There always was. Ian knew that firsthand. There were summers of droughts that affected food stores, warring within the clans that always had to be settled, and constant needs from his own people. If anyone understood, Ian did.
“I hope that I can get ye a meeting as soon as possible though,” Iris continued. “I will meet with him in the morn and ask for a moment.”
Ian arched a brow. “Part of yer ambassador duties, right?”
She grinned. “Can ye believe it? James is saying all the time that I may outrank him.”
“I bet it’s a blow tae his ego,” Ian teased once more. “Are ye happy here Iris?” If she wasn’t, he would fight to get her back home, her and his niece. It wouldn’t help any sort of alliance between the two clans but she was his family and family came first.
“I’m happy,” Iris smiled. “More than happy. I miss mah family, but I’m making a life with James here. The clan, they have accepted mah as one of their own, Ian.”
He was happy for her then.
“Ye must be famished,” Iris said a moment later. “I will call up for dinner and we can eat together tonight. I want tae hear all aboot mah siblings and their goings.”
Ian grinned, some of the worry rolling off him for now. Iris was hopeful, and he had to be, that this journey wasn’t going to be all for naught. If nothing else, he had to fight for the little ones, like his niece sleeping close by. She was their future, as were all the bairns in both clans. He didn’t want them to have to worry about the violence, the loss, the worry that they had all experienced in their lifetime.
Ian truly did want to see peace between the clans and this was the first step toward it.
That evening, Ian sat with his sister and James around a small table in their chamber room, a platter of roasted chicken with root vegetables in the center of the table and a few bottles of wine to complete the meal. Ian was holding his dram of whiskey, feeling the pain finally recede to just a twinge over what he had consumed.
“Well,” Iris replied, leaning back in her chair, a cup of wine in her hand and her cheeks flushed from her drink. “I hope that ye donna piss off any other old Scots while ye are here.”
Ian chuckled into his cup. “Wot? Do ye want mah tae disguise mahself and not be the laird, so that drunken fools dinna attack me? Regardless, the old drunk’s niece at the stables helped. She seems to be quite the lass.”
James chuckled, his cheeks also reddened from the ale he was drinking. “Ye have taken an interest in Ida?”
Ian cleared his throat, trying not to think about Ida or her gentle ways as she had taken care of him. “She’s an asset tae ye, that is all I am saying.”
“Or,” Iris said slyly. “Is it because ye saw something more in her?”
The couple laughed at Ian’s expense but he remained silent, staring down into his cup. He saw nothing. He couldn’t. She was part of this clan and he was laird over another. It had been a fleeting moment for him, a moment of weakness.
Nothing more.
He wouldn’t even think of her after this.
That night, he lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the logs as they popped in the fireplace. The whiskey had wound its way around his body, making him feel tired but he found himself unable to sleep.
He kept thinking about the very lass he told himself he wouldn’t think of again, with her wide blue eyes and easy conversation. He hadn’t told his sister everything that he and Ida had discussed, her teasing far too much already for her to think that he thought the lass was giving sound advice to a laird.
But she had. She had given him some thought about the future, about the unnecessary fighting and he longed to continue that conversation with her.
Remy would be rolling with laughter he knew that the lass had affected Ian so. It had been a long while since any lass had done so and the last one, well, he almost didn’t recover from the hurt she had placed on his heart.
Ian clutched the bunch of wildflowers he had picked from the nearby field as he made his way to the cottage on the hill, thinking about his words with each step along the way. His brother, Stephan, stated that he should just come out and say what he was there for, but his sister, Iris, had told him that he needed to speak words of love and devotion if he wished towin her over. Today she would have to make a choice and Ian wasn’t so certain that he would be that choice.
He rapped on the door with his fist and Yerlie opened the door, her eyes widening when she saw him. “Ian,” she stammered, stepping out and shutting the door behind her. “Wot are ye doing here?”
He thrust the flowers toward her, his palm sweaty as she took them. “I’ve come tae ask ye something.”
The redheaded beauty fiddled with the flowers and Ian’s heart started to rapidly beat in his chest. “Wot is that Ian?”
“I love ye,” he said, the words coming out of his mouth before he could think about them. “And I want ye tae be mah wife.”
She let out a small noise but it wasn’t a yes or at least it didn’t sound like it. “Och Ian. I have feelings for ye as well, but I canna wed ye.”
“Why not?” he demanded, reaching out to take her hand. He could feel her trembling in his touch. “If ye love mah.”
