“I dinnae have any wish to talk about it no more.”
“So you’re going to marry Nessa then and that’s that?”
“I suppose so. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you’re a fool, Callum MacCleod.” She knelt next to the tub and looked at him closely. “You have a question to ask me. Come on, out with it.”
Callum ran a hand through his hair before speaking. “What did you talk to Kerry about while I was out tending your veggies?”
“I know what answer you seek, Callum but only you can find it. You cannot be led by the hand all your life. You have to make the choices that matter if you are to be the highlander I know you can be.” She pressed a hand to his shoulder. “Do you want a life with a stranger who might be lying to you or a woman who hates you?”
“That’s no choice. Kerry’s gone.”
“Has she?”
“Do you know something I dinnae?”
“I only know she has choices to make same as you.”
“But she lied to me, didn’t she?”
“Lies and truth are not as far apart as some might wish. I could tell you I came here today to bless your wedding. To you that is a lie, to your parents it will be the truth. Do you see they can be different but the same depending on who is listening?”
“No. I dinnae see at all. Why can you not give me a straight answer to my questions?”
“For the same reason I dinnae raise an army whenever danger beckons near my wee cottage. I am not taking charge of your life nor any life. I am just an old woman who likes her peace and I only came to bid greeting to a man in a bath.”
“And I’m a man who is done with his bath so if you’ll excuse me.”
She nodded, getting to her feet. “I shall see you at dinner this evening.”
She was gone without a sound leaving Callum to climb out of the bath and dry himself by the fire. He looked down at his body, examining the damaged skin, the bruises, the scars from a lifetime of conflict. He wouldn’t mind a life of peace if he was able to share it with Kerry.
That wasn’t to be of course so he had no option but to marry Nessa. He dressed and left the infirmary, the heat of the fire soon no more than a distant memory. If only he could say the same of Kerry.
