Page 69 of The Cruel Highlander's Bride
“Why did ye nae tell me the news about the village?” she asked.
“Truthfully, I forgot with everythin’ else that’s been goin’ on.”
She nodded. “Well, I’m very glad to hear it, and I’m sure everyone here will be.”
At that moment, their first petitioner approached. A young boy, no older than five, walked up to them tentatively.
“What can we do for ye?” Ciara asked sweetly.
The poor boy looked dazzled by her. Magnus knew the feeling.
“I heard ye say ye are here to help…” the boy stammered.
His parents stood a few feet behind him and stared at Magnus and Ciara warily. It was at least a positive sign that they let him approach them at all.
“Aye, we are goin’ to try,” Ciara told him.
The young boy nodded somberly before continuing. “There’s a lass that I want to impress…”
Magnus could see Ciara trying to hold back a smile, but he knew that this was very serious business. He beckoned the boy closer.
“Ye really like this lass?” he asked, his tone just as somber.
The boy nodded again.
“I’ll tell ye what me maither once told me. There are three things ye need to remember.” Magnus ticked those things off on his fingers. “Food. Comfort. And listen.”
The boy’s brow was furrowed, and Magnus could see him mouthing the words repeatedly, as if trying to make them stick.
“I think we can help ye with two of those, but listenin’ is all on ye. Do yer parents ask ye to listen to them?” Magnus asked.
The boy nodded.
“Aye, good. Ye’ll have to do the same with yer lass. Do ye think ye can do that?”
At this point, they had a large audience watching this interaction with the Laird closely. The boy, though, was his most attentive listener. Magnus didn’t think he’d have any problems with number three.
“Aye, I can,” the boy swore.
“Good.” Magnus looked at Ciara again, and her amused smile was now sweeter and only for him.
“Ye said ye could help with the other two things, Me Laird,” the boy piped up.
Finally, Magnus let out a laugh. “Aye, I did say that. Come on over here, I think ye’re goin’ to like this, lad,” he said conspiratorially. “I have just the thing.”
26
“He is good with him,” one of the women commented, interrupting Ciara’s thoughts.
Magnus was leading the boy and his parents over to where Ewan stood with their horses. He kept a protective hand behind the lad’s back, not touching him, but ready, just in case.
“He is,” Ciara agreed.
She had already noticed the care and seriousness with which Magnus took their first petition, and it was making her stomach flutter. Children had never been something she’d seriously considered. As someone who never intended to get married, children just seemed like something she’d never have.
But she had to admit that watching Magnus with the young boy was giving her all sorts of ideas… ideas about a little boy or girl with dark hair and Magnus’s green eyes. It was clear that they would have the most doting father.
She stole another glance at the Laird and his first petitioner. Magnus was showing him the array of sweet treats they had brought. They had packed them with the thought that some dessert, which was undoubtedly an unusual treat here, would lift the villagers’ spirits. Who knew that they would also be used to encourage young love?
