“I know, but he and Bess are our only animals. I can’t get a new plow horse, so he and I make do together.” Elene glanced at the doors. “I suppose I won’t need a fresh horse. My uncle agreed to care for him once we leave.”
Elene and Liam stood in silence, neither knowing what to say. Their attraction was undeniable, but so was the reality that Elene would board a ship and sail to Norway. Liam would board his own ship and sail in the opposite direction, to the Highlands.
“Do you have family anywhere else?” Liam asked as he considered the villages through which he passed and the ones he was yet to visit.
“On Sanday. My mother’s people are there. My uncle here was my father’s only brother. That’s it for Rousay. His people were originally from the Mainland island.”
“What about Shetland?”
Elene shook her head. “No. Sickness stole most of my family years ago. My father died and so did his parents, an aunt on my mother’s side, and several of my cousins. My mother’s people don’t travel, so once my father died, I had little way to see them. My mother never looked back once she married my father, so I don’t really know them.”
They fell silent once more. While he was away, Liam considered offering to take Elene to any extended family she might have. But it clearly wasn’t an option. Liam chided himself that she would have thought of that if it was already an option. As he watched her, Liam was certain his family would accept Elene. She could find a home among the Sinclairs or the Mackays. But he couldn’t arrive at Castle Dunbeath or Castle Varrich with an unmarried woman who’d spent days sailing with him and his men. And he couldn’t ask her to marry him.
Liam understood they didn’t know one another well enough to consider themselves a love match. While his parents might wish that he find such a wife, he also understood his clan needed to make an alliance among the Highlanders. He didn’t have the luxury of choosing his mate simply by attraction. His brothers and sister might, though he doubted it. But he was certain he couldn’t, since he was his father’s heir. As he gazed at Elene, he wished he could say duty be damned. Despite all this, he still felt compelled to help her, even if it meant sending her away rather than taking her with him.
“When do you leave again?” Once more, Elene interrupted his thoughts. She knew what his plans were before the weather inconvenienced him. She wondered how they changed.
“If the weather improves, tomorrow. I’ll be gone for a few days since I must visit the other isles.” Liam couldn’t meet Elene’s gaze. Guilt that he was abandoning her nipped at him. His eyes locked with hers when she laid her hand in his forearm and squeezed.
“I don’t expect you to fix this.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t wish that I could. If I weren’t…” Liam knew he was making excuses. His father had fought to marry his mother, both proving himself to Laird Liam and the Sinclair brothers when he protected her from his stepbrother. Tristan hadn’t given in when the path to marrying Mairghread proved complicated. However, the powerful Mackay-Sinclair alliance had already been arranged by the time his parents married. Even if they hadn’t fallen in love, Tristan and Mairghread’s marriage benefited both clans. Liam felt obligated to both sides of his family to make an advantageous match.
But as he looked at Elene, there was no one else he could imagine wanting. He was grateful Androw had no marriageable daughters since he might have found himself betrothed to one to strengthen the Sinclairs’ claim to governing Orkney. However, he knew that several of the chieftains he was yet to visit had daughters or sisters who might make him a suitable match. Before he arrived in Skaill, he’d wondered if he might find one of these women enticing as a future bride. Instead, he found a woman who was wholly unsuitable for a political match. Elene possessed no connections and likely had no dowry. And yet, that made her even more appealing to Liam. He knew he wanted Elene for the woman he was discovering, not for what she could bring to a union.
“I’m sorry. I’m not being good company,” Liam admitted. He wouldn’t say that his wandering thoughts were all about Elene, but he could apologize for not being attentive.
“I understand. I can’t stay any longer. I must at least acknowledge Gunter’s arrival, and I need to make sure Katryne and Johan are presentable.”
“Must you go in there now? Or can you wait until your brother and sister can go with you?”
“I’m not going in there while it’s just my mother and him.” Elene shook her head. Liam saw the fear flash in Elene’s eyes. He pulled her into his embrace, tucking her head against his chest. He’d spent their brief time together telling himself why he couldn’t run away with Elene, why he couldn’t claim her and carry her away. However, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to shield her from Gunter and the danger the Norseman presented.
“Do you know where Katryne and Johan are?”
“No. I thought they were in the croft, but I suspect they are at my uncle’s. He’s a widower, and his children are grown. But he gives them odd jobs to make them feel grown up. He also slips them sweets that I wouldn’t let them have. He’ll rot their teeth.”
Elene stepped away from Liam and looked toward the doors once more. She no more wanted to leave the stables and the safety she felt with Liam than to have her teeth rot like she warned her siblings.
“If the rain ceases, would you like me to take you to the loch tonight?” Liam couldn’t think of anything else to say, and it was the only reason he could devise to see her again that evening. He understood his suggestion would only leave him frustrated by the time he retired to his chamber in Androw’s home, but he felt miserable for Elene. He wished to give her something that he knew she valued, since he felt like he had little more to offer.
“I’d like that very much, but I don’t know how I can. Once I return to the croft, Gunter will pay too much attention for me to sneak out. I don’t want to leave my brother and sister there alone. I don’t trust his temper if he discovers I’m gone. And he will know where to look for me. I don’t want him to—” Elene snapped her mouth shut.
“Don’t want what, Elene? Has he done something to you before?”
“No. But I don’t want you to get involved. I heard what he said to you. He will try to kill you if he thinks you and I… He won’t believe naught has happened.”
“What would he do to you if he believed something did happen?”
“After he kills you and before he kills me? He’d see no reason not to take what he wants if he thinks I’m already spoiled.”
Liam considered what Elene said. He’d wondered if she still a maiden before, and she confirmed it with her last comment. But Liam couldn’t shake the sense that there was some type of intimacy between Gunter and her, and Androw said Gunter acted more like a jilted lover than a stepfather who didn’t want his stepchild.
“Can your brother and sister, and even you, stay with your uncle this eve?”
“Mayhap. But I fear involving him, too. He’s not like you. He’s a farmer, not a warrior. He can’t defend himself or Katryne and Johan like you could.”
Liam noticed she didn’t include herself in the people who might seek Liam’s protection. “Do you trust me to keep Katryne and Johan safe? Do you trust me to keep you safe?”
