Connor walked back along the battlements, watching as his men trained below.
He would do what was necessary to see his son, his heir, settled with the right bride, one who brought an equal measure of wealth or power or lands to the marriage. It was Connor’s duty and would be Aidan’s when he had a son.
If Catriona wanted to remain as his leman, so be it. Most men of his position married as required and kept a leman for love as well. Connor would not demand that Aidan give her up, just keep her in the right place in his marriage.
One day, Jocelyn would see the wisdom in his plans and understand that it had to be this way.
And Aidan?
Well, he was as stubborn as his mother at times, but as a man he would understand the necessity of it. As his son, Aidan understood the absolute necessity of doing his duty.
Connor entered the keep and went about his tasks. Their journey would take several weeks and Aidan would stand in his stead while they were away.
Once they returned, the potential brides would arrive and Aidan would be too busy to worry over Catriona.
It was just the way of things.
Chapter Sixteen
The first week of his parents’ absence had passed and Lairig Dubh still stood as it had for ten generations. Its people lived on and everything had been uneventful. Aidan’s only disappointment was he’d been too busy to spend time with Cat. She visited the keep once, with Muireall, but she would not remain with him.
She’d finally accepted his invitation to come and eat supper with him this evening here. It was a near thing, for she said it was not her place. He thought that only using the boy she seemed to favour, wee Alasdair, to send the messages convinced her to join him. She did not, he suspected, want to give the boy the task of sending her refusal to Aidan. He cared not the method, he was only happy she accepted.
And yet, he wanted it to be her place.
He wanted her at ease in his home, with his family and his friends.
He wanted her with him, day and night.
But each day and week his parents were away meant he was one step closer to losing her. For each day they were away, it meant that the women, one of whom he would marry, were that much closer to arriving here.
Now supper neared and Aidan grew nervous. Would she come? When he approached the high table and the servants prepared to serve, he despaired that she would not. Then he saw her near the back of the hall with Muireall, ever at her side, and seated with some others from the village who’d had business in the keep this day. He began to stand, to call her forward when the hall grew silent in response to his action.
Catriona dipped her head then, the only one there not looking at him, and he realised she was embarrassed. Not wanting to make her more uncomfortable, he took his seat and nodded at the servants to begin. Gair sat at his side, discussing several issues, but he noted that her embarrassment faded as he watched her partake in the simple meal offered.
When she smiled, he did. When she laughed, he drank in the sound of it, wondering about the cause of it. When she took a few sidelong glances in his direction, he saw them and nodded to her.
‘Aidan?’
He sighed. He lost his ability to think when she was there and when she was not. He must learn to push her from his thoughts and concentrate on his duties. Turning to Gair, he waited for the man’s words.
‘I received word from your parents. The wedding is scheduled for three days hence and they will return a sennight after that. There is a message for you in your chambers, though I do not think it anything of a pressing nature.’
His uncle. His sister. His cousin Tavis. They had all recently married and their marriages had joined clans or made alliances stronger. It was the way of it.
It would be the way of his life and marriage.
He pushed aside what must be and thought instead of what was—Catriona was his. And he planned on keeping her, no matter what.
* * *
After waiting for a polite amount of time for everyone to finish the meal he’d barely tasted, he stood and walked to the place where he wanted to be. Everyone stood as he passed and he greeted a few of those familiar to him as he made his way down one long aisle of tables to her. She stood as well, head bowed before him, and she would have dropped further if he had not taken her hand and stopped her.
‘Come,’ he said. ‘I would show you the rest of my home.’
‘My lord,’ she whispered, allowing him to lead her though he could feel the resistance in her body.
Just as they approached the doorway to the tower where his chambers were, a group of warriors entered the keep. Recognising several of them, Aidan knew who else served as part of that group, recently returned from a mission escorting an important trade partner of his father’s back to the coast. When the group went off to find food and drink, one man remained in place.
