She giggled at her own words, and it was hard for Emily not to crack a smile.
“Thank ye, that’s very kind, but I can handle it. I daenae mind unpacking later.”
Skye almost seemed saddened by that, but she quickly changed tactics. She spun around and plopped down onto the corner of Emily’s bed. “That’s alright, I understand nae wanting to have a stranger poking about yer things. But even if ye daenae believe me just yet, ye have a companion in me.”
Emily wanted to pretend that she believed her, but it felt kinder to just not deny the accusation.
Skye offered her another softer smile when she didn’t answer right away.
“I ken that this might nae have been yer first choice, but we are deeply grateful to ye for coming here. I daenae even remember the last time I have seen me braither smile.”
There was something so mournful in her voice that Emily felt compelled to ask for more information. She had to bite down on her lip to keep from prying because she didn’t wish to come across as rude.
She had seen Kaden smile a few times now. Did that mean more than she had originally assumed?
“Ye… bear him nay ill will, do ye?”
“That’s… a strange question,” Emily answered before she could stop herself, her eyebrow raised in suspicion.
“I reckon that ye daenae ken to much about him; he doesnae like people to. Ever since he returned to us, Freya and I have been trying everything in our power to cheer him up, to make him remember that this is his home and that nothing like… the accident will ever happen to him again, but nothing we do seems to be good enough. I… I fear that he will never trust his freedom fully.” Skye’s chin dimpled as she swallowed back tears.
“What do ye mean?” Emily murmured.
Skye glanced at her. “I am sure that he will tell ye all about it when he is ready. It isnae something that he can hide, since ye are to be his wife and all…”
Emily nodded once, thinking that was the end of the conversation, but Skye continued.
“For fifteen years, he was held captive. That sort of imprisonment would change anyone, I imagine.”
“On what charges?!” Emily gasped in shock.
Skye shook her head. “Ye misunderstand me. It isnae charges that he was held on. He would never do something like that, and if he did, he would have never been foolish enough to be caught.He was but a boy when he was abducted, along with our faither. Only one of them returned. It’s been… an adjustment.”
Emily was at a loss for words.
What could anyone possibly say to something like that? There was so much that she didn’t know.
Her chest ached at the thought of Kaden’s younger self so afraid, turned into what he was now—the most feared laird in all of Scotland.
It made sense in a way.
“But I have said too much already. I didnae mean to burden ye, lass. I just wanted to express how happy I am to have ye here. Freya too, even if it will take her a little while longer to get used to ye.”
Emily rose when Skye did, out of reflex and manners. She felt dizzy with the implications, and she had yet to see Kaden.
They had a lot more to talk about than she had initially thought.
12
He never should have kissed her.
The truth of the matter was just that. He never should have crossed that line with her. Kissing her was… all that he could think about.
Kaden couldn’t stop remembering the way she had felt against him, her soft lips and the whimper that had left them. It haunted his dreams. The image of her was seared into the back of his eyelids when he stopped moving. She was there over and over again, and he needed a break from it all.
They had an arrangement. It wasn’t as if there was anything else between them at the time. At least, it wasn’t supposed to be. And he had a feeling that if he chose to cross that line again or pushed her too far, he might ruin everything.
Now she was here, and had likely already noted that he hadn’t come down to greet her like custom might have dictated. It was a business deal for them both; he didn’t need to pretend that he was in love with her. If anything, the distance would be better for them both to ensure that he remembered himself and his goals.
