The lasses giggled, gave a short curtsey and then slowly turned their heads toward the back of their group. Standing at the rear was a young and quite bonny lass. Surely, this could not be his betrothed? He suddenly felt quite the idiot, for he was quite certain his betrothed would still be the gangly and unbecoming with dull green eyes that he remembered from his youth.
But something drew him to the young woman standing so quietly at the rear of the crowd of women. He tilted his head and searched her face for recognition. There was something familiar about the green eyes that were staring back at him, but that was where his recognition ended. He had been fully prepared to see a taller version of the five-year-old Kate Carruthers, not the bonny lass standing before him.
Nay, the lass standing before him was quite beautiful. Her long blonde hair, with streaks of red and gold, fell in soft waves over her shoulders. A simple, whisper soft veil of ice blue fell from the back of her head. The lass wore an exquisite gown of the deepest blue that fit over her curves quite nicely. Nay, this could not be her.
The young woman stepped forward and took Enndolynn’s offered hand.
“Kate,” Enndolynn said, her voice as smooth as silk. “I believe it has been some time since ye’ve seen Rowan.”
Kate’s smiled demurely as Enndolynn placed her hand in Rowan’s. The young woman curtsied elegantly then stood. “M’laird,” she murmured, looking nearly as frightened as Rowan felt. Rowan could feel her fingers tremble slightly as they rested in his hand.
“M’lady,” Rowan said, brushing a light kiss across her trembling fingers. He found it quite difficult to take his eyes from hers. Mayhap marriage to a bonny creature such as this would not be so bad.
“Rowan,” Enndolynn began. “Kate has been under my tutelage for the past year now.”
Rowan felt his stomach tighten. A year with his mother? The lass had surely been to hell and back.
“I won’t hold that against her, mother,” Rowan said as he gave Kate a wink. He took note of the confusion that flashed in the girl’s bright eyes before she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth as if to suppress a question. Mayhap not too much damage had been done. He couldn’t imagine being married to someone like his mother.
Kate’s mother had assured her that if she won Enndolynn Graham’s approval, then she would surely win Rowan’s. That had been Kate’s primary goal this past year, for she did not want to be trapped in a marriage with a man who could not respect her, or worse yet, one who hated her because she could not get along with his mother.
Enndolynn had told Kate countless times over the past year, that Rowan Graham was in fact, a mamma’s boy. There was nothing that he would not do for her, so strong was their bond and their love of one another.
Kate hadn’t been biting her tongue, holding her temper in check, and acting like a meek and mild lass for the past year to have it all cast aside now. Certain she was that if she did anything to earn Enndolynn’s disapproval, her son Rowan’s equal disapproval was sure to follow. That was the last thing she wanted.
But the tension between Rowan and his mother was palpable. It certainly did not feel like undying love and devotion between mother and son.
“Do no’ be so boorish,” Enndolynn admonished him.
Oftentimes it was best to simply ignore his mother. “M’lady,” Rowan said as he turned his back to his mother. He placed Kate’s hand on his arm and led her away from the group. “How was your journey?”
Kate flashed a look of surprise at Rowan, and a look of uncertainty toward Enndolynn before being led away. She swallowed hard and cast another look at Enndolynn before answering. “Long and rather treacherous,” she whispered.
Rowan’s heart felt less heavy than it had only moments ago. He detected a note of humor in her answer and it brought a smile to his face. “When ye say treacherous, are ye referring to the roads ye travelled, or something far more dangerous?”
Kate blushed and focused her eyes on the floor. It would not be polite to tell him the truth, that his mother, while a kind woman in general, tended to be overbearing and strong minded. After her first few days under Enndolynn’s care, Kate had found herself praying several times a day that Enndolynn’s son would take after his father. She could not imagine being married to someone with Enndolynn’s sharp tongue or her less than friendly disposition.
Rowan chuckled and his smile broadened. “Ye have me deepest apologies lass.”
Kate furrowed her brow and glanced up at him. “Apologies?”
“Aye,” Rowan nodded as he led her out of the gathering room and down the hall that led to the out of doors. “Ye’ve been forced to live with the force of nature that is me mother fer a year. That you’ve survived without killin’ her or takin’ yer own life or runnin’ away, speaks well of yer strength of character. I do no’ know many other women who could survive more than a few days alone with her.”
His statement, while true, made very little sense. Hadn’t Enndolynn told her time and time again that Rowan very nearly worshipped the ground she trod upon? Hadn’t the woman assured her that theirs was a bond that could not be broken? That Rowan loved and adored his mother incomparably?
For someone who supposedly loved his mother so devoutly, he certainly did not show it. Mayhap he was only trying to impress Kate with a strong outward countenance.
“I feel ye want to agree, but are afraid to,” Rowan said as they walked down the stairs and into the bright sunlight. “Ye needn’t be afraid of speakin’ yer mind with me, lass. I appreciate honesty and forthrightness in a woman.”
Worry began to etch its way across Kate’s brow. Mayhap this was a test. Mayhap Rowan wanted to know if she held his mother in the same high regard as Kate had been repeatedly told that he did. The risk at the moment was great and it made her feel very uneasy. If she spoke the truth and told him what she really thought of his mother, then there was a very good chance that he’d break the betrothal.
Kate could not take that risk. She’d been betrothed to this man for more than twelve years. It would bring far too much shame to her family to have the betrothal broken, to have her turned away within a few short moments of meeting her future husband again. Nay, she could not risk that.
“I believe yer mum to be a kind woman, m’laird.” It wasn’t a full out lie. As long as Enndolynn was getting her way, she was kind.
Rowan threw his head back and laughed heartily. Under different circumstances Kate might have liked the sound of his laughter. A sense of dread washed over her for she did not know why he laughed. Did he find her statement humorous? Was he a bit daft or mad?
Rowan brought their slow walk to a stop and turned to face her. Kate was staring at the floor and she was biting her lip again. Gently, he lifted her chin with his forefinger so that he could look at her beautiful face.
“Kate, I have a feeling there is much you want to say but fear sayin’ it, as it pertains to me mum,” he said softly. She kept her eyes closed and continued to chew on her lip.
Rowan did not want a wife who was afraid to speak her mind nor did he want one who was fearful of him or his mother. His heart skipped a beat or two at that particular thought.
“Kate, ye need never be afraid to speak yer mind. I be no’ a cruel man. I make ye a promise now, that I will never hold yer opinions against ye. I will always be honest and I expect no less from ye.”
Kate took a deep breath before daring to look up at him. She tried to read his face, to see if his eyes bespoke the truth or if his words were meant as another test of her convictions. Och! How she wished she knew him better! And it did not help that he was so confoundedly handsome. His sparkling eyes made it difficult to concentrate, to form intelligent thoughts.
Rowan felt overwhelmed with a strong urge to kiss this woman who, less than a quarter of an hour ago he had dreaded meeting. He pushed the urge aside and let his hand fall away from her face for he could see the sense of uncertainty in her eyes.
“Ye fear I test ye,” he told her. �
�And I fear it is because of the year ye’ve spent with me mum.”
He watched as she swallowed and drew her lip in between her teeth and resisted the urge to chuckle. “Aye, that is it, isn’t it?”
Rowan shook his head, placed her hand on his arm and continued their walk. “Me mum is good at testing a man’s patience. I reckon she be the same with women.”
They continued to walk in silence with no apparent destination in mind.
After several long moments, Rowan spoke again. “Since ye be a bit afraid to speak yer mind, I shall try to guess what has transpired over the past year.” A smile played at his lips as he pretended to think strongly on it for a time.
“I ken me mum well, lass. It can’t have been an easy year ye’ve spent with her. I’m sure she told ye what a bastard I can be. That I be a neglectful son, ill tempered and short on patience. So ye fear I’d make the same kind of neglectful, ill tempered husband.”
Kate’s eyes flew open with surprise and she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Nay!” she protested. “Yer mum never said such things!”
Rowan raised his brow. He was as confused by her protest as he was pleased by it. He’d finally managed to see a spark of life in the lass and was quite glad for it.
“Pray, tell me, what did me mum say of me?”
“She said ye were kind and gentle, m’laird. She said the two of ye have an unparalleled bond, that there is naught ye’d no’ do fer her, just to see her happy. Yer mum had nothing but verra kind things to say about ye, m’laird, I swear it!” Her words came so rapidly that Rowan was not certain he had heard her correctly.
“Me mum said I was kind and gentle?” he asked her, beyond perplexed. His mother would never have said such a thing to his face.
Kate nodded her head. “Aye, m’laird. She had nothin’ but kind things to say of ye.”
“And she said she and I have a bond? That there is naught I would no’ do fer her?”
“Aye, m’laird,” Kate said breathlessly. “She said ye were a true mamma’s boy!”
Kate hadn’t meant it as an insult. She had meant only to reassure Rowan that his mother held him in the highest esteem. Kate pulled her lip in again when she saw his shoulders begin to shake. At first, she thought Rowan was angry. Then that full, rich laugh of his finally escaped.
He laughed to the point he had tears in his eyes. Kate began to question his mental stability.
“So,” he began after the laughter began to subside. “This is why ye be afraid to tell me true, what yer opinion of me mum is! Ye be afraid of the bond she and I share!”
Rowan shook his head and continued to smile down at Kate. She trembled, even more confused than she was moments ago.
“Lass,” Rowan said. “I be no mamma’s son! The relationship I have with me mum is precarious at best. To say it’s a bond that canna be broken is no’ necessarily the truth. Aye, I love me mum. But she be no’ the kind, adoring woman she’s made ye to believe. I’m afraid she has no’ been as honest with ye as ye think she has.
Kate twisted her lips inward again and tried not to laugh aloud. Enndolynn had duped her into believing she could not have Rowan’s affections unless she had hers. Kate appreciated honesty in a man. But she refused to agree out loud with Rowan’s keen observation of his mother. She decided it would behoove her to put her best foot forward and not voice her own opinions as yet. While Rowan may very well think his mother a she-devil, it did not mean he would not be offended should someone voice that opinion.
Erring on the side of caution, Kate merely smiled and continued to look straight ahead. To look him full on was far too dangerous. Rowan Graham was perhaps the most beautiful man she’d ever laid eyes upon. His thick dark hair, tied at the nape of his neck, she imagined would feel like silk. His deep, dark brown eyes were captivating and just as dangerous to look at as his full lips.
There was something in his smile that warned Kate not to allow herself to be left alone with him for more than a few heartbeats. At least, not until they were married. Then and only then, would she allow herself to be lost in his beautiful brown eyes.
“I believe I hear your mother calling for us,” Kate whispered.
Rowan raised an eyebrow as he cast a sidelong look toward Kate. “Then we should continue away from her.”
Twenty-One
Bree McKenna could not believe her ears. Mayhap her father had suffered an injury to his head recently, while training. Or, it could be his age, for she knew he wasn’t getting any younger. Bree blinked, tilted her head and stared up at her father.
“What?” she asked him again, for she still wasn’t certain she had heard him correctly the first three times.
Angus sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “Bree, I’ve told ye three times now. What is it that ye do no’ understand, lass?”
Bree had a long list of things she didn’t understand, but that list had increased tenfold in the moments since her father had come to her room. Her da was giving Gillon Randolph permission to court her. What she could not fathom was why.
Aye, her da had given her much freedom over the years, far more freedom that most young ladies were accustomed to. As a very little girl, he had allowed her to run and play with the lads. He had fashioned a sword out of wood for her when she was but six years old. Her da had taught her to defend herself, had taught her how to wield a sword and how to ride a horse.
He had given her the freedom to run about the castle, to dance with the lads who were her friends. He had given her the freedom to choose her own husband when that day came.
However he had never given permission for her to be formally courted by any lad, not even those she had known her entire life.
And now he stood before her, telling her he was giving this stranger named Gillon Randolph permission to court her. If, in fact, that was something she wished to happen.
“Ye’ve never given any lad permission to court me,” she told him as she pushed away from her dressing table.
“’Tis because none have been brave enough to ask fer the right,” Angus told her.
Bree knew this to be true. The lads she knew, the lads she had grown up with, while they might be brave warriors in the making, not a one was brave enough yet to ask Angus McKenna permission to court her. Truth be told, there wasn’t any one of them in particular who she would have wanted to court her. But still, most of the girls her age were already married and working on creating their own families. Bree, at the ripe old age of seven and ten, was beginning to feel like an old maid.
“I have never met this Gillon Randolph,” Bree said as she tried to steady her hands. For the life of her, she could not figure out why she was trembling. “Why does he wish to court me?”
Angus smiled as he walked toward her. “I believe he caught sight of ye in the courtyard and was captivated by yer beauty,” he told her as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
Bree was not simple minded. Aye, she was a free spirit, laughed easily, and enjoyed life. For those who did not know her well, they might mistake her for a simple minded young lass without the intelligence God gave a goat. For the first time in her life she wondered if her father thought the same of her and believed her unable to see through the lie he had just told.
Deciding it best not to contradict her father, she merely quirked an eyebrow. “He did, did he?”
“Aye, at least that is what his da tells me,” Angus said as he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Bree crossed her arms over her chest. “So this Gillon Randolph did no’ come to ye himself, but sent his da to ask?”
“What does it matter how I came to know he wants to court ye?” Angus asked as he turned away.
Bree thought on it for a moment before responding. “I suppose it does no’ matter.”
Angus had suddenly grown quite interested in the tapestry that hung on the wall next to the fireplace. “So, do ye wish to let him court ye or no?” he finally asked.
She knew instinctively that
there was something her father was holding back. Something he did not want her to know. She decided to play along, but only so that she might learn what her father’s secret was. “I’ll allow it on one condition,” she said softly.
“And what might that condition be?”
Bree took a few steps toward her father. “That I do no’ have to marry him if I do no’ want to.”
She could see her father’s shoulders relax and a moment later he turned to face her again. “I’ve told ye since ye were a babe in swaddlin’ clothes that I’d never force ye to marry a man ye did no’ want to marry. That still holds true, Bree. ’Tis just a courtin’ the lad be askin’ fer.”
Bree nodded her head and stood a bit taller. One way or another, she would learn why this courting was so important to him. “So be it then. When do I meet this man?”
Angus studied her for a moment. No man could be more proud of his children than he. Bree was like him in so many ways -- strong of character, smart as a whip, and not afraid to speak her mind. There were times, however, that he wished she was not as beautiful as her mother. With her dark hair and bright green eyes, it was only through brute strength and threat of death that he had kept the lads away from her. Guilt played with his heart, for he felt as though he were throwing her to the lions. But knowing his daughter was at times a force to be reckoned with, he was certain she could hold her own against any man.
“Yer mum and I will introduce the two of ye at the evenin’ meal. We’ve musicians here for the festival and games, so there will be a dance this night as well.”
“Good. I look forward to meetin’ the man brave enough to ask to court me.” While something gnawed at the back of her mind that said there was much more to this than her father was telling, she couldn’t quite quash her excitement. Mayhap it was nothing more than fear of the unknown that played with her nerves. Mayhap this was all as innocent as her da was attempting to make it.
“I’m verra proud of ye, Bree,” Angus said as he wrapped her in a warm embrace. “’Tis an honor to be yer father.”
Wee William's Woman, Book Three of the Clan MacDougall Series Page 30