Page 67 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

“Ye think that a woman would come out to the woods at dawn to say or do something pleasing? No, he is in for it,” Jacob said with a knowing nod.

“I’d have to agree with his assessment,” Murtagh chimed in as he dropped the pot of stew over the flames.

“He has been in the woods fer days. What could he have done to upset her?” Rob asked.

“Milord, forgive me fer saying, but ye are such a young pup when it comes to women that ye could hardly understand. Even when ye are gone, ye still can do something wrong,” Murtagh explained, taking a big scoop of the stew for himself. “I’ve seen yer wife rip into ye, so ye ken that they can be rather frightening creatures when they wish to be.”

The pair returned shortly after, Ellen red in the face and Hugh looking as pale as a ghost.

“Let us return to the castle, Murtagh, Jacob. There is no reason fer us to continue interrupting their work,” Ellen said.

While Murtagh shoveled down the rest of his food, Jacob looked at Rob and shrugged, giving him a quick wink to show that he knew he was right and that he would be ribbing Rob for it later. Hugh sat down by the fire with a huff and cast a nasty glare over at his brother, one that Rob could not quite understand.

When they were finally alone in the clearing, each quietly eating their meal, Rob dared to cast a few quick glances at Hugh. His brother was usually the calm one of the pair, and he was usually quite difficult to rile. In fact, Rob could only think of one other occasion in his adult life that he had seen Hugh looking quite so venomous toward him. Rob had marched into Hugh’s room only five days before he was supposed to marry Ellen and had begun to rant about how he didn’t even want to marry the lass, yet he was being forced to do everything she wished to adorn the Great Hall ahead of the celebrations. Rob had been so consumed by his annoyance at losing precious hours to spar in the yard that he had not comprehended how angry Hugh’s expression was until it was too late. He had left the room with a pair of broken ribs.

At the time, Rob had thought the anger wasn’t directed toward him. He told himself that Hugh had already been angry and Rob had just been the scapegoat. Rob had known that Hugh had a secret lover—the idiotic grin that Hugh would sport after sneaking away to bed her had given it away fairly quickly—and Rob thought that the anger must have been related to her. In a way, at least, he had been right.

Rob had earned Hugh’s anger by complaining about marrying the love of Hugh’s life. What could Ellen have possibly said to equal something like that?

“Hugh, is there anything—”

“If we both split the logs, we should be able to finish by nightfall. The lads can pack them in a cart without us in the morning.”

Rob surveyed the stack. It was doable, though their father would be annoyed if he found out that his sons had left before the work was truly completed. But then, with another look at Hugh’s face, Rob understood that he would much rather accept his father’s wrath than Hugh’s.

“Fine, then let’s get to work.”

They worked in silence for the first couple of hours. Rob kept up a steady pace of chops, carefully pacing himself to last for the rest of the day. Hugh, on the other hand, was throwing his ax around as if he was pretending to fight back some horrid enemy. It came as no surprise to Rob when Hugh’s grip on the ax slipped when he was midswing, forcing him to jump back with a flurry of curses so as not to lose a foot.

“I tell ye what,” Hugh said through gritted teeth as he picked his ax back up, “we better be thanked each and every time someone lights a fire this winter.”

“‘Tis a bit of an unlikely expectation.”

“Oh, are ye too good fer a bit of thanks?”

“Hugh, do ye want to just talk about it?”

“What?”

“Whatever happened between ye and Ellen earlier today. Oh, come on, this mood of yers couldna been caused by anything else.”

“Go to hell,” Hugh said, swinging the ax down once again.

But this time Hugh caught the very edge of the log and the ax slipped out and nearly came back to catch him in the knee. Hugh cursed, and Rob pinched himself, trying hard to keep from laughing, but it wasn’t enough. Though only one small chuckle escaped his lips, Hugh rounded on him with a glare so full of malice and hatred that it made Rob wince.

“Fine,” Rob said, throwing some split logs aside. “Don’t talk about it.”

“Ye must think ye have it all figured out. Married fer all of a few months, seen her fer only a trice of that time, and ye wanna try and give me advice on wedded bliss?”

“No, I was just hoping to get ye to quit acting like a scunner. I can barely handle my own wife, let alone try and help ye with yers.”

“Ye wouldna understand if I told ye,” Hugh said with an angry grunt as he finally split the log cleanly.

“There is a lot I dinna understand, but I canna even hope to do so if ye won’t give me a chance.”

Hugh kicked at the dirt of the forest floor, his face scrunched with contemplation. Rob just kept up with his work—lifting a log to the stump of the tree, raising his ax and letting it fall, throwing off the split remains. Rob went through a few logs before Hugh finally groaned and looked up at Rob, his green eyes bright with conviction.

“I made a promise to Ellen, a promise I thought I could keep. But, all of a sudden, the situation is changing, and I canna keep the promise to her without making a big mess of everything. I’d have to do things I canna imagine doing.”