“Campbell?”
He turned from the window to find Adair watching him. “Ye were lost in yer thoughts there.”
Iain grunted and Adair laughed. “I find nothing funny,” Iain said stiffly, but the reprimand only made Adair laugh harder.
“I find it very funny. So the mighty Iain Campbell has fallen.”
Iain raised a brow, but Adair couldn’t stop chuckling.
“I wondered if you would find a woman who would crack that stone heart of yers.”
“I don’t have a stone heart,” Iain said, offended.
“Sure ye do. Everyone knows it. All the women speculate about who will steal it. Rumor has it that the most powerful wives of the English nobility have their eyes on ye as a perspective husband to their daughters.”
Iain’s other brow went up. “And how do you know all of this?” Adair stopped laughing and struggled to keep a straight face. Iain wasn’t amused, but he was curious. “People talk about me?” He found it appalling that he’d been discussed at balls and in sitting rooms.
“All the time.”
“Why?”
“Well…” Adair seemed nonplussed. “There are some lasses who find ye pleasing to the eye, I guess. And ye’re wealthy. And ye have those titles.”
All of that was reasonable. Men wanted to ally themselves with other powerful men, and one way to do that was through their daughters’ marriages. Eventually, Iain would have to wed for an heir, but sometimes he thought that the Campbell wealth, titles, and reputation were more of a curse than an inheritance. Mainly, it was the reputation that he wanted to obliterate. But how could he do that when he perpetrated the rumors and groomed the reputation so he could gain the trust of the English and therefore use that trust against them?
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “Don’t they have more important things to discuss?”
“Ye’re their chief. It’s a matter of great importance.”
Iain made a noise that sounded like “psshh” before turning back to the window.
Cait.
He would bet his fortune that none of these clucking hens had even considered Cait as his marchioness.
Hell, he’d never considered Cait.
Cait.
The woman who had stolen all of his thoughts for the past three days. She was the only woman who made him feel alive and whole and not as empty as he’d been feeling the past few weeks.
“So, Cait Campbell,” Adair said, still sounding amused.
Iain’s back teeth came together. “Does everyone have to speculate about my life? Even you, Adair?”
“Even me.”
This was no laughing matter. Iain was in some serious turmoil and his friend thought it humorous. “There is nothing between Cait Campbell and me.”
“Is that the story ye’re staying with?”
“Shut your gob, Adair.”
Adair laughed. “Ye’re in bad shape, mate.”
Iain rubbed his forehead and wished Adair far away. “Can we please end this conversation? I have work to do.”
“I believe I owe Cait Campbell a visit,” Adair said.
