Page 37 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
She gave him an arched look. “Is that what you thought? Well, my father never bought me anything he was not forced to buy. He didn’t like spending money on anyone but himself. I do not know how much this dress cost, but I am very grateful. I shall treasure it.”
Then she turned back to her plate, pulling bread, eggs, and pieces of ham onto it and beginning to slice them up into perfect little squares with her knife.
Callum watched her, surprised by the sincerity in her words.
He had asked Kristen to make the dresses out of necessity, never imagining Lydia would be so touched by their appearance.
I should buy her some more. How many dresses does a woman need… fifty? One hundred?
“How is your shoulder?” Lydia asked suddenly.
“Dinnae trouble yerself with that,” he growled. “It’s healin’.”
She fell silent as the girls stared up at them both, exchanging a look between them that Callum couldn’t read.
Since he had arrived at the castle, he had noticed that the twins could communicate without speech, often knowing what the other was thinking or feeling without any effort.
His chest tightened. It had once been the same with Angus—they could practically read one another’s minds on the battlefield. If there were ever a crisis, Callum would know instinctively what was needed before Angus even asked.
“So,” Lydia said, a little too brightly. “What are you two girls doing today?”
“We are going to take Raven around the castle and show him everythin’ he needs to ken, so he doesnae get lost.”
“Well, that sounds like a very good idea,” Lydia said, tucking into her toast. “You know, my brother would have loved a cat. He was always bringing in stray creatures from the gardens.”
“Like what?” Amy asked.
“Oh, lots of things. Once, he brought in a toad.”
“A toad!”
“We have those by the lake,” Eilis said. “Ye can hear them callin’ to each other in the night.”
“And minnows. There’s a big fish in the lake, big enough to eat a man!” Amy said confidently.
“And where did ye hear nonsense like that?” Callum asked her.
Amy recoiled a little, but Lydia was nodding her head knowingly, her green eyes spearing him across the table.
“Do not doubt it. Children see things we miss all the time.”
The two girls were grinning now, and Callum realized, belatedly, that Lydia was trying to put them at ease.
In fact, they seemed more relaxed in her presence than they had since he’d arrived.
He tamped down his instinct to contradict Amy’s statement. He knew perfectly well there was nothing in the lake except trout and minnows.
“Well then,” he said, pointing his knife at Amy. “When did ye see this great fish?”
“We went down with faither, and it leaped out of the water! He told me it was a pike and was big enough to swallow me whole.”
Callum’s lips twitched as a small smile broke over his face.
“Well then,” Lydia said, whispering to the girls behind her hand as if Callum couldn’t hear her. “You must make sure you never go to the lakeside alone in case it jumps out of the water and gobbles you up.”
The girls let out peals of laughter at that as they continued chatting merrily with Lydia about the size of the fish and how many teeth it had.
It was some minutes later when Callum looked down at his plate to find that it was clear and he had finished eating a while before.
