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He ignored him, ducking his arm.
“Graeme,” his brother said more loudly.
He stopped.
“What’s gotten into you?” Aidan asked.
“Nothing.” Even to him, it sounded like a lie.
“You could have stayed with your wife. The men would have been happy not to eat stale bread.”
He referred to the meal that awaited them during their training.
“Fiona is with her. She—”
“Needs you.”
“I hardly think—”
“I never imagined I would be in any position to lecture my older brother about women. But she is not just any woman, Graeme. She is your wife.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you don’t know her.”
He took a step toward Aidan, his hands balling into fists.
“She is scared. And you’ve done nothing—”
“Scared? Of what? Surely not of me?” If he’d given Gillian the impression . . .
“Nay, you fool. Of what will happen to her family now that she’s been sent here. And likely of her place in this clan. And—”
“Enough,” he stopped him. “How do you know all of this?”
“I spoke with her.”
Graeme had spoken with her too. Had spent the past three days with her. But she hadn’t mentioned any of that to him.
“All I’m saying is that she’s no Agnes.”
“Of course she’s not.” Gillian was so much more. Kind and curious. Passionate and—
“Go to her.”
Only then did he realize why he’d held himself back. He’d opened himself up to Catrina . . . to Emma, and both had left him. Nay. He’d sooner not chance it.
“I will see her this afternoon. Now”—he continued walking—“if you’ve finished advising me how to conduct my marriage, we’d best be on our way. Suddenly, I’m itching for a match with my younger, much less competent brother.”
He couldn’t see his face as Aidan walked behind him, but he’d never known his brother to shy away from a challenge.
Sure enough, when Aidan caught up with him, he narrowed his eyes and issued a challenge of his own. One Graeme was eager to accept.
Taking out his frustrations of the past few days was the exact thing he needed to get his mind off of her.
* * *
“What is that wonderful smell?” Gillian followed Graeme into a room that, once inside, she realized was the bakehouse.
