Page 73 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
“She looks just like her maither,” Laird MacMungo remarked, a hint of pride in his voice.
“Ye must be the governess who found her. We have heard quite a lot about ye,” another councilman commented, his gaze fixed on Ava.
Ava nodded. “That is true.”
“Well, we have ye to thank for bringin’ her back home safe to us,” Blake Mason said.
“It is nothing.”
“They did say ye found her on the Scottish border,” another laird spoke up. “Ye look like a respectable Englishwoman. Why were ye at the border instead of in England, married like every other Englishwoman?”
Brodrick shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He could see the discomfort on Ava’s face. His grip tightened on his fork.
“Ye dinnae need to answer that.” He said to her, his voice low but clear. Ava gave him a grateful nod and almost immediately, the conversation changed and moved away from her.
“Child,” Laird MacMungo said, looking at Margaret. “Do ye remember where she found ye?”
“Aye. It might help us trace whoever took her in the first place,” Blake Mason pressed, turning to look at Margaret.
Margaret leaned closer to Ava, reached for the folds of her skirt, and suddenly buried her face in them.
Ava exchanged confused glances with Brodrick.
He didn’t need anyone to tell him that his daughter looked extremely terrified. Was it the sight of all the lairds at the table? Were the questions too much for her? Was it something else? Something he was yet to understand? Something only Margaret could explain to him?
Ava cleared her throat and looked up at the other lairds, who were still waiting for an answer.
“Why don’t we just let her enjoy the dinner and the cèilidh? We do not have to bother a little girl with questions like this, do we?”
“But it is important for us to ken—” Laird MacMungo started, and Brodrick decided he’d had it.
“Since dinner is over,” he cut him off, “why don’t we all gather in the Great Hall and dance? ‘Tis a celebration, after all.”
Heavy silence swept across the table, almost immediately followed by brief murmurs.
“Now,” Brodrick added, doing his possible best to hide the impatience in his voice.
The murmurs grew louder, and soon all the guests rose from their chairs and, almost in a single file, made their way to the Great Hall, where the music and more chatter could be heard.
Ava threw a grateful glance at Brodrick, who only gave her a sharp nod in return. He rose as well and headed to the Great Hall, his thoughts drifting to the brief dance lesson he had given Ava the previous day. He wondered for a moment if she could hold her own today.
Well, they were about to find out.
CHAPTER22
Brodrick and Avaswayed to the music, their bodies moving in sync with one another. It felt pleasant, normal, almost ordinary. As if they had done this before. As if they had done it a million times.
“I suppose the dance did help ye, after all,” Brodrick muttered, ignoring the array of people surrounding them as they moved across the dance floor. His focus was on Ava and Ava alone.
“I am certain I would have learned one way or another if you didn’t teach me,” she fired back, her voice just as low.
“Nay one would have taught ye better than a laird, though.”
“That is debatable… My Laird.”
Brodrick’s grip tightened on her waist as they twirled around, ignoring the world, the people, all the faces around them.
“Nay, it isnae. ‘Tis just facts.”
