“He teases ye like a sister. Ye arenae his sister. Ye are above him.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ye are too harsh.”
“Am I? He kens ye are Lady Bryden, so he should treat ye as such. I am nae pleased with his disrespect.”
“Oh, please, Evander. Leave him be.”
“I’ll have a word with him. Ye are me wife, nae his friend.”
“I can have friends.”
“Nae that friend.”
“Mason is just relieved to see me,” she said firmly. “I’ll tell him to address me as Lady Bryden. He must have forgotten. Besides, we werebarelymarried.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, very well. Come on, lass, let’s get going. I daenae see any stalls here that sell ready-made clothing, and ye ken what that means.”
She trotted after him, all interest in the marketplace seemingly gone. She didn’t look at the stalls anymore or smile at passers-by. She stared straight ahead, her jaw set, her lips pressed tight together.
Angry.
Evander bit his lower lip. He didn’t like how the joy had been crushed out of her.
Well then, I’ll just have to figure out how to put it back.
“What does it mean?” she prompted.
“It means that we’ll need to take ye to a proper seamstress,” he explained brusquely.
“What for?”
“Ye will see,” he responded, with an enigmatic grin.
She didn’t smile back. Instead, she folded her arms. “Really? Ye think that I will forgive ye for insulting me friendandme with a wee trip to the seamstress?”
Evander blinked, taken aback. “What?”
“Ye heard me. Ye got angry because me friend was too familiar with me. I daenae ken what kind of marriage I had agreed to, but I’ll nae have ye telling me who I can and cannae be friends with, Evander. I daenae want me friends to be in danger of yer temper. I need ye to promise me now that ye willnae try to control me life in that way.”
“I am only trying to protect ye.”
“I didnae say that ye had bad motives. I said that I couldnae accept it.”
There was a long pause between them. Evander stared at her, his eyebrows drawn together.
“Very well,” he relented. “I jumped to conclusions, and I ken that Mason thinks highly of ye. It’ll nae happen again.”
She eyed him for a long moment, as if waiting for him to roll his eyes or mutter something else. When he held her gaze evenly, she sighed and shook her head.
“Thank ye,” she murmured. “See? We can get on just fine, ye and I. All will be well if we just work at it.”
