Page 45 of The Anguish of the Scottish Lairds
But Lennox stopped Sloan. “Nay, let them have it out. It’s time.”
Rut said in a calm, even tone, “She wasn’t refusing, but delaying, and since when does your son have to have her brotherask for him? Did you think that mayhap she was waiting for Sloan to come and ask her appropriately? Had that thought ever crossed your old, daft mind, Dermot?”
“That’s the way it used to be done, and you know it. There’s naught wrong with the old ways. The chieftains made the matches, based on what was best for the clans, just like yours and mine were made.”
“Mayhap I didn’t like it happening that way. I wished to choose my own husband. I don’t like someone telling me what to do.” She crossed her arms and swayed her skirts enough to hit Dermot across the legs, an intentional movement. Eva knew her mother’s ways well.
“You’ve always been like that, Rut MacVey. You gave your husband gray hairs because you speak your mind too much. Women should sit demurely by the fire and do their needlework.”
Rut turned to all the servants who stood by watching and shouted, “Get out. All of you. Now.” The scurrying nearly set Eva into gales of laughter.
Eva took two steps, but Rut pointed at her and said, “You do not move, daughter, because this man will apologize to you, or I’ll spit in his face before I put my fist in it. Sit demurely by the fire. The shite of all the birds on the isle should fall on your head on your way back, Dermot Rankin. How dare you come in here, insult me, insult my daughter after she’s barely recovered from the attack. Can’t you see the bruises on her face and neck, you old coot? The whole world isn’t about you.”
Eva jumped and Sloan stepped in front of her, his hand guiding her behind him.
“Sloan, step aside. I wish to see that lass for myself.”
“Da, her name is Eva, not ‘that lass.’” Then Sloan glared at Lennox and said, “We need to end this now.”
Lennox made his way toward his mother while Sloan moved toward his father. “Da, you need to apologize to Lady MacVey, and I’ll take you home. You’ll leave Eva out of this.”
But his father, as stubborn as he was, pushed Sloan aside so he could stare at Eva. His entire countenance changed, and he blushed. “Who did that to you, lass?” Then he looked at his son. “Did you know that happened? You need to settle the score for your betrothed, Sloan. Get your sharpest sword, and I’ll go with you. Who dared to touch your betrothed?”
“Da, stop! She’s not my betrothed.” His voice came out so loud that everyone stared at him. “Leave her be.”
Lennox said, “Mother, Dermot, and Sloan. In my solar now.”
Dermot turned to disagree with him, but Lennox said, “Don’t argue with me, old man. You’ve said enough to my mother and my sister.”
Dermot grumbled all the way over to the solar, casting an occasional glare at Rut MacVey. “My Ailis would never speak the way you do to a chieftain, Rut. And your son should respect his elders.”
Her mother, always quick with her tongue, said, “Your Ailis was one of the sweetest women I ever knew. You didn’t deserve her. And she wouldn’t have allowed you to do what you just did to my innocent daughter.”
Dermot hung his head. “Nay, I’ll not argue that one.”
Lennox stood outside and said to Eva, “I’d like you to sit in the back. I will not ask you to speak, lass.”
Eva nodded, doing her best to hold her tears as she found a chair behind the others. The entire clan would be talking about this on the morrow. All her fault. She glanced over at Sloan, seeing him much differently from how she’d ever seen him before.
They’d grown up together but sitting in the solar, looking at the two chieftains standing behind the desk while the two elderssat down, Lennox in his best green plaid and Sloan in his fine-looking purple plaid, they looked so mature, so adult.
They looked like chieftains. Both of them.
And Sloan was far more handsome than she remembered. His skin carried the bronze color from the sun, nearly the same shade as his hair that hit his collar just so. His chiseled jaw was locked right now, if she were to guess, because he was angry with his father. And when she thought of how he’d saved her from the brute in the stables, she nearly teared up.
“Da, you need to apologize to everyone here. You insulted Lennox’s mother and sister, yelled at Lady MacVey, and embarrassed Eva. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Dermot got up to face Eva and said, “I do owe you an apology, Eva. My son didn’t inform me of your attack. Who did it?”
Lennox said, “Dermot, we don’t know who the man was, or he wouldn’t have any skin on his back now, but your son stopped it and beat him silly before he got away.”
He turned toward the front. “Why did you let him get away, Sloan?”
Eva finally stood. “Because he had to catch me when I passed out, or I would have hit my head and been much worse.”
Lennox said, “I saw what Sloan did to the man, and I watched my sister nearly hit the ground, but your son saved her from much worse. I couldn’t reach her in time because the fool dragged her into the back of a stall in the stable. You should be proud of Sloan for knowing enough to follow him and stop his attack. He did what he could.”
Dermot looked at his son and reached for his hand, staring at the bruised and cut knuckles. “That’s how you got those wounds. I wondered. Why didn’t you tell me?”
