Col’s face cracked. “I love ye, Rory. I cannae hug ye right now, but I would.”
“Aye, I love ye too,” said Rory awkwardly. Col gripped his hand tightly a moment.
Col broke the silence with a jest. “Then maybe ye’ll mind me a bit more from now on?”
“I doubt it,” said Rory with a grin. But Col fancied that he would, a bit.
He cleared his clogged throat and changed the subject. “I’m going to hire a tutor fer yer brother so he can prepare to go to university. I assume that’s nae a path ye want to follow?”
“Nae!” said Rory with visible horror.
“Dinnae think so. Even so, ye’d do best to share a few of his lessons. Ye’ll need a few more skills than ye have to be Laird. The rest I’ll teach ye. It’s past time ye started to learn the business of running the estate. The next time I visit the tenants, I’ll take ye.”
Rory nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Good, it’ll give ye more to think about than getting into mischief.” He paused and then went on. “There’s one more thing, Rory.”
His eldest son caught the seriousness of his tone and raised an eyebrow. The sullen resentment he usually regarded him with seemed to have evaporated.
“Callum. I’d take it kindly if ye’d cease calling him a Jessie. He’s different than ye. He’ll never be as tough as ye are, physically, it’s not in his nature or his build. But he has other strengths, and it’s time ye recognised them.”
Rory chewed his lip and nodded. “If he’ll stop tormenting me?”
“He’ll stop if ye do. Besides, I think the snake incident cured him of that. Has he done anything since?”
“Nae.”
“Will ye give me yer word, Rory?”
Rory straightened his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Aye, I will.”
“Thank ye, lad.” He clasped his shoulder carefully and squeezed gently. “Now I believe Aihan was preparing dinner, shall we go see what she’s cooking?”
“Athair?”
“Aye?” Col looked back over his shoulder, wincing slightly with the twist of his torso, feeling the stitches pull.
“Aihan’s a right one.”
Col smiled. “She is.”
“Is she going to stay?”
“I don’t know.”
“But ye’d like her to?”
“Aye, I would,” Col admitted.
Rory nodded and they went downstairs to the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Col slept for the better part of the next two days, only rising for meals and an hour or so of conversation. The events of the cattle rustling night had taken more of a toll on him than he realised, or wanted to admit. He wasn’t a young lad anymore. By contrast, the boys, even Rory, were up and about, a bit sore but not so poorly they were forced to lay abed like invalids.
The truth was, he suffered a slight fever from one of the wounds becoming infected, and Aihan clucked over him like a hen with one chick. Which he secretly rather liked. He shrugged off the fever, however, and the wound began to heal. But with time to lie abed he was able to think too, and he realised that the emotional toll was probably heavier than the physical one. He sank into a mild depression, reflecting on his shortcomings as a father since Cat’s death.
In amongst those gloomy thoughts, he fretted about Aihan and worried that he hadn’t received a reply from Merlow. It had been several weeks now since he sent the letter, and nothing. He hadn’t received anything from the British government either about the embassy trip. He wasn’t so surprised about that. It was a long shot that the letter would even be read by someone whocould handle his request, let alone be willing to do so. But the silence from Merlow worried him more. Was he alright? Had he not received his letter? What could keep him from replying?
