Page 6 of When a Highlander Vows (Enemies to Lovers #1)

6

C aitlin was taken aback by such abruptness. It was not often she ate a meal with so many people at once, and she felt her hands shake a little at being so addressed.

Swallowing, she glanced at Lottie quickly before she said, “I was asked to come.” It seemed a feeble sort of excuse then.

Briefly, she wondered if the young healer was to be betrothed to the laird and thus found the arrival of a new young woman irritating.

She will have nothing to worry about from me. And she is welcome to the man. Handsome he may be, but uncouth also.

Lottie, thankfully, jumped in to explain. “Dear Miss MacLennan has recently lost her brother, Seamus, on the high seas, Paige. Since Lucas was such a good friend to Seamus, we both thought it appropriate that Caitlin should come and live with us as there is nay other family to take her in.”

Nay other family to take me in. The words echoed sadly in Caitlin’s mind.

Paige looked surprised, and her cheeks colored a bit, and Lottie looked pleased. She gave Caitlin a warm smile, and Caitlin could feel her nerves diminishing a bit. She nodded at Paige and continued to eat, hoping no one else would ask her anything.

“And how long will ye stay?” Paige asked, her clear voice ringing through the other conversations so that everyone went silent again.

This time, Caitlin really did not know what to say, but she looked Paige straight in the eye.

“I am nae certain, although I think me brother had thought I might come to stay for as long as was necessary. It was a surprise to me as much as it seems to be to ye that I have been asked to come here.”

She looked down at her plate again, grabbing her glass of wine and bringing it to her lips. After she took a sip, she calmed a little while the laird spoke.

“Aye, she will be stayin’ for the foreseeable future, Paige. So, ye will see her around the Castle,” the laird said firmly.

Caitlin looked up and at him, but he was watching Paige with frustration.

Paige looked appropriately chastened while Archie said, “Tell us, Caitlin, will ye miss the village? It seems a lovely place every time we go there.”

Even though her heart hurt for the home she had lost, Caitlin was grateful for the distraction.

“Aye, it is a wonderful place. Me parents loved it there, and we never traveled anywhere else before they died. It was Seamus, then, who enjoyed his travels once he became a traveling merchant. He would come home speaking of his adventures, although I pestered him many times to tell me more. But he said they wouldnae be right for a woman’s ears.” She shook her head, remembering how frustrated she would get when he’d say that.

“But I am nae a woman. I am yer sister!” she’d complain, and he’d laugh and laugh and tell her that maybe one day, she could hear about them.

Now I willnae get that chance.

Caitlin was saved from another wave of grief by a soft touch on her arm. “I am certain ye will get to visit as much as ye like,” Sarah said. “Perhaps ye have friends who would like to visit ye here as well.”

“Och, perhaps,” Caitlin said in agreement, not looking the laird’s way.

Considering their first impressions of one another, Caitlin wasn’t sure how the laird would be treating her now that she was under his roof. Her grip on her wine glass grew tighter, and she took another sip, hoping it would calm her. Everything in her life had now changed, and she had no idea how to put her next foot forward.

“Miss Caitlin, do ye like flowers?” Colin asked suddenly, and Caitlin turned to face the eager young child who had just slid into his mother’s lap.

“Aye, Lad, I like flowers very much. Especially roses.”

She turned when she heard the laird clear his throat, and when their eyes met, his widened as if surprised she’d looked his way.

“Why do ye ask?” she asked the boy.

“Well, because young Colin enjoys coming to see me healin’ garden,” Paige said, smiling at Colin before her smile froze when she looked at Caitlin. “I grow flowers as well, for baths and remedies but also because I love them.”

“I go there all the time, Miss Caitlin, and Paige lets me pick as many flowers as I like to bring to Maither.” Colin’s eyes were wide as he told his tale, and Caitlin’s heart warmed.

“How sweet. I ken me maither would have loved to receive flowers from her son,” Caitlin said.

“Or a grandmaither,” Lottie said with a smirk.

“Quite right, Caitlin,” Sarah said. “I love the flowers I get, dae I nae, Colin?”

“Aye, she always makes a big fash about them, Caitlin.”

Sarah patted his hand. “Ye must say ‘Miss’, Colin.”

“Och, nay, daenae trouble yerself. Colin,” she said, leaning forward, and now she could see that Sarah was pregnant, “Ye may call me Caitlin, if ye will let me call ye Colin. We are to be friends, I think, if we are to live in the same place.”

Colin gave her a big grin and said, “I will bring ye flowers tomorrow, Caitlin.”

She chuckled. “Ye certainly ken how to charm a lass. And at such a young age too.”

“From his faither, nay doubt,” Archie said in a mock serious tone, while Sarah rolled her eyes.

Lottie laughed, and Paige smiled, but Caitlin could tell the young woman still looked uncomfortable. The laird was busy looking down at his plate, not seeming to wish to say much or pay anyone much mind.

Caitlin, however, felt a little bit more welcomed now that she had met at least a few kind people. Perhaps the castle would not be so strange after all, and Sarah could help her get settled in her new place.

They finished eating, speaking of goings on around the clan while Caitlin listened and occasionally winked at Colin who kept making silly faces at her. The laird still did not say very much unless spoken to, and she wondered if the attack that had come upon them unawares had soured his mood.

Or perhaps he is disappointed that I am the one who he had vowed to assist. A woman who will nae be of any use and will only be stuck up in her chamber reading all day, unable to walk around the castle without aid.

Caitlin straightened and pushed her shoulders back. Even if that was the case, she would rather die than let him see her weakness.

Handsome or nae, laird or nae, he willnae make me feel as though I am nothin’. I can promise that right now.

Lucas wanted nothing more than to go to bed. But it was still early, and he had a map he wanted to consult in his study before he retired for the night. His desire to leave the hall had more to do with his need to be alone rather than fatigue.

His mood worsened as the dinner went on, but every so often, he would glance at Caitlin, and he was glad to see her starting to unfurl a bit. She was nervous, and he had no doubt as to why. But Sarah and Archie were kind at least, and she knew that his grandmother would get along well with Caitlin. All would be well once she began to feel comfortable living in the castle. He just had to figure out how to stop thinking about how soft and lovely she was. How beautiful. How light seemed to shine right out of her eyes every time she looked at him.

“Lucas,” his nan said, leaning close to whisper to him. “Ye dae realize that we have a guest, and that ye are the laird. That ye should think ye may want to work toward makin’ the lass feel comfortable and at home. It was ye who wanted her to come and stay with us, anyway. All that vow nonsense.”

“Nan, me? It was me who wanted her to come and stay?” Lucas said, his voice straining as he tried to keep it a whisper.

Archie was telling a story about something happening in the clan, and Caitlin seemed fully engrossed.

“I thought ye wanted a companion,” he continued, whispering gruffly. “That she is to be yer friend, and I am merely a protector of sorts. Why dae I need to dae anythin’ to make her feel comfortable? She doesnae care a whit for me, I can assure ye.” He took a breath. “Ye should have seen how she fought me at first when I asked her to come here. Imagine it; a woman who doesnae want to come and live in a castle and would rather stay in a cottage on top of a hill overlookin’ a meager village?”

His grandmother chuckled to herself. “Och, aye, I shall like her very much. A mind of her own, then. Good, good.” She hit him in the arm.

“Blast it, woman. What is it?’

“It doesnae matter what ye think her opinion is of ye. Ye are the Laird, and ye should make her feel welcomed after the death of her brother. She has just had a lot happen to her this day, and ye will be kind and understanding, just as I have taught ye to be.” She patted his hand patronizingly.

Lucas glowered at his grandmother, but he said nothing more.

Clearing his throat, he said finally, “I hope the food is to yer satisfaction, Lass.”

Quickly, Caitlin turned to him, surprised that he’d spoken. “Och, aye,” she said in a rush, looking down at her food, and he could see it was half untouched. “It is wonderful, thank ye. I am just overwhelmed with it all, I think, and I am forgetting to eat.”

Taking his question as a command, she cut into her meat and took another bite. He nodded, unsure what to say next, when his grandmother hit him in the elbow.

“I wonder if ye might like to wander about the Castle at some point,” he said quickly, just saying the next thing that had come into his mind.

Caitlin nodded slowly as she chewed. Once she swallowed, she said, “Aye, that would be nice, although I would need some assistance. The eyes, ye see.”

“Right,” he said, furious that his grandmother was throwing him into the fire, not allowing him any sort of preparation. If he’d had time to prepare, he would not have brought the conversation around to her poor eyesight yet again. “Well ,that could be arranged.”

“Of course it could!” his Nan said brightly, knocking his knee under the table so hard he winced. “And I think that Lucas will be the best guide. Who else to ken a castle best besides a laird?”

“I am certain yer right, although I ken the Laird has many pressures upon his time.” Caitlin drank her wine, and annoyingly, Lucas had to notice the way her plump pink lips pursed to drink from the edge of the glass.

Why in the blazes dae I need to notice that?

He was grateful to Caitlin, though, for thinking of him, and the fact that she seemed just as uncomfortable at the prospect of a tour with him as he was with her. He hoped that she was not getting the sense of his grandmother’s concerted efforts at matchmaking.

“Nonsense! He would be happy to play the proper host. In fact, why do we nae all go for a walk in the healing garden this evenin’? The moon is particularly lovely, and along with the torches, it will be light enough to see.”

Lucas closed his eyes, ready to scream. Would he never be allowed to retire to his study to be on his own? Would the day of troubles never end?

“Aye, that would be nice,” Sarah said, and the others agreed.

“Wonderful! Lucas, finish yer meal, and we shall all go together. Give Caitlin an idea of her new home.”

She squeezed his hand painfully hard, and it elicited a forced smile from him. “Aye. That would be nice.”