Chapter Seven
That evening, Kendrick appeared to walk Alyssa home, obviously frustrated by the entire day. “I want you to not leave the village without a guard from now on,” he said as they walked toward their cottage. “I’m not trying to control you, but I do need you to be safe. Walking to other houses in the village is fine. Even going to the keep is fine, but do not leave the village without me or a man I appoint to take care of you.”
“What about the woods?” she asked. There was a wooded area on the other side of town from the loch. “I think the woods would be beautiful to walk in.”
“I’m sorry, lass. I have to say no. I don’t know what type of man you’ll run into. There are always allies as well as enemies coming to our land so they can get Grandfather to heal someone. I canna risk you that way.”
Alyssa frowned. “I feel like I’m being kept in a cage. I went everywhere on my own in New York. Heather, Holli, and I even went to the city once to see a play.”
“It is more dangerous here.”
“You haven’t been on the streets in New York!” She told him, trying to think of a compromise. “I could carry a bow and arrow.”
“Nay, lass. You will not be safe enough.” Kendrick looked like he hated having to tell her she couldn’t go anywhere, and she could see he was willing to talk about the issue, but he wasn’t bending so far.
“What if I went out with other women, at least three of us, and I made sure I was within yelling distance of the village at all times?” Alyssa was grasping at straws. Being trapped in the village was not something she wanted.
“Nay. If you want to go on a walk, all you must do is let me know, and I will assign one of me men to guard you. It’s as simple as that.”
“I like to be alone,” Alyssa explained. “And I like to take long walks through nature, just looking at everything around me.”
“And I like having me wife alive!”
“What if I promise not to get killed?” She knew the idea was ridiculous, but she also knew she didn’t want a guard.
“Me cousin thought ye were fetching. He said you’re the type of woman clan wars are fought over.” He opened the door to their cottage. “I canna risk ye, lass. Ye are mine now.”
“But what if I want to walk alone?”
“Me guard will follow ten feet behind ye. Does that work for ye?”
“It’s like being quarantined for Covid all over again! Of course, then it was six feet, now I get ten.” Alyssa sat down at the table despondently. “Are you going to set up a guard for me every day? Because I want to walk around and explore.”
“I dinna like the idea of a man being kept from training, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.”
Alyssa sighed dramatically. “How do you know the guard won’t hurt me?”
He stared at her for a moment. “Yer right. You’ll have to only walk with me.”
And Alyssa knew she could never follow his orders. She couldn’t be always caged. “All right.”
“Ye’ll do as I say?” he asked, watching her carefully.
She shrugged, staring at the floor in front of her. “I made oat cakes this morning, but I don’t know how to make anything else yet. I suppose that will have to do for supper.”
“Dinna ye say ye can cook?”
“Sure, I can. With a proper stove, oven, microwave, and all the other things I had with me in the twenty-first century. I know how to make oat cakes and oatmeal over that fire.”
“A man canna live on oats alone! Dinna ye go to yer cooking lesson this morning?”
“I did, but Bonnie’s baby was sick. So, I didn’t get my lesson. I’ve only learned to cook those two things.”
He groaned. “Ye will keep trying ta learn?”
“Sure.” Alyssa didn’t have a lot to say to him, because she now knew she could never stay with him. He was unreasonable. The more they spent time together, the harder it would be to leave him. Though where she’d go, she had no idea.
“Well, then, I will try one of yer oat cakes, and we will go to beg me mother to cook for us.” Kendrick reached for an oat cake and took a big bite of it. “Is this from your first-time making oat cakes?”
