Page 22 of Claimed By the Heartless Highlander
“I wasnae in trouble.” Lily pouted.
“Well, ye might be now. Ye ken they hate it when ye hide and vex them that way.” Jack shook his head. “And in any case, ye shouldnae be botherin’ yer faither’s guest. Ye ken better.”
Lily folded her arms, her small jaw set in a manner Ailis recognized all too well. “I wasnae botherin’ her!” She paused. “Well, she needs a fresh honey cake from the kitchens, but I wasnae botherin’ her! We’re friends!” She looked up at Ailis with a pleading expression.
Ailis smiled softly and stroked her soft dark hair. “Aye, that we are.”
Another knock at the door, and Duncan strode in, a dark expression on his face. “Jack, did ye…”
“Faither!” Lily bolted off the bed in a whirlwind of small limbs and darted across the room to pounce on the tall Laird. “Ye were gone forever!”
Duncan caught her easily, and Ailis watched in amazement as his face softened, the harsh lines disappearing in a matter of moments as he smiled at the child in his arms. “’Twas only a few days.”
“Ye’re never gone that long.” The youngster pouted and buried her face in her father’s neck, clearly sulking a bit.
“Mayhap, but that’s nay reason to be hidin’ and givin’ yer maids a fright. I can understand, and so do they, so ye’re forgiven this time, but ye’ll be in trouble if ye do it again.”
Lily made a sound that could have been a giggle, or a whine.
Duncan’s expression turned stern. “Look at me, Lily.”
The child looked up at him, and her expression turned woebegone. “I’m sorry, Faither, I just missed ye. ‘Tis nae the same without ye sayin’ good night to me.”
“Well, go with yer uncle and go to bed, and I’ll be there in a wee bit to hear how ye’ve been doin’ while I was gone, and I’ll tell ye good night, then.”
Lily nodded and held out her arms to her uncle obediently.
As Jack turned to leave the room, Lily smiled over his shoulder and waved. “Good night, Ailis!”
“Good night, Lily. I’ll see ye in the morn.”
The door clicked shut, and Duncan whirled around to face Ailis. All traces of amusement and softness were gone from his expression, and his tone was nearly the same as the one he’d used with the bandits when he asked her, “And what exactly did ye think ye were doin’ with me daughter?”
* * *
Duncan’s head and heart were both pounding. They always did when Lily took it upon herself to hide. He knew, logically, that she was only playing, or upset with him and showing her displeasure in the only way she knew how. That didn’t make it any easier.
And now… he’d sworn to himself that he’d not let Ailis near his daughter until she was less of a stranger to him. And yet not even a full night had passed, and already she’d made herself comfortable with Lily, to the point where his daughter had said, “We’re friends!”
Lily was a child, and she couldn’t know how dangerous or untrustworthy people could be.
He stalked closer to Ailis, heedless of the color rising to her cheeks and the slight fear in her eyes. “Well? Who gave ye permission to approach me daughter?”
At that, her eyes flashed with irritation, and her tongue loosened. “I didnae approach her! She came here to hide and happened to find me!”
He scowled, his ire fueled by her temper. “Ye’re nae to be around me daughter alone, or without tellin’ me or Jack that she’s with ye.”
That irritation became anger, and she glared hotly at him. “First of all, I said it afore, and I’ll say it again, since ye seem to be too hot-tempered to understand me words. I didnae approach her. She came to me. Second of all, the child’s fairly lonely. Would ye have rather I turned her away into the dark halls?”
“And third… how was I supposed to ken she was yer daughter, when I didnae even ken yehada daughter until she told me who her faither was? How was I supposed to ken ye’d not want me to watch over her, when ye never bothered to mention she existed?”
The words stung, and she wasn’t finished yet.
“And there’s another thing,LairdMuir. I ken ye never wrote back to me, but with all this farce of betrothal and arrangements and words between us, ye didnae think I might need to ken somethin’ as important as the fact that ye’ve evidently been wed afore and have a bairn ye’re raisin’? Did ye love yer first wife so much, and think so little of me, that ye didnae consider that’s somethin’ I ought to ken about, afore I came here?”
Duncan fought back the snarl bubbling up his throat. “That’s nae the issue here. And ye shouldnae talk of things ye dinnae understand.”
“Well, ‘tis hard to understand when the only person who does refuses to tell me aught, is it nae?” she spat, her eyes filled with anger and hurt.
