And this one is quite important.
“Elizabeth,” Lucas said, his voice tightening when a loch came into view. “Ye ken?—”
“We’re nae playin’ in the loch, Uncle Lucas,” she sighed, sounding offended that Lucas would suggest she was heading toward the body of water. “It’s just bonnie here. And the flowers smell nice.”
“Ye cannae get too close to the water,” he said, the instruction uncharacteristically sharp compared to all the other interactions Flora had observed between Lucas and Elizabeth.
And the maids were discussin’ how angry he was about Elizabeth playin’ here… I still daenae ken why, though.
“I willnae, I promise,” Elizabeth assured, coming to a stop nearly twenty yards away from the shore. She turned toward both of them, her hands on her hips.
“What is it now?” Lucas asked, still tense but slightly less terse. A glimmer of his old fondness leaked back into his words.
“I forgot somethin’ in the castle,” she said, glancing between Flora and Lucas. She grabbed her skirt, pulling it up enough to show off her soft leather shoes. “I’ll be back!”
Elizabeth took off running once more, and Lucas only shook his head, staying right where he was standing. As he crossed his arms over his chest, Flora took a step to follow. He stopped her, saying, “She’ll be fine. I have guards followin’ her, all hidden. They’ve been watchin’ over her since the kidnappin’.”
“That’s quite smart,” Flora said, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d been hoping for an excuse to avoid this. Now that she was alone with him, she wasn’t sure how she should behave. “I’m sure she wouldnae like it if she kent she was bein’ watched.”
“Aye, she’d hate it,” Lucas agreed, a bit amused.
She nodded, her hands opening and closing at her sides as she searched for something to say. “Annabeth told me about her and Matthew’s romance.”
“Did she tell ye how me own braither thought I wouldnae approve of him marryin’ a villager?”
“She did,” Flora said.
“He’s a bit of an idiot,” Lucas said with a chuckle. “I dinnae have the chance to marry for love. Mine went badly. I wouldnae wish that for me brother, and I daenae care where someone comes from.”
A flurry of questions popped into her head. He’d given her a piece of his story, but it only made him more of an enigma.
His wife cannae still be around. Perhaps somethin’ happened here? Would I be allowed to ask?
Instead of probing into what she sensed could be a sore subject, fearing incurring his anger or frustration, Flora said, “Ye really daenae care about a person’s background? What about alliances with other clans?”
“There are more ways than marriage to create alliances,” he pointed out, meeting her eyes. “I’ve come to the conclusion that mixin’ marriage and politics only brings grief.”
The sensation that washed over her was bittersweet. His pain was obvious, but the sentiment was sweet. It warmed her in a curious way. She wondered if that meant there was hope for her, that someone would be able to overlook her scarred past.
He wouldnae. His position is too public. He wouldnae want that kind of scrutiny.
Snapping herself out of that line of thought, she blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Thank ye for findin’ me.”
Lucas turned toward her fully, looking just as surprised at the admission as she was at having made it.
“I…” she said, casting her gaze to the ground, her cheeks burning. “I dinnae believe anyone would truly rescue us, so I dinnae thank ye properly at the beginnin’. I ken now that ye truly rescued us without expectin’ anythin’ in return.”
She swore that she saw something that looked suspiciously like relief cross his features before he cleared his throat and said, “What ye and the other girls went through was atrocious. And if Hector doesnae find Lewis, I’ll hunt him down and kill him meself.”
Flora smiled, feeling her shoulders relax a bit. The unease that she’d felt around him since arriving was still there, but it was tempered. She realized that she felt able to take full breaths around him now. And she was compelled to want to learn more about the man who rescued her, who taught her to throw a knife, and who kissed her in the corridor just outside her chambers.
“She’s brought half of her belongin’s,” Lucas said, unable to hide his amusement at the sight of his niece coming toward the two of them with her arms filled with various items. “I think she’s got a brush and a blanket.”
“It seems she’s bringin’ a change of clothes for herself and that doll as well,” Flora observed.
He smirked, unsurprised that Elizabeth was bringing so much along. She’d taken quite a liking to Flora. He was sure that she’d invented several games in the course of picking out the objects with Flora in mind.
“Now we can play!” Elizabeth announced, dropping her treasures into the soft grass. “Uncle Lucas, would ye help me spread this blanket?”
