Page 16 of Stealing a Kilted Heart

Forks fer dried mea… how dae they even manage that?

Reluctantly, Fia grabbed the knife and the fork and immediately realized that she probably looked even less than refined because of the way she was gripping the utensils. Bane chuckled as she tried to adjust her grip, forcing her fingers to curl around the utensils elegantly. That only served to make her grip unsteady.

“Go on, then,” Bane encouraged her. “Eat.”

I’ve been usin’ a fork an’ a knife me whole life! I can dae this.

It was soon revealed to Fia that eating dried meat with a fork and a knife was, in fact, much more difficult than she could have ever anticipated. It was a tough cut, the fork and the knife slipping against the plate, and by the time she had managed to cut off a piece, she had all but worked up a sweat. Across from her, Bane watched with an amused smile on his face, but Fia knew for certain he wouldn’t be doing much better if he was the one trying to eat that way.

“I give up!” she declared, tossing the cutlery on the table with a weary sigh. “I give up! I cannae dae this anymore.”

“Will ye truly give up?” Bane asked, knowing well that Fia’s response would be negative. She simply didn’t have it in her to give up. No matter how much she complained and whined about a task being difficult, she always saw it through.

Pressing her lips into a firm line, she reached for the cutlery once more, sitting up a little straighter.

“An’ this is a… marriage proposal.”

Knox glared at Magnus from across his desk. The two of them were in his study, though it was already late and they should have both been resting. The letters that had come in that very day had remained unsorted due to more pressing matters to be dealt with. Now, though, with a cup of wine in his hand and the fire crackling in the fireplace, he had decided he could take a few moments to go through the most important documents before retiring for the night.

He hadn’t expected a marriage proposal in the pile of letters.

“A marriage proposal?” he asked. “Are ye serious?”

“Och aye,” said Magnus. “Well, a request fer a meetin’, at least. They are very interested in an alliance.”

“Everyone is,” said Knox with a sigh, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. The mere topic of marriage was enough to bring forth a pounding headache, even if he knew his council was eager for him to wed. They had made their desires explicitly known, pestering him day after day whenever they had no other important issues to discuss. Now that they all feared an attack was imminent, they had stopped mentioning it, with this offer, they would surely bring it up again.

If it was a particularly good offer, from a clan that could help them both financially and with their forces, the council would consider it very seriously, Knox knew.

“I’ve had enough o’ these noble lasses presented tae me like prized cattle by their families,” he said. He brought the cup to his lips and took a sip, then another, before finally making the decision to drain it fully. There was not enough wine in the world to help him deal with this. “An’ those lasses… all so concerned with… with appearances!”

“What else would they be concerned with?” Magnus asked, blinking at him in confusion. “That is what they are meant tae dae, is it nae? They’re meant tae find a good husband an’ secure a good alliance fer their clans. How else would they dae that if they were nae concerned with appearances?”

It was a valid question, but not one Knox wanted to consider. He didn’t care about appearances. All he cared about was forging a natural and personal connection with a woman, to find someone who would love him for who he was instead of going after his title and an alliance for another clan.

Of course, that was nothing but wishful thinking. Love had little to do with marriage, he had come to find out. Some lairds and ladies were lucky enough to fall in love after they were wedded, but for most, a marriage was only a matter of business and convenience.

Would he be one of the lucky ones, he wondered? Or would he be doomed to spend a lifetime with a woman he didn't love?

“I can almost hear ye thinkin’,” Magnus teased, tossing the letter into the pile of documents that would be inspected the following day. Knox was thankful for it; he didn’t want to have to make a decision about this in the middle of the night, when he was already not thinking straight. Most mornings, he was not as resistant to the idea of marriage. It was only at night, late, with a drink in his hand and no one around but Magnus to judge him, that he resented the very idea of it and wished that things were different.

Sometimes, the life o’ a peasant is simpler.

“Ye ken what I think about marriage,” Knox said.

“I ken,” said Magnus, running a hand through his hair to push the strands back. “An’ ye ken what I think about marriage.”

“Ye were lucky tae find a lass ye love an’ who loves ye,” Knox pointed out. He didn’t know if he had ever seen two people more in love than Magnus and Effie, and though he was happy that they had found each other, he doubted it was a common thing. Love didn’t often occur like that, not in real life. “I dinnae ken if I will be so lucky.”

“It’s late, Knox,” said Magnus, as he placed his cup on the table and stood. “Go tae sleep. We can discuss this on the morrow.”

His friend knew him better than anyone. Sleep sounded like a good idea; if nothing else, he would get to rest and maybe feel a little better about the entire situation the following morning.

“Alright,” he said, pushing himself off the chair and following Magnus out of the study. Just as he crossed the door, the image of Fia there, in this room, popped into his mind. He remembered the way she had choked on the whisky and then proceeded to laugh along with him. He remembered the warmth and sincerity of her gratitude, the way she seemed so effortlessly beautiful and kind.

That was the kind of woman he wanted—someone who was not pretending, someone who was not wearing a mask. But such women were hard to find.