Page 78 of The Highlander's Auctioned Bride
“For the most part,” she answered truthfully. “He is not an even-tempered man.”
Her father looked concerned suddenly. “Is he mistreating ye?”
“Nae, Faither. We are just both very stubborn. He is away with the clan a lot, and I felt I should return to see ye.”
Her father pinned her with a knowing stare.
“Ye have nae been married a month and ye have come to visit yer faither, Maisie. That doesnae sound as though things are as they should be.”
Maisie stood up, walked to the fire, and watched the flames dance before her eyes. There was silence behind her. Her father was good at waiting for other people to speak.
What would he say if I simply told him me marriage is over? I told me husband I might nae return, and he told me he ‘understood’.
She felt miserable at the prospect that James might be in his castle at that moment, utterly unconcerned at her absence. Perhaps he was already rejoicing at her departure. A cold wave of sadness flooded through her at the thought, and she did her best to hold back tears.
“How about a cup of tea and a bannock over a game of chess?” her father asked.
Maisie looked back at him laughing.
“Dae ye read me so easily, Faither?”
“Always,” he said happily.
“I should like that,” she replied softly.
As the evening drew to a close and the light outside died, Maisie spent a happy few hours with her father, alternating between chess and piquet.
Her father was in much higher spirits. Dora fussed about them, singing to herself and humming as she brought them tea and cake. Maisie invited her to stand and watch one of their chess games and give her father some pointers. He had never been particularly good at it.
When Dora helped him, it was the only game he won, and afterward, he seemed a little less scandalized that Maisie had asked a servant for assistance.
As night fell, they sat before the fire, her father with a whisky in hand and Maisie holding some tea. Her stomach was still not quite right and even the cake had been a little too much for her. The tea was soothing, though and she watched the gentle steam rise in tandem with the smoke from the fire.
“Will ye tell me what is troublin’ ye now?”
Maisie glanced at him, a little numb as she met his kind eyes.
She gave a heavy sigh. “I dinnae ken, Faither,” she admitted. “I dinnae think James is interested in havin’ a wife. He is focused on his clan, he doesnae want the distraction of a marriage.”
Her father did not speak for a long time. After a little while he hummed and put down his whisky. He leaned forward and looked at her with an expression she had not seen before.
“Neither was I when I was a young man,” he said. “When I met yer maither, it was an arrangement that suited my parents and her parents. We were not in love, and I had only just begun my business. I had nae interest in women or marriage or children, but I did what I had to do for me faither.”
Their eyes locked at the parallels within their lives, and her father stared into the flame moodily before continuing.
“I neglected her terribly the first year of our marriage, ne’er spending time with her, always away on business. Even when she was with child, I almost missed the birth.”
He shook his head at himself, looking guilty and unhappy.
“It took a great deal for me to turn away from me business and give ye the life ye and yer mother deserved. I realized after ye left how much I had fallen back into me old habits. I am sorry,Maisie. I neglected ye for many years, and ye were as patient and kind as ye could be. My own mistakes led ye to this marriage, and I am more sorry than I can say that it had to be yer fate.”
“Nae, Faither. James is a good man,” she said fervently.
“That’s as may be, but he reminds me of me.”
Maisie raised her eyebrows at him. “Ye are a laird of a castle I am unaware of, is that what ye are tellin’ me?” she asked trying to instill some humor into her voice.
“What I mean is, he is tied to his clan, just as I was tied to me work. It took me wife’s presence, and yer arrival, to remind me what life is about. Ye can work yerself into an early grave if ye wish, but it is the people in our lives that make them worth livin’. Yer mother taught me that, and ye will make James see it in time. If he is focused away from ye, bring his attention back to ye, Maisie.”
