Page 14 of A Highland Bride Disciplined (Scottish Daddies #2)

S carlett hadn’t realized how late it had gotten.

The fire in her chambers had burned low, casting amber shadows across the floor, and Elise was fussing again, her cheeks blotchy with the beginnings of a cry. Scarlett bounced her gently on her hip, walking in slow, soothing circles while humming under her breath.

Effie was supposed to have come twenty minutes ago.

“She’s late,” Scarlett muttered, glancing at the small clock above the hearth. She adjusted Elise’s blanket with one hand and jiggled her a bit with the other. “Where is she?”

Elise responded with a high-pitched whimper that pierced the quiet of the room.

Scarlett rubbed her back, murmuring nonsense as she walked toward the window. She was meant to be dining with Kian already, and she knew he would be angry.

Of all the times for Effie to be late, it had to be the night me husband decided to play the dutiful laird and summon me to dinner like a civilized man.

Elise hiccupped, and Scarlett sighed. “Aye, I feel the same.”

That was when the knock came.

Kian.

She turned just as the door creaked open, revealing Kian’s broad frame filling the threshold. His dark gaze swept the room once before settling on her.

And just like that, the air changed.

Kian didn’t walk into rooms so much as take possession of them.

His shoulders, broad beneath his dark tunic, carried a clear and taut tension, and the dim lamplight caught the sharp line of his jaw.

He looked like the kind of trouble that might taste delicious.

There was something cold in his expression and untouchable, and yet Scarlett could feel heat rising in her chest like she’d just been caught doing something she shouldn’t.

No man has a right to look that powerful… it’s just nae fair.

She stood straighter, adjusting the baby in her arms and willing her expression into something neutral.

“What is it?” she asked expectantly, as if she was meant to be there and not downstairs in the private dining hall with him.

“Ye’re late,” he said flatly, his eyes darting around assessing the room and immediately understanding before Scarlett explained.

“Effie hasnae come.”

Kian raised a brow, his mouth twitching ever so slightly at the corner. “So I noticed.”

Scarlett shifted Elise to her other hip and gestured vaguely toward the adjoining chamber. “I’ll be ready in just a minute. Here. Hold her.”

She moved before she could think better of it, depositing the baby gently into Kian’s arms with all the confidence of a woman who had been handling infants for longer than just under a week.

“Wait, what?” Kian froze, his arms automatically stretching out to receive the child like she was made of glass and might detonate at any moment. “Scarlett —”

“I’ll only be a minute,” she called over her shoulder, already moving into the small changing room beside her bedroom. “And mind her head.”

Kian stood stiff as a statue in the middle of the chamber, holding Elise in front of him like she might bite. Her tiny fingers flailed against his chest, one of them snagging the laces of his shirt.

He stared down at her, eyes wide.

“God above,” he muttered. “Ye’re a tiny demon, are ye nae?”

Scarlett had left the door slightly open, and paused at the sound of Kian’s voice. She leaned closer, half-dressed and halfway buttoning the back of her gown.

“I daenae ken why yer maither left ye here, lassie,” Kian was saying softly, his voice gruff but quiet. “But yer presence has turned everything inside out.”

There was a pause.

“Yer lady guardian is wild,” he continued, matter-of-factly. “Beautiful, aye. Fierce, too. But untamable. Drove me half mad in the short time we had before I left, and now… Christ above. Now, she’s got me holding ye like I was born for it. Like ye were born to us.”

Scarlett bit back a laugh. Her hand froze on the ribbon of her bodice.

Kian sighed again. “If she keeps lookin’ at me like she did last night, I may do somethin’ foolish.”

That was when Elise giggled.

Not a little coo or a curious squeak, but a real, hiccupping, belly-deep laugh.

Kian startled, nearly dropping her. “What in th —?”

The baby laughed harder.

Scarlett burst back into the room, her mouth agape. “Was that…?”

Kian turned to her, looking stunned. “I dinnae do anything!”

Elise was in fits now, wriggling in his arms and gurgling between giggles.

Scarlett stared. “She’s never laughed like that before.”

“What do ye mean, she’s never laughed?”

“Nay, I just mean, she’s laughing so hard.”

Kian shifted awkwardly, his cheeks coloring. “Well, she just… started while I was talkin’. Complaining, really.”

Scarlett stepped forward, eyes gleaming with curiosity. “What were ye sayin’ to her?”

Kian straightened, suddenly looking like a man who’d been caught mid-confession. “Nothin’ worth repeatin’.”

“Oh?” she pressed, lips curving. “That bad?”

He cleared his throat, shifting Elise to his other arm like it was the most natural thing in the world now. “She was just makin’ faces. That’s all.”

Scarlett raised a brow. “Right.”

He scowled. “What’re ye smirkin’ about?”

“She likes ye. That’s all.” She nodded toward Elise, who was still squirming in his arms, cheeks flushed and happy.

Kian looked down, then back at Scarlett.

He didn’t say anything.

Scarlett watched him, really watched him, and something tugged at her chest. The sight of him, hair tousled, holding a baby like he wasn’t quite sure what to do but trying anyway, was disarming.

She took a breath. “I’m almost ready. I just need to fix me hair.”

Kian nodded, his gaze never leaving Elise. “Take yer time.”

The door flew open without warning, connecting with the stone wall loudly.

Scarlett flinched, already halfway toward Kian and Elise with a soft laugh still playing at her lips. But the voice that followed wasn’t Tam or Morag or any other soul who might have had the sense to knock first.

It was Effie.

“Oh saints above, I dinnae think I was this late!” the maid cried. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry — wait! Wait, are ye both — och! Oh me! I’ve interrupted, have I nae?”

Kian shot Scarlett a stern look. He was still holding the baby awkwardly in the crook of one elbow.

Handle this. Was all but implied with that look.

Scarlett pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle.

Effie stood frozen in the doorway, arms full of blankets she’d likely grabbed in a frenzy of apology-preparing. “Oh, Lord in heaven, this is precious,” she whispered like she was witnessing a coronation or a unicorn birth. “I’ve right ruined it!”

Scarlett cleared her throat and moved to take Elise back from Kian, who looked more than a little relieved. “Effie,” she said smoothly, “why in God’s name are ye late?”

Effie blinked. “Would ye believe me if I said I was attacked by a goose?”

Kian’s brows lifted slowly. Scarlett turned to stare at her maid.

Effie coughed into her sleeve. “It might have been two geese.”

Kian’s lip twitched. Scarlett caught the faint tremble of it and immediately turned to glare at him, but it was too late. A rough bark of laughter escaped from him before he bit it back behind his knuckles.

“Well, at least someone’s amused,” Scarlett muttered, crossing her arms and raising a brow at the maid who had managed to turn a tender moment into something resembling a farce.

Effie’s shoulders sank. “I’m sorry, m’lady. I lost track o’ time. I really was comin’ back, just — well, then the milk soured, and the hearth smoked, and then Morag asked me to clean out the chamber pots —”

Kian choked.

Scarlett gave him another look, this one sharper. “Ye’re about five seconds from me sending ye out after the goose yerself.”

He raised both hands, palms out, still half-laughing under his breath. “I’ll keep me mouth shut.”

Effie, ever eager to avoid more scolding, moved quickly toward Elise, who was starting to fidget again. “I’ll take her now, aye? She’s prob’ly ready for a bit o’ milk and a nap.”

Scarlett passed the baby into her arms and adjusted Elise’s blanket. “Aye, and maybe try to keep her from overhearin’ any more of her faither’s complaints.”

“I wasnae complainin’,” Kian muttered, straightening his coat.

Scarlett turned to him. “Ye were mutterin’ to a bairn about me like I was a particularly inconvenient barn door.”

He sniffed. “I merely stated facts. She seemed to agree.”

“Her only reaction was to laugh at ye.”

“At ye , I think...”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes but didn’t argue. It was pointless, and Elise’s sleepy giggle still echoed in her ears like a little victory.

Effie rocked Elise gently and hummed. “Ye two make a good picture,” she said absently.

Scarlett’s eyes shot toward her. “That’ll be enough, Effie.”

Kian raised a brow, watching her closely.

Scarlett blinked at him.

He turned toward the doorway. “We’ll be late for dinner.”

Scarlett, startled, remembered she still hadn’t changed into anything finer than her loose house gown. She glanced down and winced. “Effie, bring her to the nursery and keep an eye. I’ll change.”

Effie nodded, already halfway out the door.

Kian lingered in the chamber, his dark eyes flicking over Scarlett like he was weighing something unsaid.

“What?” she asked, tugging her dressing robe closed with one hand.

He tilted his head. “I’ll wait in the hall. Daenae dawdle this time.”

“Oh, now ye’re givin’ orders again?”

His smirk returned. “Ye’re already late. Daenae make me come back in there.”

Scarlett snorted and disappeared into her changing room, but the warmth on her cheeks hadn’t left.

Outside, she could hear his boots tapping quietly against the stone floor. Waiting.

He really was a storm of contradictions. Harsh one minute, gentle the next. Making her laugh. Making her want to throw something at his stupid, smug face.

She hurried into a fresh gown and tied her hair back. Her mind was already racing ahead to what the dinner would hold.

If it was another one of his interrogations, she might stab him with a spoon.