Page 66 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
Callum blinked at her. “Mehandkerchief?” he asked. “And what would a laird do with one of those? Dab his brow when he’s swoonin’?”
Lydia snorted. “Fine, I shall use my sleeve, but it is very important to keep the glass clean on a telescope, or the view is not clear.”
Callum nodded but looked down as he felt a tug on his kilt. Tommy was standing next to his leg, staring up at him.
“You’re very tall,” the boy said. “Could you lift me up? I want to see over the side.”
“Tommy,” Lydia admonished. “You are too old to be lifted about by Callum like a small child.”
“But I want to see the lake!” Tommy protested and then squeaked in dismay as Callum grabbed the back of his coat and lifted him effortlessly onto his shoulder with one arm.
Tommy clapped his hands in delight. He was a very slight child and barely weighed anything at all.
“That’s me closest neighbor,” Callum said, pointing, enjoying being able to show off his lands. “That’s Laird McFarlon’s place, right across the hills there. Ye can see the tiny lights glistenin’.”
“It’s so far!” Tommy exclaimed in wonder.
“Can ye see the lake?”
“Yes, it looks like a shield!”
Callum smiled as Tommy’s little hand landed on his head, steadying him as he looked around in excitement.
“Girls?” Lydia called. Amy and Eilis shuffled toward her. They were getting tired, and the cold night air wasn’t helping. “Have a look in there if you can see.”
The two girls put their eyes to the telescope, taking it in turns, but Callum could tell they were too little to fully appreciate what Lydia was showing them.
“Is that the moon?” Amy asked.
“Not quite,” Lydia replied. “That is the North Star. Sailors use it to navigate across the ocean.”
“Uncle Callum, come and look,” Amy said, and a lump rose in Callum’s throat at her desire to include him.
“Come, Tommy, we are needed for stargazing,” he said, lowering the boy to the ground and going over to the telescope.
In his usual thoughtful way, Alexander had set the telescope up, so it was low enough for the children to see into it without standing on anything.
Callum, however, had to crouch on his knees to look through it. The girls yawned in unison, and Amy lay her head on Eilis’s shoulder as they both rested against the stone wall behind them. Callum looked through the lens at the bright distant speck far up in the blackness above. It looked like a tunnel ending in a circle of light, or a pinprick in a huge blanket of black cloth.
Callum rose, staring upward in amazement at the world that had been exposed to him.
Lydia stood with her hand on Tommy’s head as he hugged her skirts, watching Callum expectantly.
“Did you see it?” she asked him.
“I did. Will that star lead me to a faraway land?”
“Are you saying you’ve never used stars to navigate before? I do not believe it.”
Callum smirked. “I ken me way around these lands with me eyes closed, lass, I dinnae need any stars to tell me where to put me feet.”
Lydia sighed, looking out at the land beneath.
“You know, I thought London was beautiful in its way. It is a mess of buildings and mud and people, but I always liked living there.”
Callum held his breath. “And dae ye miss it?”
“Sometimes. I miss my family. But I don’t think I could return now. I have been spoiled with the Highland views. I wouldn’t wish to wake up without the hills to greet me.”
