Page 22 of The Laird's Wicked Game
Makenna’s green eyes snapped wide. “To Alec?”
“None other.”
“Ye sound disapproving,” Tara observed with a raised eyebrow.
Kylie snorted and held out the missive to her sister so she could read it for herself. Tara might think her judgmental, but she didn’t know what Liza had suffered over the years.
Meanwhile, Makenna grabbed the unfurled parchment and began to scan it.
“I can’t believe she’d be so reckless,” Kylie muttered, unable to contain herself a moment longer. She felt like a pot of hot milk about to froth. Suddenly, all her frustrations of late boiled up inside her.
“To wed a former pirate, ye mean?” Tara asked.
“Aye!”
That got Makenna’s attention. She glanced up from reading, her brow furrowing. “We knew they were lovers, Kylie,” she reminded her. “Surely, ye realized it was just a matter of time?”
“She had the chance to forge her own path in life,” Kylie shot back, pulse racing now. “Not to answer to any man except the clan-chief and the Bruce himself. But now she’s Alec Rankin’s wife, she risks sinking into his shadow. Before we know it, he’ll be ruling Moy, not her.”
Silence followed this outburst. Both Makenna and Tara were staring at her as if she’d just sprouted devil’s horns. Indeed, she didn’t usually have so much to say for herself. But she wouldn’t choke down her anger any longer. Her altercation with Rae Maclean had loosened something inside her, and this missive had just pushed her over the edge.
Eventually, Makenna cleared her throat. “I don’t think that will happen.”
“Won’t it?” Kylie pulled a face. “There is no chance Alec will stand back and let his wife make all the decisions. No man would.”
“They aren’tallcontrolling, ye know?” Tara replied. Her voice was still low, yet there was a glint in her smoke-colored eyes. “I hope ye aren’t confusing protectiveness with oppression … there’s quite a difference.”
Kylie’s pulse started to race. Of course, Tara would see it that way. She was wed to a man who respected her and treated her like a queen. But most marriages were like her own had been—or worse, for Liza had suffered terribly at Leod Maclean’s hands. “Iknowthe difference,” she growled back.
Meanwhile, Makenna’s brow had furrowed. “I know Errol treated ye poorly,” she replied, eyeing her sister warily now. “But that’s in the past now.”
“Aye,” Tara murmured. “Don’t let one bad man stain yer view of all others.”
Turning from her companions, Kylie stalked back to her window seat and snatched up her embroidery. Suddenly, she felt as if the two of them were ganging up on her. A blissfully wed woman, and a willful virgin. They hadn’t lived in her shoes. They didn’t understand.
9: DEAD AND GONE
“IT’S TOO BONNIE a day to stay cooped up indoors,” Kylie announced, pushing herself to her feet. “Let’s take our lessons outside today.”
Both her charges looked up from where they’d been scratching out greetings onto their boards. Surprise flickered across their young faces. In the three weeks since their father’s reprimand, they’d behaved themselves, buttheyweren’t the problem this morning.Shewas. The walls were closing in on her. She needed to get out.
“I shall collect a basket for our boards and charcoal.” Kylie went on briskly. “And we will stop by the kitchen and see if Cadha has any treats we can take with us.”
“Where are we going then?” Ailean asked, eyeing her warily.
“We can take the path south along the coast … I shall teach ye while we walk.”
Anticipation quickened inside her at these words. A brisk stroll, while they recited French drills, would help break the morning’s monotony, and the exercise would settle her restlessness. Ever since her exchange with Makenna and Tara, after receiving Liza’s letter, she’d felt on edge. The day following Liza’s letter, she’d written a reply, congratulating the couple. Her sister wouldn’t hear of her censure—and that was best.
In truth, she was embarrassed about her outburst. She’d taken care not to bring the subject up with Makenna or Tara again. Nonetheless, releasing the pent-up bitterness and resentment inside her—which hadn’t really been about Liza’s choices at all, but her own—had felt oddly liberating.
Rising to her feet, Kylie flashed her charges a smile. She then moved away from the table and collected a basket for their things. “Come on, lads … the day waits for no one.”
Downstairs, Kylie and the lads stopped by the kitchen, where Cadha gave them some shortbread wrapped up in a soft linen cloth, to take with them. That delighted Ailean and Lyle, and by the time they passed under the portcullis and down the causeway leading out of the castle, both boys were capering.
It was a bright late August day, the kind that made one believe that summer might last forever. All the same, there was a fresh edge to the breeze that warned it wouldn’t. They should make the most of the sunshine and warmth while they had it. A full turn of the moon had passed since Kylie’s arrival at Dounarwyse, and summer was indeed waning.
They turned south then, taking the path that led above the crescent-shaped beach—where a group of men were taking turns at wrestling on the sand. A shaggy dog bounced excitedly around the wrestlers, its bark echoing across the water.