Page 54 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
As he watched Thistle devour the leaves, Evander wondered for the briefest of moments if he needed to start taking the creature on walks.
“She said that a good person,” Tommy replied, pulling him out of his thoughts, “is a person who is kind, gentle, and loving. He doesnae lie to anyone or steal. He only tells the truth all the time and helps his fellow men.”
“Hmm.” Evander nodded, absorbing his nephew’s words.
Helps his fellow men…
He watched the boy continue to feed the goat, his sense of wonder and curiosity about life still intact. Evander wanted to tell him that life did not always favor the good or the merciful. He had grown with this notion as well when he was a wee lad. Life favored the good and the good only. Whatever came your way, you would always overcome it as long as you never lose your humanity.
But he knew better. He knew far, far better than that.
“That is true, Uncle, is it nae?” Tommy asked, looking back at him, his eyes searching his uncle’s for some sort of confirmation.
Evander did not know what else to do, so he nodded and gave a slight smirk. “Yer maither is right, lad. ‘Tis quite beneficial to be a good person.”
He couldn’t bring himself to mention what he truly believed, which was the complete opposite. He couldn’t tell the boy that his father was the best man in the world. He was the epitome of kindness and bravery in the face of a gritty and gloomy world with only cruelty to offer on all fronts.
He could vividly remember the day he had received news of his brother’s death. Tommy had been quite young to understand the gravity of the situation, but Shona had been distraught. She had cried and cried for weeks on end and grew thin from refusing to eat—so lost had she been in her grief.
His brother’s death wasn’t caused by anything except his selfless act of laying himself down the line for the safety of his family—and his clan. Evander was a warrior, like his brother, and he knew better than to let himself get carried away with thoughts of having a perfect family life at the end of the day.
He still remembered what Shona had gone through, and Tommy, who should have remained utterly clueless, had known that something had happened. Something that had caused his mother to grow distant, to speak no more than five words a day. Something that had made her eyes sunken like a desolate part of the sea.
Evander, who had been his brother’s man-at-arms back then, had decided that he was never going to put a woman through what his brother had put Shona through.
His brother’s mistake, as a warrior, was deciding to settle down and have a family. And Evander had vowed to never repeat that same mistake.
He shuffled his feet, continuing to watch his nephew. Chances were that he would suffer the same fate as his brother. He would one day go to war and never return. If there was one thing he had learned from his brother, it was that it paid greatly to be a rake. He would never put a woman through the same agony by asking her to marry him.
His thoughts drifted like a crackling fire in the middle of a blizzard to Keira. He could not imagine her losing all her spiritand fierce determination in case of his death. He just could not picture it, no matter how hard he tried.
“Do ye want to see the flour mill?” he asked, when Tommy had finished feeding the last of the leaves to the goat.
Tommy rose to his feet, still curious as ever, and shook his head slowly. “Aye, Uncle.”
They turned away from the goat and walked back around the castle, Tommy skipping merrily beside Evander, who took calm, firm steps.
Thoughts of Keira filled his mind again, like a fire he couldn’t douse despite his efforts. She did mention that the former Laird had never claimed her before he died. Had she been married before? Was that her first time getting married? If it was, wouldn’t that mean she was still a virgin?
A woman like that still untouched felt like sacrilege, for some reason. He couldn’t imagine it, no matter how hard he tried.
“What is yer maither doing anyway? I havenae seen her since breakfast,” he asked, deciding to shove that thought out of his mind.
He would mull it over properly, but only later, and most definitely not now.
“She said that she wanted to see the work in the kitchen and that she had some people to talk to in the market. The blacksmith, for example.”
“The blacksmith? What does she want with the blacksmith?”
“To get her knife.”
“Her knife? What does yer maither need a knife for? Did something happen?”
“She didnae tell me. She only said we needed it.”
Evander let the thought of his sister-in-law buying a knife linger in his head for a moment longer than usual.
“Did ye see anything happen when ye were living in the village? Maybe ye saw anyone try to hurt yer maither?”
