Page 33 of Her Highland Prophecy
He turned to the small crowd that parted before him as he approached. He felt Diana hesitate and he turned to her.
“Should we also bring our packs inside?” she asked, nodding toward the stables where the groom had disappeared with the horse.
A hush covered the Castle yard as she spoke, her English accent plain for anyone to hear.
“A Sassenach!” he heard repeated in fifty different voices, the astonished whisper echoing around them. He grinned.
“Nay needmo bana-phrionnsa Sassenaich. My bonnie Sassenach Princess. Someone will bring it to a room for ye and mine to me chambers,” he said and saw a couple of people leave to do his bidding out of the corner of his eye.
Diana’s look showed that she clearly understood the Gaelic version of the name he had coined for her. She truly was his Sassenach Princess. She nodded to him in agreement.
“All right.”
“Now,” he continued, “Let’s go see me Faither.”
He guided her through a nearby door and into the familiar maze of stone corridors that made up the Castle. He made sure to use the most central pathways so that people would see that they had arrived.
Finally, they stood in front of the heavy oak door that he had always found extremely ominous during his childhood. He had often stood outside of that door with his cousins waiting for his Father to let them in to chastise them. He knocked and guided Diana before him when he heard his Faither’s deep voice answer from inside.
The room looked exactly like he remembered it. Every single item in the room was placed in its precise spot. The chairs in front of the desk which was utterly devoid of any item besides a piece of parchment and a quill that his father was currently using to write. Behind him, each book carefully arranged in some pattern that only his father recognized but that Gordain had always failed to understand.
His father stopped writing and placed his quill back in its stand the moment they entered the room. He placed the letter on the corner of the desk and then pushed his red hair out of his eyes, before standing to approach them.
“Faither,” Gordain said. The older man approached with a smile on his face and placed his hand on Gordain’s shoulder.
“Failte, me Son. Welcome.”
“It is guid to be back,” Gordain said simply. “I have some news.”
He turned and beckoned Diana, who had been lingering by the door to join him. She straightened her shoulders and approached them, and for the first time since he met her, he believed her to be a wealthy noblewoman. She carried herself in a completely different manner than when they were alone.
She curtsied to his father when she reached them and he took her hand, ignoring his father’s surprised look.
“Faither, this is Miss Diana Huntington, me betrothed.”
12
Gordain’s announcement seemed to echo in the room. His father was silent and Diana found herself fidgeting lightly under his piercing stare.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my Laird,” she said politely.
She would have had no doubt that the man was Gordain’s father even if she had not been told. They had the same red hair that fell around their face in a similar pattern. She could see Gordain in the older man’s face. The curve of his lip, his nose and brow…but mostly she could see him in those green eyes that seemed to pierce through her.
“I’m sorry. What did ye say?” he asked gruffly looking to his son as if Diana had not spoken.
“We are betrothed, Faither. We wish to be married within the month.”
“Ye do, aye. When did this happen?”
“We met while I was in Ballachulish,” Gordain said and turned to look at her. “I saved her from some highwaymen outside the village. We kent verra quickly after that.”
The Laird’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead as Gordain spoke.
“Is this why ye left the Castle? To avoid being wed to Mary McKinnon?”
“Ye ken verra well why I left the Castle,” Gordain retorted.
Diana looked between the two men as the tension suddenly ratcheted up a notch and thought that Gordain may have actually understated how strained the relationship with his father was. It was obvious to her even after a few minutes that the two of them did not see eye to eye.
