Magnus’s brow furrowed. He knew Saoirse would never reveal the kisses they shared or even their frank conversation about intimacy. He wondered what someone else told Alex. “I dinna do aught but listen when Saoirse talks to me. I admire her sincerity, gentleness, and how she enjoys solving puzzles.”
“She doesnae do puzzles.” Alex’s disgust dripped from his words.
“She considers finding the right cure for her patients to be like a puzzle. She enjoys looking at what she kens and finding what to do to heal the person.”
Alex continued to glower. Realizing Magnus knew things about his daughter that Alex didn’t, placed Magnus at an even greater disadvantage.
“Ye think she looks at healing like a game.”
“Alex, ye are purposely twisting ma words. Ye ken I didna say that. I’ve heard ye say planning battles is like putting together a puzzle. There is naught entertaining aboot trying nae to die.”
“Óg, Mama says the tub is going up to yer chamber first.” Thormud joined the two men. He’d felt the anger pulsing from his uncle from yards away. He watched Óg nod to Alex before his long legs carried him across the bailey. “Uncle Alex, all ye will do is make Saoirse miserable. Óg will protect her and do whatever he must to make her happy. She’ll want to leave, and he’ll take her. Dinna make her wish to never look back.”
“It’s nae her decision to make.”
“Then ye and everyone else have lied our entire lives. Ye’ve always said it’s our choice. She’s making hers. Since she may nae ken for certain, Óg said he really wants them to take the time to get to ken each other. He never wants her to regret choosing him. He’d rather they find out they dinna suit before they exchange vows that canna be broken. It’s nae as though they wish to marry today. If ye make her miserable, then ye’ll only hasten the inevitable. I’m telling ye, he willna stop if he feels he must protect her.”
“How is he so damn certain?”
Thormud shrugged. “I dinna ken because I’ve never felt this for a woman. But how did ye ken aboot Auntie Brighde? How’d ma da ken aboot ma mama? Ye and Da and the others will do aught to protect yer wives, and nae just to keep their bodies safe. Ye’d do aught to make them happy. Ye raised Óg to be the same. Ye canna fault him when he lives by what ye and the others taught him. Ye ken the mon he is because ye helped make him that way. I dinna think this is aboot age. I think ye dinna want Saoirse to leave. I think ye arenae ready to say goodbye.”
“And ye think it’s inevitable that we will, and it will only happen faster if we keep refusing.” The truth Thormud spoke didn’t surprise Alex because he knew it for what it was. But hearing it from someone else—someone half his age—forced him to accept what he wished to deny: his feelings and that his daughter was no longer his wee lass.
“Aye. He’s been miserable for the past sennight. He hasnae said aught, and he worked as hard as the rest of us. But I could tell he was getting more anxious by the day. He worried that ye and Auntie Brighde would be at odds even more with Saoirse by the time we returned. He doesnae want that, and it really bothered him to think she’d be upset. He feels guilty that he’s the cause.”
“Then he should—”
“Uncle Alex, ye shouldnae have married Auntie Brighde.”
The older man glowered at his nephew. “Tread carefully.”
“Auntie Brighde felt guilty and thought she shouldnae stay. It bothered ye that she thought that. But ye didna relent, so dinna tell me that Óg should stay away. We all ken our family’s love stories. Yer daughter may look like her mama, but dinna underestimate that she’ll be as defensive of Óg as ye were of Auntie Brighde, or that she’ll be as determined as ye were.”
“But she isnae the same lass. He’s already changed her.”
“Nay. He’s the first person to really see her. Dinna ye want yer daughters to marry men who make them feel safe and appreciated for being them? Óg isnae interested in an alliance because it already exists. He isnae interested in a dowry because, despite what’s happened lately, the Mackenzies dinna need one. He just wants Saoirse for who she is.”
“He doesnae ken—”
Thormud sighed and shook his head. Alex’s lips hardened into a line.
“Uncle Alex, ye dinna want to accept that she’s auld enough to have a husband or that she might leave us. Those are nae the right reasons to keep her from Óg. He’s a good mon. If he were interested in one of yer nieces, ye wouldnae object like ye are. I hope ye think aboot what I’ve said. I dinna want a rift in the family, but I think the cousins will side with Saoirse. I think Grandda has come around, but he willna gainsay ye as her father. But I think others will soon side with them too. Just watch for a while longer, Uncle. See how he is with her rather than assuming the worst.”
“When did ye become so wise?”
“I always have been. I listen to ma da, ma uncles, and Grandda.”
Alex nodded with a sigh. He’d talked to Brighde the night before. They’d both admitted why they didn’t want Saoirse to marry, and it was for the reasons Thormud said. They weren’t ready to relent, but they were ready to observe.
CHAPTER9
“How was the hunting?” Saoirse kept her voice low as she and Magnus stood behind a storage building. Neither of them enjoyed the guilt that went along with meeting in secret. The illicitness didn’t build excitement. It built dread. But they’d had no opportunity to speak that day. After Alex’s greeting, which Saoirse heard about from Wiley, it seemed ill-advised to meet in the open.
It was now well past sundown, and most of the clan had already retired. Saoirse slipped from her chamber and crept outside through the kitchens. Magnus remained belowstairs in the Great Hall, nursing a mug of ale and looking into the fire. He’d heard someone slip past the Great Hall, despite the sounds from the people bedded down on the floor. He’d looked behind him and spied Saoirse. She’d canted her head.
He waited a minute before leaving his seat. He scanned the sleeping clan members, praying no one was awake and noticing. He followed Saoirse to the back of the small building set at the far end of the bailey. He’d watched the guards on the wall walk, but most faced outward. He hid in the shadows whenever a guard looking down at the bailey turned in his direction. He opened his arms to Saoirse once the building hid them, and she remained there as he spoke.
“Successful. We brought home plenty of meat, but it was one of the longest sennights of ma life, wee one.”
