Page 9 of The Laird's Wicked Game
“How did meeting his sons go?”
“A little awkward.” Hades, that was an understatement. “It will take a while for my charges to warm to me … to trust me.” She paused then, swallowing a grimace. “Unfortunately, their father seems exasperated by them.”
Makenna’s brows raised. “Aye?”
Immediately, Kylie wished she hadn’t made such an admission. Her sister’s moss-green eyes were now bright with curiosity.
“He’s probably still on edge after breaking up that fight earlier,” she said, brushing lint off the kirtles now hanging from the wall.
“Aye, although there might be more to it than that,” Makenna replied. “He was widowed not too long ago, remember? Perhaps he still grieves.” She paused then, eyes narrowing slightly. “Ye two chatted a little on the way up from Craignure. Did he speak of his wife?”
Kylie stilled at this. She hadn’t considered that sorrow might be the reason for Maclean’s volatile temper. “No … and I wouldn’t expect him to.” In her experience, love matches were rare. Her parents were still blissfully content, even after nearly four decades together, but most unions amongst the high-born were contracts made to strengthen clan alliances and gain lands.
“I’m surprised he isn’t looking for another wife,” Makenna replied before giving a jaw-cracking yawn. “A man in his position needs one.”
Kylie cut her sister a sharp look. “We shouldn’t gossip about Maclean,” she said, her tone clipped now. “Such matters are his business, not ours.”
Makenna made a rude noise in the back of her throat. “Ye are tetchy this eve, sister … are ye sure ye want to remain at Dounarwyse?”
“Of course … I’m not going to let a grumpy laird and his rowdy sons cow me.” Kylie’s stomach clenched. Lord, for all her fighting talk, shewasintimidated. Avoiding her sister’s eye, she crossed to the bed then, throwing back the covers, and climbing in. The bed ropes creaked under her weight as she settled herself.
Makenna finished combing out her hair and climbed into bed too. She then lowered the cover over the lantern, plunging the chamber into darkness.
Silence fell between the sisters, and fatigue dragged at Kylie’s limbs. She let out a long, deep sigh. It had been an exhausting day.
“Did Maclean give ye a tour of the broch?” Makenna asked finally, wisely changing course.
“Aye … he showed me all three levels of the tower house,” Kylie answered, “and then we took a walk around the ramparts together.” A little of the tension in her chest unknotted. It was a relief to talk about the things thathadgone well today. “I also met Tara, the laird’s sister-by-marriage.”
Jack’s flame-haired wife, and their wee daughters, didn’t reside in the broch with the laird; instead, their quarters were in the largest of the guard towers.
“And did ye warm to her?”
“Very much so,” Kylie replied honestly. “She appeared friendly … and it will be good to have another woman my own age to spend time with when I’m not looking after the laird’s bairns.”
“So, the first lesson is tomorrow?”
“Aye.”
Makenna nudged her with an elbow. “Nervous?”
Kylie snorted, even as her chest tightened. Curse her, why had her sister turned the conversation back to uncomfortable matters? She’d never tutored anyone before, let alone two naughty lads. Until now, she hadn’t given the lessons much thought, but after meeting Ailean and Lyle, she dreaded teaching them. “Not at all.”
Makenna made an irritated sound in the back of her throat. “Ye don’t have to always appear so stoic, ye know? I saw yer face when ye watched the brawl downstairs. I won’t think any less of ye, if ye admit ye’re scared.”
“I’m not!”
Her sister huffed an exasperated sigh. “Christ’s bones, ye have such a tough shell.”
Heat rolled over Kylie. “And ye don’t?”
“We aren’t talking aboutme.”
Kylie pulled a face, knowing Makenna couldn’t see her in the darkness. “Maybe weshoulddiscuss yer situation, instead,” she replied, adopting the ‘elder sister’ voice she knew vexed Makenna. “I asked ye two days ago if Da had settled a wedding date for ye, but ye pretended not to hear me.”
Makenna muttered an oath under her breath. “I should have known ye’d bring that up again.”
“And?” Kylie pressed. “Has he?”