“Thank ye. I’m much improved. A bath and a fresh cup of bone broth that Siùsan brought helped.”
Saoirse wasn’t sure she liked that Siùsan brought Magnus food without her knowledge, but she’d said that he should only take food that came from her aunt or her. It still made her anxious. He must have sensed it because he slipped his arm around her, and his fingers squeezed her waist.
“Alex, Saoirse says ye and Brighde changed yer minds.” Magnus addressed Alex directly as Saoirse’s father, but his attention was on both of her parents.
“We have.” Alex wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist, and she leaned her head against his chest. Saoirse wished to do the same with Magnus, but she wouldn’t press her luck. It was already scandalous that he had his arm around her.
“Ye can see Saoirse’s already accepted ma suit. I would ask ye and Brighde for Saoirse’s hand in marriage. May I marry yer daughter?”
“Aye.” Alex and Brighde answered together. There was a moment’s pause as they realized the significance of their answer, but they soon offered the couple bright smiles and warm embraces. For the first time in weeks, things felt normal among the four of them. Confessing their true reservations had cleared the air, and everyone’s heart felt lighter.
“Thank ye, Da. Thank ye, Mama.” Saoirse radiated joy, and her smile blinded Magnus as she looked up at him. They wrapped their arms around each other, their gazes focused only on one another.
“I suppose ye wish to marry soon.” Alex brought them back to Earth. “I dinna want ye handfasting, Magnus. It’s a proper kirking for ma daughter.”
“We can wait three sennights.” Magnus conceded, but he nearly laughed at the look of vehement annoyance in Saoirse’s gaze. Apparently, they were not in agreement.
“Alex, I think ye’d better reconsider,” Brighde whispered.
“What? Nay. Absolutely nae. Ma daughter isnae—”
“Alex.” Brighde canted her head and gave her husband a pointed look. She knew he struggled with the idea that another man would lay claim as protector of their oldest daughter. And she knew he struggled with the notion that Saoirse would engage in the same intimate acts she and Alex shared. She wasn’t so eager to accept that, either. But it was pointless to deny the couple. They were likely to do it, anyway.
“Fine,” Alex huffed. “Ye’re still marrying in a bluidy church.”
“We ken, Da.” Saoirse pulled away and wrapped her arms around her father’s waist. She whispered to him. “I love Magnus, but that doesnae mean I love ye any less. Ye’ll always be ma da.”
“Ye’ll always bemoleannan.” My sweetheart.
“Thank ye, Da. We saw Grandda, and he kens ye’ve changed yer minds. I believe we have his blessing too, but I’d like to ask him, nonetheless.”
“He’ll appreciate that, Saoirse. Ye’re the first lass to marry here in twenty-five years. I ken how special it will be to him. He’s going to miss ye.”
“I’m going to miss him, Da. We can ask him at the evening meal. I ken he’ll give his blessing, too.” Saoirse glanced toward the keep. “I’d like a bath and a fresh kirtle before then.”
“I’ll send maids up with the tub and water,” Brighde offered.
“I’d speak to Callum aboot rejoining the guard rotation,” Magnus said.
Saoirse stared at Magnus, her cheeks pinkening. She didn’t want to speak her thoughts aloud, but she wasn’t pleased with his suggestion if they were handfasting soon.
“In a sennight or so.” Magnus read Saoirse’s expression, and he knew it embarrassed her in front of her parents. Alluding to them coupling or having a week of seclusion didn’t thrill him. He should have thought better before speaking. Alex and Brighde merely nodded.
Alex and Magnus walked toward the battlements, while Saoirse and Brighde turned toward the keep. Brighde led the way into the kitchens, shooing her daughter abovestairs, assuring her that she’d arrange the bath.
Saoirse sensed someone watching her as she entered the keep. She glanced around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She wished to bathe after only using a wet linen square behind the wood screen in Magnus’s chamber for four days, but something told her not to go abovestairs yet. She didn’t want to be in the passageway alone. Instead, she slipped into Liam’s solar. She didn’t knock, but she knew she didn’t have to. Her grandfather’s only rule was to knock if he was meeting with the clan council. Since she knew he wasn’t, she knew she could enter unannounced. It was rare that she would. However, she needed to hurry. It relieved her to find the chamber empty. She shut the door all but a crack.
A maid walked past with a ewer of water and a basin. Saoirse’s eyes narrowed when she spied something leafy in the bowl. When the woman reached halfway up the servants' stairs, which Saoirse could see from the laird’s solar, she followed. She kept to the shadows, avoiding the steps she knew squeaked or wobbled. When she reached the second landing, she witnessed the woman enter Magnus’s original chamber, just as she suspected. The woman left the door open, so Saoirse crept into an alcove across from the doorway. She could see clearly into Magnus’s chamber.
The woman set the basin and ewer on a table and lifted the mint from the bowl. She laid it next to the pottery before looking around. Saoirse supposed she could be assessing whether anything else needed straightening, but she wanted to know why the woman brought the mint. Had Siùsan not told the maids to cease bringing it? What if Magnus entered before her and thought she’d left it for him? Was all the mint that came to Magnus contaminated?
The young maid went to the bedside and peeled back the bedcovers before fluffing the pillows. Someone had changed the bedding since he’d last slept there. There was no need for the woman to do anything with the bed right now. Saoirse grew more suspicious by the moment. The servant looked around again, seeming unsure what to do next.
Leave. That’s what ye bluidy well do next. Get out of ma betrothed’s chamber and take yer bleedin’ weed with ye.
“Who are we spying on?” Magnus had hurried inside and up the stairs to the chamber he would soon share with Saoirse. He’d stopped short when he spied a hint of her hair within an alcove near his chamber door. He’d wondered why she was hiding.
Saoirse nearly jumped out of her skin when Magnus eased into the alcove and wrapped his arm around her waist. She’d turned when her peripheral vision caught his movement, but he was far closer than she expected.
