Page 55 of Highland Prince of Darkness

Iain was being stubborn, and May knew that she wasn’t going to win against him in that kind of argument. He was in the kind of mind frame where nobody would be able to change his mind, not even his wife.

“I think that it would promote a good image if she were to go,” Bruce nodded. May flashed him a thankful smile as he stuck up for her.

“I will go with ye then,” Iain stood up as he spoke.

“Nae,” both Bruce and Alistair spoke up.

“She needs to do this on her own to show that she is the laird’s daughter even without an advantageous marriage. Also, ye’re injured, and riding that far will hurt ye more than help ye.”

Iain huffed at the responses that he was hearing, but May was determined to go. He shook his head and looked around for anyone that would give him support, but there wasn’t any.

“Fine, ye’ll go,” Iain said eventually. However, he wasn’t happy about it. “But there will be a lot of our men going with ye.”

“It will look bad to have so many guards going to the small villages, it will feel unnecessary and as though we fear our own people,” May countered.

“Well, they can still pose a danger to ye,” Iain agreed, “It’s nae as though they are completely safe out there.”

May rolled her eyes and shook her head, she had been granted the victory of going, she knew that she was pushing it to not have guards with her.

“All right,” May sighed, and let her shoulders sag. She wasn’t happy about it, but it was better than not going at all.

“Good, then that’s settled,” Bruce nodded as they started to move on to other matters. The councilmen were going to be arriving soon, but May liked having the time with only her family where she could talk about matters that shouldn’t be influenced by the men who acted like they ran the clan instead of her.

* * *

“Are ye sure about this?” Iain asked as he held onto the reins of her horse.

“Aye, it will be fine. I’ll be back by the end of the day, I promise,” May nodded. There were rows of guards waiting for her, as well as one of the men who headed the clan’s armies. “Do ye not think that this is a bit much?”

“Nay, there is nay such thing as too much when it comes to yer safety.”

May smiled at how protective he was being, she didn’t think that it was necessary, but she wasn’t about to argue with him – not when things had been going so well between them.

“I’ll see ye soon?” May smiled up at him as the men were preparing to leave already.

“Aye, I will see ye at the end of the day,” Iain nodded. He was being deliberate with his words so that there wasn’t any miscommunication between them. May just let him be like that so that he would feel as comfortable as possible in letting her go.

“I love ye,” she said, and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

“I love ye too,” Iain smiled down at her. She could see that he was incredibly reluctant about this, but he let her go, nonetheless.

* * *

Iain paced through the chambers and ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t help but worry about her when she was out there, it made him feel wrong to be inside of the castle while May was out on the road.

“I could have easily ridden with her,” Iain sighed as he turned to see Bruce had entered the room.

“Aye, I ken, but it’s better that she does something like this on her own,” Bruce tried to reason with him.

“Why? She’s going to be surrounded by so many men that she’s nay longer exactly doing it just on her own,” Iain fired back.

“Ye cannae ride on horseback yet, lad, I ken that ye think ye’ll be able to manage it, but ye really cannae do it,” Bruce said.

“I can, my shoulder feels fine and it doesnae hurt as it has done over the past few days.”

Iain was slightly lying about the condition of his shoulder but he didn’t care. He wanted to be by his wife’s side and not worrying for her at the castle.

“It’s supposed to be the other way around, I’m supposed to be the out there and she’s supposed to worry about me from our home. This isn’t right,” Iain shook his head.