His Highland Prize by Celeste Barclay

Author:Celeste Barclay [Barclay, Celeste]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Highland
Published: 2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

~~~

Brighde emerged into the sunlight with Siùsan. They had been talking together ever since they came below stairs to break their fast, or rather, Brighde came to break her fast, and Siùsan tried not to turn an off shade of puce green. Now they were headed to the vegetable and herb garden to weed and pick any ripe vegetables.

“Callum was trying to convince me to stay abed today. The mon is going to drive me batty if he’s going to hover like a mother hen. As long as I dinna smell any food, eat only bannocks, and get a nap in the morn and after the nooning, I am right as rain.”

The women laughed together as they settled side by side to weed a patch of leeks.

“Callum canna stand them.” Siùsan nodded her head toward the shoots. “Apparently, he was once quite ill as a child. The healer at the time insisted that he eat them to the point where he’d be happy to never see another one.”

Brighde smiled as Siùsan chattered on about her husband, but she thought about what she had observed about Alex’s preferences. She felt a wave of discouragement flow through her when she could not think of anything he particularly liked, other than pickled herring, or disliked. Then she was discomfited to realize how much not knowing bothered her.

He maynae think I should go to the Orkneys or Shetlands, but I canna stay her forever. He maynae take the threat seriously, but I do. I dinna ken if ma father or de Soules are searching for me, but if they lost any of their money because I didna marry the beast or worse didna die, then they will search for me. They might vera well do it just out of vengeance for me thwarting their plans. I canna hide within the keep, or even the walls, forever. If I venture out, someone is bound to see me. If it werenae for ma hair, I might blend in. I can cover ma head, but I canna always be sure someone willnae say aught to the wrong person. Mayhap I should go to Iona. Mayhap I could convince Alex to take me there.

At the thought of leaving, Brighde felt her heart pinch. She caught herself just before she began to shake her head. The idea of leaving here, leaving Alex, was becoming harder and harder to accept. She could feel tears prickling behind her eyes.

“Ye didna hear a word I just said, did ye?”

Brighde looked blankly at Siùsan before coming back to the present. She looked sheepishly at Siùsan and shook her head.

“I ken where yer mind is. It seems to me that the men of this family have that effect on women. I dinna ken Alex as well as I do Magnus and Tavish, but if he’s aught like the other three, which I canna see how he wouldnae be since they’re four peas in a pod, ye have found yerself a good mon.”

“It does not matter.

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