A grin cracked over his face, and he jumped down to join her.
“That one will slip straight off,” he told her. “We need to find one wi’ a little more crag to it, something the moss can cling on to.”
Once he had located a rock that seemed to match his description, he stooped down at the edge of the small cairn and laid the rock at the top. She felt a sudden twist of emotion in her chest at the sight of him like that. She could almost picture him as a young lad doing the same thing so many years ago that it must have felt like another lifetime. Perhaps she could help himfind that part of himself once more, no matter how distant it might have been.
Once he was sure the rock was balanced, he rose to his feet once more, dusting off his hands, and turned to her with a grin.
“Come,” he told her, jerking his head towards the horse. “The clouds are starting to gather, I dinnae want you to get drenched.”
“Even if it would mean ye could get me out of my clothes?” she replied, before she could consider how scandalous her words might sound to him.
His eyebrows raised, but, to her surprise, he chuckled. “Aye, even if,” he replied, and he grasped her around the waist, hitching her back onto her horse so they could make their way back to the Keep.
The rain had just started by the time they reached home, and the maids drew her a bath. Camron exchanged a heated glance with her, a secret flirtation meant just for the two of them, but promised to give her the space she needed to rest.
And, after her bath, she asked for some parchment and ink from one of the maids, who seemed, much to her relief, rather happier to tend to her than she had before. Isla could not help but feel a little ashamed about the way she had treated the maids here when she had first arrived, even if it had been in aid of keeping herself from getting too comfortable. She supposed she’d have to prove to them that she was worth such kindness, but now that she had less intention of fleeing at the first opportunity she got, she would have the chance.
By candlelight, she hovered the pen over the page, a splotch of ink dropping from the tip before she so much as put pen to paper. Writing had always helped her sift through her thoughts, and she knew that her sister would be expecting to hear from her any day now, to read some missive about her life in the new Keep and how much she despised it, as she had written to her before.
But, instead, as she finally began to write, she found something entirely different spilled in ink on the page. She wrote to Catriona about what they had done that day, about how they had ridden out together and spent the day with one another; about how Camron had shown her places that he had visited with his mother when he was young. About how, when he kissed her, it was softer, slower, and sweeter than it ever had been before. That she didn’t know what she was feeling, but if she’d had to guess, she would have called it falling in love…
Even if she did not know that he felt the same way. Some part of her wished to believe that he did, or at least, that he could. But was a man like him capable of loving her the way she needed to be loved? Was there too much of his father in him, like Archie had said? Robert was still at the Keep, after all, not cast out as she would have liked him to be. There were parts of his old life that he was still clearly beholden to, and whether he could leave them behind or not remained to be seen.
Folding the paper and dripping the wax on it to form a seal, she found that she had quieted at least some of the worry in her mind now that she had laid it all out like that. It might not be easy to make sense of what came next, but she knew that she would do it at her husband’s side.
Because she had fallen for him. And the only way she’d know if he felt the same way about her was if she gave him a chance to prove it.
Chapter Seventeen
Isla smootheddown her skirts with shaking hands, reaching up to make sure that her hair was still in place. She was sure that the men on the other side of the door would not much care for what she looked like, but rather if she had learned to keep her mouth shut after the mess of their first encounter.
And, if she was to be honest with herself, she wasn’t sure she could truthfully say she had.
“My Lady?”
She glanced around, jumping slightly as she realized that she was not alone in the corridor outside the dining room where Robert, Archie, and Camron were waiting for her to join them. One of the maids, carrying a plate of food, stood before her with a furrowed brow and a look of confusion on her face.
“I thought ye would have already joined the?—”
“Yes, I was just about to,” Isla replied, trying to keep her voice as steady as she could. “I was just, um… Do ye need any help?”
She gestured to the singular plate that the girl was carrying, realizing too late just how ridiculous it sounded to offer such an excuse. The girl raised her eyebrows at her with sympathy, perhaps aware that she was trying to dodge actually making herway inside, but she supposed she had no more reason to hide out here waiting for the inevitable.
“Let me get the door for ye,” she offered, and she pushed open the large wooden doors that led into the dining room and allowed the maid to enter before her.
She was sure that Robert would have something to say about it, as he seemed to have something to say about everything that she said or did, but she was already prepared for it. Or, at least, as well as she could be, given the circumstances.
She warmed her face with a smile as she followed the maid inside and moved at once to the head of the table, where Camron sat—she had asked to be seated beside him this evening, and he had agreed at once. A chair was waiting for her, and she sank down into it, carefully crossing her hands in her lap as Camron greeted her with a slight smile that was clearly meant for her and her alone.
“Glad that ye could finally deign to join us, my lady,” Robert remarked flippantly, and her jaw set tight in an instant.
Her first reaction was to lash out at him, remind him that he was the guest in this house and that he would do well to act like it, but she bit her tongue before she could say anything that would have landed her in trouble, forcing herself not to react to his harsh words with anything other than a smile. Camron reached over to squeeze her hand, almost as though he was trying to prompt some response out of her, but she did not react.
“A pleasure to see you, my lady,” Archie greeted her, trying to break the tension in the room.
She could not help but notice, now, the smarmy edge to his tone, something slithering about it, like a serpent coiling around a flower. She gave him a tight smile, and a flash of annoyance showed in his face. He must have known that he did not have the connection to her he once did and realized that his chancesof exploiting their friendship to whatever cruel end he had intended were fading fast.
“The food looks wonderful,” Isla told the maid. “Send our thanks to the kitchen staff.”
