Page 7 of The Iron Highlander
“G’night,” said Reuben.
Kate smiled and began closing the door. Just before it locked, he put his hand out, stopping it.
“Is there a problem?” Kate snapped.
“I get the impression that ye daenae really like me, do ye?”
“What gave that away? Now please, can we go to bed? It is very late and my sisters are waitin’ on me.”
Reuben smiled and Kate shut the door with a resounding thud. He smiled as he realized that she must have heard stories abouthim, and the way he had come out against them had made her despise him even more. Hudson stepped into the corridor and grabbed the shoulder of his best friend as he walked away from the room.
“Ye ken, I doubt she’d be any trouble at all. Ye just focus on doing yer thing, and she’ll be out of here in no time.”
Reuben turned to his friend with a sinister smile on his face. He recognized the irony he heard in Hudson’s voice, and he knew they were going to have some fun. If Kate was going to despise him, Reuben would do everything he could to change her mind about him. He would show her that he was not what she had heard or thought him to be.
If he was going to learn to be a better Laird, one as good as his father, this would be a good place to start.
Chapter 4
The morning airwas cold and it still tingled against her skin. She had tossed and turned in her bed all night, trying to get comfortable and she did not think she had really been successful. It had gone on so until at some point, she closed her eyes and opened them to the daylight.
She had always found it challenging to sleep in beds that were not hers ever since she was child. If ever there was a reason for her to not spend the night in her bed it would be a chore all through the night, and she would continue to wake up after every hour or so and force herself to go back to bed.
She already had that to deal with, and coupled with what she knew about the people in whose castle she had spent the night, under whose roof the strange bed had been, Kate had all but fought a battle without arms through the night.
She woke up sore but none of her sisters shared in her fate, because of course they could sleep through a storm that carriedthe house. Maybe Lily could wake up to complain about the cold, but she would still go back to bed and fall right back asleep. A part of Kate was terribly glad for that; that the sisters did not have to share her troubles with adapting to a new place to lay their heads. If only she could be so sure that this was indeed going to be safe for them.
None of her sisters had any complaints about the beds that Grear had seen to. They had washed up and descended to the dining hall for breakfast, with their spirits lifted by the sense of a new adventure in a castle they were supposed to dread.
She was at an impasse from the moment Willow had started talking about how better designed the castle was compared to theirs and started mouthing her intentions of exploring vividly. She wanted them to be careful because coming here had been the best of worst choices. A deal with a devil to escape one hell. But at the same time, Kate did not want her sisters to feel trapped; she did not want them to have memories of where they had left and for any reason find it kinder than where they were now, because that would mean that she had failed.
As she floated her spoon in her Scotch broth and fed herself tiny bites because she had a hundred things in her head that she could not stop thinking about, Kate could not help but ruminate about what her late parents would think of the decision she had made.
Would they understand that it was an impossible one for her? To choose between a predator who wanted to take even more fromher and her sisters and a family who probably have taken the most important thing from them.
Kate looked around the table as each of her sisters ate without haste, smiles appearing on their faces every now and then and she thought to herself that doing what she had to do to keep them away from harm would always be what her parents wanted, she just hoped that this was not the opposite of that. That the McDonald’s castle was not the den she thought would be a haven.
“Is something wrong, dear? Do ye not like yer food?”
The voice came towards her and forced her to jerk her head to the side in the direction of Grear McDonalds who was staring at her.
“What?” Katherine asked, unsure what the question was.
“Yer food, dear – cannae help but notice ye’re not so taken by it. Do ye not fancy it?”
“Oh, no. Aye, sorry. It’s fine, the food is all right.”
“Ye daenae have to pretend to like it, there’s a lot more ye can have. Ye can have whatever it is ye want, some bun maybe? Or maybe chicken?” The older woman asked.
Katherine shook her head, “That willnae be necessary, My Lady, I am fine with the food, I am just struggling a little with my appetite is all.”
“Aye sure, because all ye have to do is name what ye feel like. I meant it when I said that ye’re welcome here, and what once ye are my guest I do nae allow ye to ask as strangers,” the woman said.
Kate nodded. “I’m sure, My Lady.”
She was not bought. She could not allow herself to fall for whatever it was she was trying to do. It was all a ploy to get her defenses down, it would not happen so easily. Kathrine needed to keep her mind sharp and her eyes open. Her eyes widened and her heart seemed to skip a beat as he appeared. She froze in place for a moment with the spoon in her hand as he approached the table before she released it and granted him a curt nod.
“Good morning, Laird McDonald.”
