Breckin shoved his comrade’s shoulder. “Nay, he cannot, not when the pleasure is my own wife. I wish she was not so bonny sometimes…”
Gideon guffawed. “Aye? We should all be so misguided. Och, the woman is modest. Mayhap ye should give her a looking glass so she can understand why the women resist befriending her.”
He pressed his hands over his face and groaned softly. “Do ye mean to tell me that none of the women in our clan has befriended her because she is toobonny?”
“Aye, at least that is what Deena said. If ye want my advice, my friend, I wouldst not get involved in womanly matters. They will workit out. It could take a bit of time but och, eventually the women will get used to your wife.” Gideon removed his dagger from his belt loop and used it to clean his fingernails whilst he spoke to him.
“I am concerned about Eva but not addled enough to speak of matters of women. But I vow, Gideon, my wife confounds me,” Breckin said testily. “One minute I want to kiss her and the next I want to wring her bonny neck.”
Gideon chuckled. “Aye. ’Tis the way of a married man.” He grinned and looked up from his nails. “What’s she done now?”
“She insists that I let go of the past and… Sometimes she scares me because ’tis like she can tell what I am thinking.” Breckin never shared his innermost thoughts with anyone but Gideon and had been that way since they’d been lads.
That he could not confess to his worries or the sadness that welled whenever he visited the torch with Eva, disheartened him. She wanted him to give her what he was unwilling or unable to give—his shielded emotions. A warrior kept that part of himself hidden and he refused to unfetter that part of himself.
“Well, Laird, my grandda once told me that if your wife does not scare the hell out of ye then she is not the one for ye. Maybe ye should talk to her more about what happened…when your parents died and your sister…and your broken betrothal.”
Breckin scoffed at his comrade. “I am getting past all of it. There is no sense in dwelling over it and I will not be speaking my feelings in a way akin to a grubby-faced lad. Nay, I have important matters to see to and should get back to it.” Though Breckin tried to sound determined, he took a heavy breath to release the tension that had overtaken him with his discussion with Gideon. “I suggest ye get back to your duties as well.”
Gideon bellowed with laughter as he walked away.
He let out an expletive at his comrade’s gall and then marched toward the fields. After spending some of the afternoon training withthe men, Breckin decided to call it a day. He stopped at the loch to wash and clean up before heading home.
When he reached the longhouse, he rounded it until he got to the back where he now found Eva, handing Caden an item for him to load in the cart. He hadn’t expected to see the lads back at the longhouse but they must’ve finished their chores with haste.
“Still at it? What are ye doing putting that back in the cart?”
Eva jumped at his intrusion. “You startled me, Breckin. Can you not give a warning when you are approaching?”
He shrugged in answer. “Caden, Conner… On the morrow, we will meet at first light at the stables. Your horses need to be exercised and I want to accompany ye. We might even do a spot of hunting whilst we are at it.” The lads grinned from ear to ear. “Go and wash up for supper.”
His brothers shot off, whooping and cheering at his suggestion. Breckin found himself smiling at their excitement.
“I made a good hearty stew and it should be hot enough now to eat. Come inside. The lads said you were at the training fields and I saw you on my return from the church. Did you get your duties finished?” Eva ambled around him and up the small set of steps that led to the inside.
Breckin followed her. He sat at the table and appreciated how attentive she was being. She set a bowl of stew before him, sliced a piece of bread, shifted a small bowl of spread toward him, and handed him a spoon.
The lads entered and sat at the table. Eva placed bowls of stew before each of them and smiled. Caden said, “We cannot wait until the morrow, Laird, to go hunting with ye.”
Connor nodded and said, “Aye, and we get to ride the horses.”
“I wanted to spend some time with you,” Breckin said. “Aye, and if ye stay out of trouble, ye can ride your horses more frequently.”
The lads continued to spoon in their stew but acknowledged himwith nods to their heads.
Eva gazed at them affectionately and said, “Breckin, must be famished because you left so early this morning.”
With his mouth full, he just nodded. She sat with him while he ate and, after he finished the meal, he used a cloth to wipe his mouth and hands and wasn’t in much of a hurry to get back to his duties. “Where did ye put all your things? There is hardly anything about the longhouse… I would have thought ye would have filled it with your belongings.”
She took his empty bowl and stood, then busied herself with washing his utensils in the washpan. “I, uh…am only bringing inside what I find useful right now. Perhaps we shall need the other things later.”
Connor said, “Can we go outside now?”
“We finished our supper,” Caden said.
He gave them and nod and the lads left the table and headed to the back of the longhouse.
Breckin raised a brow. She was being evasive, though how he could tell this, he knew not. Perhaps it was just that she’d worked long at the carts and several of them stood empty. Where were the items her father had sent?
