He crooked his arm, and she placed her hand on his forearm as they descended the stairs.
The buzz of voices silenced as Iain and Abby stepped intothe great hall. All eyes watched Abigail walk arm in arm with their laird to the slightly elevated front table.
Maeve stood as they approached. She was resplendent in a jade gown, her dark hair coiffured in perfect curls on top of her head. “I am pleased to see you are well rested.”
Abby’s back stiffened when Iain’s sister never smiled at her, but she gave Maeve her most gracious smile in return. “Yes. Thanks.”
A strange look passed between Maeve and Iain as they sat, Iain next to his sister and Abigail on his other side.
The serving people brought out trenchers topped with what might have been duck or some kind of wildfowl.
Everyone in the great hall ate, drank, and laughed merrily.
Abby picked at the food before her, wondering what was going on between Iain and his sister.
Trying to enjoy the festivities, Abby drank the bittersweet wine. As soon as she figured out how to work the time device, she would be gone. Without that fact hanging over her head, she would have been excited by the sounds and sights of the night. Everyone was so friendly, so happy their laird was safe. If she was born of that time, she would have joined in the merriment.
Iain and Maeve spoke of the crops and stock. He joked that a woman of Maeve’s age could not keep his lands and people so healthy, and that she must have had some factor helping her.
Maeve pretended to be offended and slapped him on the shoulder. “You are an oaf, sir. I am more suited to numbers than you ever were.”
Iain laughed. “That’s true. I had no need of the classroom. A laird has to know how to fight, not add and spell.”
Maeve grinned. “Thank goodness you are good at those things naturally, or we would all be in dire straits.” She sipped her wine and then plonked her cup onto the table. “Now that ye are rid of Fiona, we must talk about who ye are to marry. Ye gave Father ye word ye would marry before yer thirty-three, and that’s only weeks away.”
“Aye, but we dinnae have to worry aboot that tonight.”
Abby frowned. He had to marry before his birthday? She looked around the cavernous great hall at all the beautiful women making eyes at him. He wouldn’t have any trouble getting someone to marry him if he had to choose from them, that was for sure, but she supposed he would have to find some other laird’s daughter. From everything he had said, strengthening his clan was the most important thing to Iain.
Once the food stopped coming, the bagpipes started up.
Maeve clapped her hands together. “A reel. How marvelous. Come on, Iain, dance with your sister.”
Giving Abby a longing look, he took Maeve’s arm and joined the throng already on the floor.
Abby had seen reels performed, but she had never learned how to dance one. She hoped like mad that no one would ask her to dance.
Donal, his wild red hair pulled back and tied behind his head, strode over to her table, and with only her sitting there, she knew he was coming toward her. Now what was she supposed to do?Please don’t ask me to dance.
His great hulk stood beside her and held out his hand. “Dance?”
Abby stared at his hand as if it had turned into a hairy spider. “I don’t know how to dance.”
Donal threw his head back and laughed. “Not dance? I thought every lass comes out of the womb knowing how to dance.”
The music stopped, and Maeve was the first back to the table. “I’ll have ye know, we womenfolk spend many an hour as you do perfecting our steps.”
Iain joined them. “What is the problem?”
“Abigail doesn’t know how to dance,” Maeve said, a slight condescending smile on her lips.
“Then I will teach the lass.” He held out his hand. “Come.”
Frowning, Abby narrowed her eyes at him. The moment they’d stepped into his castle, he’d shifted in personality. His brogue got heavier by the second, and he wasn’t as warm as he had been on the road or in the houses. When he spoke, everyone listened . . . and obeyed. “Is that an order?”
“Aye.”
Without giving her a chance to decline, Iain pulled Abby out of her seat and onto the cleared floor. “Follow me and all will be well.”
