Callum groaned again. “I wish we had gone somewhere else instead of here. I thought... I hoped my father would be prepared to accept our marriage. He is a stubborn man.”
“He is disappointed,” Penelope said. “I understand that.”
“I don’t want you to feel you have to prove anything. Not to me, anyway. I love you and we are wed, and nothing will change that. Just because my father has some bee in his bonnet about us rising to the top, like we’re swimming in a dish of cock-a-leekie...That’s soup, my love, and Maxwell was never one for it anyway, so why—”
“MacKenzie,” she put a stop to his rambling. “I think I understand your father. I can accept that I am not the wife he wanted for his son and heir. I think I am up for the challenge he has set me. At least let metry.”
He looked up at her with shining eyes. “You are a bonny woman, my wife,” he said in a low, gravelly voice. “A brave and wonderful woman.”
She smiled and rumpled his hair. He was letting it grow again, the curls poking up in all directions, just the way she liked it. “We can always go back to London,” she said.
“No, not London,” he said. Then added hastily, in case he had offended her, “I don’t mind a visit now and then, to see your brother and my aunt, but not to live.”
“No, it does not suit you,” she agreed fondly. “I think Bonnyrigg does. Since we arrived, you seem to... glow.”
Which was all the more reason for her to win over Maxwell.
Callum wrapped his arms around her and drew her down, kissing her long and passionately. “If I am glowing,” he whispered, “it is because my fairy wife has put a spell on me.”
She laughed. “You do talk nonsense. Now kiss me again. Let’s make the most of this comfy bed. I have become used to making love in far less comfortable places.”
“Hmm, that reminds me,” he grinned wickedly, “I have a few places in mind...”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Despite his calmdemeanor in front of Penelope, Callum was angry with his father. He had hoped for more, and that Maxwell was behaving in such a stubborn, grumpy manner disappointed him. As for this luncheon... he wished they were not sitting down with their neighbors. He had hoped that they would refuse, but of course they were curious about Penelope, even Sir Hector who had sworn he would not enter Bonnyrigg again after Luna’s outburst about the oatcakes. Penelope seemed to think this was some sort of test set by his father, and Callum feared she was right.
“Could Maxwell not have waited until we had settled in?” he demanded of Angus, when they met in the forest.
Angus looked as if he was having trouble keeping the smile off his face. Being married to Selina suited him. But he tried for a serious expression for Callum’s sake.
“Your father is giving your wife a chance to prove herself. If she fails then mabbe you could say at least she tried. Luna likes her, as do your brothers and sister. As far as I can see, ’tis only Maxwell who is the thorn in the stocking.”
Callum gave a gloomy nod. His mother and siblings did appear to like Penelope. They treated her as one of them, which she told him she found delightful. “It makes me feel like I have a family at last,” she explained.
He understood. She had been alone after her parents died, and then estranged from Mortimer. Naturally, she was enjoying being part of a larger family.
He just wished Maxwell would stop being such a prick.
Last night at dinner, his father hadn’t been at the end of the table as he usually was. The duke’s chair had been empty and his mother had explained he had business to attend to. But she had appeared to be worried. Callum had wanted to go and hunt him out and give him a piece of his mind, but he knew that would only make it worse. He decided he would wait until after luncheon today and then he would make it clear to Maxwell that he was not going to stand for his behavior. If he did not stop treating Penelope like an unwelcome guest, then they would leave.
All very grand, but he had the sinking feeling that Maxwell would think that was a good idea. Perhaps that was what he wanted? Would he go so far as to disinherit his eldest son just because he did not marry as he had been instructed?
“Let the lassie do her thing,” Angus said now. “She is good at soothing ruffled feathers.”
Callum agreed, but in his mind he was already deciding whereabouts in Inverness they could find a suitable house.
*
The long diningtable in the great hall was set with glassware and silverware, the many-branched candelabra in its center. There was even some greenery but thankfully no stuffed boars. Callum knew word had got back to his family about that because Rory had shared his thoughts on it and Cat had giggled uncontrollably.
It made him wonder why Penelope wanted a family like his. There were times when he could have happily done without them.
The neighbors were treated to sherry before the meal, and Sir Hector pulled a face as he finished it off in one gulp, the tiny glass even smaller in his great paw. “What’s wrong with whisky?” he demanded. “We are real men here.”
“Some of us are women,” Luna retorted, glaring back.
Callum asked himself again why on earth his father cared what such fellows thought, but he knew why. He had been told often enough. Maxwell was ambitious for his family, and he needed powerful friends rather than enemies if he was to see the MacKenzies rise higher. It had always been his dream, and made all the stronger by the stinging comments he had received from others who thought him too lowborn to hold the position of duke.
