“Bless ye fer coming!”
She greeted every one of them with that gentle, genuine smile that made her whole face brighten. She paused to help an old woman steady a basket of wool on her hip. She knelt to speak to two children tugging at her skirts, asking their names and making them giggle. She thanked a baker who insisted on pressing a small honey cake into her hand for the lady.
Baird watched her, and each interaction pierced him in equal measure.
She wasgood.Not in the naïve, soft way that many assumed gentleness to be, but good in the way that truly mattered. She was present, kind and attentive. She belonged among those people already, as though she had always been meant to standshoulder-to-shoulder with them. His clan responded to her as though they’d been waiting for someone like her for years.
And he… he was her husband only because fate had torn Malcom from that world. A familiar weight pressed against his ribs. He swallowed hard against it.
She laughed at something a child said, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The sunlight caught the golden hues, warming them like burning honey. The sight stirred something inside him so fiercely he almost had to look away.
She deserved everything a true marriage offered: affection, closeness, the security of knowing she was wanted not out of necessity but choice. Yet every time he felt himself drawn to her, and it was happening more and more, guilt flared like a warning brand.
It should have been Malcolm… Malcolm who walked beside her, Malcolm who the villagers greeted with a smile at her side, Malcolm who would have courted her, cherished her, kissed her without shame or memories of a coffin lowering into the earth.
Instead, it was him.
And the more Davina smiled, the more warmly she spoke to the people, the more naturally she belonged at his side… the sharper the ache grew. He couldn’t let himself take more from her than he already had.
But when Davina turned toward him, holding up a small crate of terracotta pots as though she’d discovered treasure, Baird felt his resolve shake.
“Look!” she said, breathless with delight. “Exactly what I needed. Are they nae perfect?”
He managed a smile. They continued to weave through the bustling market, as Davina drifted from stall to stall with growing enthusiasm. Each vendor seemed more than happy to speak with her, eager to show their goods to the new Lady Kincaid who listened with such genuine interest.
She examined seed packets, knelt to inspect young herbs, and handled bundles of saplings with the care one might give newborn lambs.
At one stall, Davina held up a small cloth pouch. “These are foxglove seeds,” she explained excitedly. “They’ll add height tae the edges of the garden, and the bees adore them.”
Before he could respond, she darted to another table, lifting a pot of trailing ivy. “And these… look how lively they are! They could trail over the stone wall beautifully.”
Her delight was contagious. People turned to smile simply because she was smiling. Baird found himself smiling too, despite the heavy things pressing on his mind.
Davina approached him with an armful of items. He saw seeds, bulbs, and a delicate little rose cutting wrapped in damp cloth.
“I ken exactly where this one will go,” she said with eyes that were gleaming. “Near the fountain. It will climb the trellis once it’s strong enough.”
He raised a brow. “A trellis we dinnae have yet?”
“We will,” she said confidently. “The woodworkers said they could craft something light and simple. I have it all planned.”
He nodded, utterly amused. “So, ye dae.”
They moved on, and she paused at another vendor selling small shrubs. Davina knelt to touch the soil around a lavender plant, inhaling as she rubbed the leaves between her fingers.
“Oh,” she breathed in almost reverently. “This smells like me maither’s garden.”
Baird didn’t know what stunned him more, the softness in her voice, or the way her smile gentled at the memory. The lavender vendor grinned and tossed two extra seedlings into her basket for the lady’s happiness. Davina laughed and the sound wrapped itself around Baird, warming places inside him that had been cold for very long.
At last, when she had collected not only the essentials but several items he strongly suspected she’d chosen simply because she couldn’t resist them, Davina turned toward him.
“Well?” she asked slightly breathlessly. “What dae ye think?”
He watched her so bright-eyed and radiant, with her arms full of the future she wanted to build in the long-neglected garden. Her delight made her glow.
“I was asking meself the same thing,” he said, clearing his throat. “But now I’m the one seeking answers. Whatisyer plan fer this garden?”
Her eyes widened with enthusiasm.
