapping her hands together in an attempt to clean part of her gloves. “I daenae ken. Were we expecting company?”
“If we were, I wasnae privy to it,” Iona answered.
It wasn’t until the two men drew closer to the doors that Emily recognized the colors of the kilt and tartan wrapped around the taller man. The man beside him was wearing very similar colors.
“Laird Muir…” she trailed off, her feet carrying her to the door.
She didn’t much care if he saw her, but it seemed that both he and his companion were set on whatever task that they were here for and did not wish to be swayed from it.
What was he doing here? He had certainly never come here before, and it wasn’t as if they were close to one another. His lands didn’t border her father’s on any side. Yet here he was.
Something strange was swirling inside her. Some emotion that she was too unfamiliar with to name.
Unconsciously, she pulled her gloves off as she went. She was so flustered that she didn’t even realize when she attempted to tuck them into her pockets, one dropped entirely and was left behind.
“Ka—” She caught herself, remembering that it would be better to be formal until she learned the reason behind the visit.
“Laird Muir?” she called out, stepping into the cool, shadowed entryway of the keep.
Kaden slowly turned around to face her, then took three steps toward her, closing the distance between them.
“Lady Emily,” he greeted with an incline of his head.
“What brings ye all the way here?” Emily asked rudely, knowing that it wasn’t polite to speak so bluntly to a man she hardly knew.
But at least he didn’t seem to mind.
The corner of his lip twitched upward slightly. “I have unfinished business with Laird Reid after the festivities the other night.”
“What business might that be? I wasnae aware that ye even kent one another,” she pressed.
“Business,” he repeated annoyingly.
Well, it wasn’t annoying, but she wanted an answer.
Her stomach fluttered under his attention, as if his companion and her mother were not nearby.
“I believe that me husband is in his study, Laird Muir. I should be happy to guide ye there,” Iona offered, glancing at her daughter.
Emily would rather he not go and meet with her father. Even though the expression on his face hadn’t changed in the slightest, she could have sworn there was an impish glint in those warm, dark eyes.
How could he have the reputation that he did? Was it the scars? The fact that he spoke in a voice so low? How could they not hear the teasing undertones when he spoke?
“This way.” Iona smiled as she waved a hand in the direction of the hall to the study. Kaden said nothing, but nodded curtly as he turned to follow. “If ye need anything while ye are here with us, daenae be afraid to speak up, of course.”
Emily wasn’t sure that she cared for the way her mother kept looking over her shoulder back at her every few moments as they headed toward her father’s study.
Once they were there, Iona knocked on the door and didn’t wait for an answer before pushing it open and poking her head inside. “Husband, ye have visitors.”
“Hm?” Hamish’s voice asked.
But Iona merely pushed the door open further to make room for them.
Kaden walked into the room and held out a hand for Hamish to shake.
Hamish nodded at Iona, and while Emily attempted to shoulder her way into the study so that she could eavesdrop on the meeting, Iona practically pushed her back into the hallway.
“To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?” Hamish asked as the door swung shut.
Emily dug in her heels to keep her mother from pushing her further out. She was stubborn enough that she almost shot out a hand to hold onto the door frame so that she couldn’t be moved. But Kaden’s answer shocked her.
“We didnae finish our conversation about yer daughter being unwedded the other night.”
Whatever Emily had been expecting him to say, that wasn’t it.
“What?!”
There was no denying the satisfaction that he felt at hearing the small voice behind him through the thick wooden door.
It would have been amusing to see the look on her face when he told her father that, but hearing her indignation and surprise was enough for now.
He would have another opportunity shortly.
That marked the second time he felt the urge to smile around her.
He had to focus on the matter at hand, and that was the man standing in front of him.
The other man looked thrilled that Kaden had come here to take him up on his offer. Which was something Kaden had chosen to do for different reasons that he didn’t much care about sharing with the older man.
“Ah, aye, of course…” Hamish trailed off as he moved to clear some space for the three of them to sit and speak better.
Peter, Kaden’s man-at-arms, was there for support and to bear witness to the whole thing. As of yet, theirs was the only relationship that had picked up right where they had left it.
Kaden hadn’t needed to explain anything, and to this day, Peter hadn’t asked him a single thing about his time in captivity. Kaden had no intention of sharing a single detail about that with anyone. It was none of their business.
“Since ye came all this way, I can assume that ye ken all about me daughter?” Hamish asked as he poured each of them a drink and settled into his chair.
Peter chose to remain standing, but Kaden indulged the older man and sat stiffly in the indicated chair. He had half a mind to make the situation uncomfortable by asking him just what it was about Emily that he was supposed to have heard.
It was strange to him that Hamish would consider perpetuating the harmful rumors about his daughter. Then again, perhaps the man was simply tired.
“She has a mind of her own, that one. I suppose she is a bit too independent for her own good, and I have nobody but meself to blame,” Hamish sighed.
Kaden tilted his head to the side, wondering what the man meant by that, but he didn’t ask.
“What with breaking off nae one but two engagements already,” Hamish huffed. It seemed that when he was nervous, he rambled to fill the silence. “Emily is of marrying age, so it is a good thing that ye have come along.”
All that the news meant to Kaden was that, clearly, Emily wasn’t a woman easily scared or afraid of anyone, given that she easily carried the weight of her reputation like it was nothing.
“I assure ye, those days of troublemakin’ are behind her!” Hamish pointed a finger at Kaden and then seemed to think better of it.
How Kaden planned on forcing her to do his will, that was another thing entirely.
This whole plot had started out as nothing more than him needing to appease his councilmen and family by finding a bride who wasn’t afraid of him, but he found that he was rather interested in seeing how this whole thing would play out between them.
Hamish hummed to fill the ensuing silence. “But ye are… taken with her, arenae ye?”
“Something like that,” Kaden answered.
“Ah, well, the alliance that this will entail will be a grand one, to be certain.” Hamish plucked at the arm of his chair. “She willnae leave this arrangement.”
Kaden nodded once, knowing that her father telling her not to do it did not mean anything at all. If she wished to leave, then she would. It was that simple.
“But we will have plenty of time to work out all the details at another time!” Hamish concluded.
Kaden took a moment to glance over at Peter, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Might as well tell the lass the good news!”
He almost smirked at that, knowing good and well that Emily was unlikely to consider it good news.
“Iona! Emily!” Hamish half rose from his chair as if he knew that the two women were still standing in the hallway, attempting to eavesdrop.
When the door creaked open once again, he made a clicking noise with his tongue and dropped back down into his chair.
Here goes nothing.