Page 17 of Bride Takes a Laird

“Nay, I should return home. You are married now and should follow your husband. I do not wish to be away from my lands.” He shimmied backward with wide eyes, his gaze somewhat alarmed.

“You are coming with me. My husband said we could have a visitation. Do you not want to see me settled before you return home? John will be with us and Linet.” Kendra softened her explanation because her father would get angry if she told him the real reason that she insisted he go with her. If he returned to their lands, it was probable that Lord Heatherington would seek to harm her father for accepting the bride price coins and receiving no bride. “We shall be together until Aston returns.”

“Very well, but as soon as I hear that your brother has returned, I shall make the journey home. ’Tis where I belong.”

Kendra nodded. “Thank you, Papa, for understanding, and for coming with me. It will make my leaving you so much easier to bear.”

Her father pressed his hands on hers and bobbed his head. Kendra guided him to his horse and was relieved that he understood and ceased being angry. John nodded as if he grasped her silent signal, a dip of her chin, for him to keep watch over her father.

Magnus had their belongings put on the horses and his comrade handed her father the reins of his horse. Her husband didn’t help her mount her horse but sat steadily on his mount awaiting her. Everyone took to their mounts and they waited for Magnus to direct them.

“Will the journey take long?”

“Long enough,” he said and led the procession through the castle’s gates.

Kendra wasn’t concerned for herself but for her father. She couldride all day and make no complaints even if she suffered. But her father hadn’t had much use for riding lately, especially with him ailing. Their guards kept her father inside the gates of their home ever since he’d gone missing. She rode next to her father and prayed they would reach Magnus’s lands before there were any mishaps.

Magnus led their group through the forest, hills, and brown fields, and rarely glanced back at her. Whenever they stopped to rest, he kept his interaction with her to a minimum. Being married, she realized, wouldn’t change her life at all. She would be left on her own with no one to account to, just as she had existed at her father’s manor. Kendra wasn’t too daunted by that and she wouldn’t be a distraction for her husband. He was the laird after all and the most important man in his clan. She understood what that meant and as much as she hoped to have his adoration and attention, she realized that was unlikely.

*

The long daysof riding took its toll not only on her, but her father, and Linet as well. John, Magnus, and Winston didn’t groan or walk like stiffened elders when they stopped to rest. During the nights, they slept in areas surrounded by pines and woodland. Magnus handed her a heavily woven tartan, which she assumed was his. He’d told her to use it for sleep. When she tried to hand it back in the morning, he shoved it back at her.

“Ye may keep it.”

He was kind and courteous and a man of little words. Kendra used the tartan to keep herself warm during the days, especially when the winds grew brisker and the air colder. It seemed Spring turned back to Winter the farther north they rode.

Throughout the journey, she kept quiet and rode along silently. Whenever Linet tried to speak to her, she waved her off. Kendra didn’t want her husband to overhear any conversation she’d have with herfriend. It seemed to her too that he wanted them to refrain from speaking. His focus and his guardsman’s were on the trail and their surroundings. Magnus was in protective mode and she wouldn’t be a distraction.

The closer they got to Cameron land, the more detached Magnus became. Kendra was saddened at the thought that her husband had little joy in his life. He wore a serious expression on his handsome face and was as staid as any laird, she supposed. One day, she vowed, she would make him happy and he wouldn’t be able to cease smiling.

Kendra realized by the time they reached the gates that she needed him to want and need her, just as much as she needed him. Whether he wanted her was another matter altogether. There was something about him that drew her empathy, the longing for his touch, and her need for his approval. How could she fulfill her vows and he, his, if he hardly interacted with her?

Chapter Seven

As the gatescame into view, Magnus’s first thought was that he could now get back to finding his brother’s murderer and seeking vengeance. He would settle Kendra and her father and then meet with his brothers and find out what they had learned, if anything, about Ned’s last actions and days. His brothers, Wyren and Jake, were tasked with asking questions of Ned’s closest comrades. They should have made some progress by now since it had been over a fortnight since he’d been gone.

Throughout the ride home, he’d thought he might have a run-in with the Chattans, but fortunately, they stayed on their lands. His wife kept to herself and spoke little to him. She was a demure lass and had such a grace about her. Magnus realized the more time he spent with her, the more he appreciated her reserved nature. He couldn’t help but also notice her beauty. She appealed to him with her fair hair, bonny blue eyes, and tempting body. Yet he couldn’t allow her to distract him. His duty was of the utmost importance and nothing would detract him from it, not even a wife.

With her father and his soldier along on the journey, he couldn’t do as he’d hoped and consummate their marriage. Did he want to now, with the vow of finding Ned’s murderer hanging over him? He’d been ordered by the king to make the marriage legitimate and—he nodded to himself—he would see to it and soon. Oncethat duty was fulfilled, he could attend to the pledge he’d made to his clan—finding Ned’s murderer.

At the gate, Craig, the gate watchman bellowed,Let Us Unite, bowed his head, and bade the others to open the gate. Magnus was gladdened to see they followed orders and kept the gates closed whilst he’d been away. He returned the chant they often used to greet each other or to call the Cameron soldiers to arms.

As soon as they reached the keep’s courtyard, Magnus dismounted. He helped Kendra from her horse and gave her a few moments to stand before he released her. Holding her lightened him and even though riding through the gates had tensed him, he felt comforted being close to her which was a strange sensation since he’d never sought reassurance from anyone.

“There is no room for your father in the main keep. He will need to stay elsewhere.” Magnus peered about his home, searching for Wyren or his closest comrades. He wanted reports as soon as possible and needed to find out what had happened while he was away.

Kendra took hold of his tunic sleeve and stopped him from moving away. “I don’t want to be separated from my father. Can we not stay in a cottage nearby?”

Magnus shook his head. “My wife stays with me.”

“But Papa will be confused. I will worry for him and cannot look out for him. He’ll wander off and get lost,” she explained in a tone that thickened with emotion.

“He will stay in a cottage near my grandda’s and has his attendant to look after him.” Instead of giving her the details, he motioned her forward. Magnus would command, need be, that his grandda would look after her father too. His grandda boasted about being bored since leaving the keep and the men would get on well together. At least, he surmised they would, given they were around the same age. He wondered briefly how old Kendra’s father had been when he’d sired her. Lord Graham had to be already aged then and appeared moreakin to her grandfather rather than her father.

“I cannot agree to that,” she said softly. “I must look after him. He is my responsibility.”

“And ye arenowmine. I am alsonowyour responsibility, Kendra. Best ye remember that. He will be safe enough. Ye worry too much.” Magnus peered at her hand, still clutching his garment, and decided to explain. “My grandda, Hugh, is aged and lives in a cottage at the far end of the island but his mind is sound and he is spry for his age. He is more than capable of looking after your da and would be honored to be given the task. There’s an empty cottage next to his that your father and his attendant can stay in. Worry not for him.”