“So, ye just daenae care for her, then? Is it some girlish rivalry? Or do ye have something of substance to share with me?” Kaden asked with a soft sigh.
Freya cut him a dirty look. “Of course, I have a good reason! If she were suitable, daenae ye think that Maither and I would have been pushing ye toward her? She’s of the right age, and ye are well overdue for a wife!”
The urge to roll his eyes and turn back to his whiskey rose. But he couldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing she had irritated him.
“She’s got two broken engagements to boot, as if that werenae enough.” Freya sighed and shook her head. “There are rumors of how insufferable she is to men. I daenae ken why she wouldnae wish to marry for the good of her clan, but she has the nerve to come here, gallivanting around like she has nay duty, nay obligation!”
Kaden turned his attention momentarily back to the lass. He couldn’t help but note that she simply seemed to be having fun.
“I daenae ken if ye ken, Freya, but I daenae have the best reputation either,” he spoke mostly into the rim of his glass. “And I have told ye and Maither a dozen times that I have nay interest in finding a wife,” he added in what he hoped was a stern tone.
But Freya didn’t seem bothered by his words.
He sighed again. “Ye ken that ye are one of the only lassies in the whole room that can even stomach to speak to me, much less look at me.”
It was a rare moment of vulnerability, and he spoke quietly when he did so.
“Then how do ye suppose ye are going to produce the heirs that ye claim to wish for?” Freya challenged with a smirk, her eyebrow arching.
He wasn’t about to deny that the prospect of having a conversation with the tall woman was appealing, if nothing for the chance to know what could make her laugh that loudly, or what could fill her with so much joy. But it was an impossible thing to even think of.
“Perhaps ye might consider making an effort to appear less frightening, then? Or do ye suppose that sitting here, brooding and glaring at everyone like they might cause ye some heinous grievance at every possible moment,helpswith yer image?” Freya leaned closer, grabbing his whiskey glass from his hands and downing it with a contented hum. “Ye need the companionship, Braither. I ken that ye are used to being on yer own, and the Lord kens that ye willnae let me, Maither, nor Skye in, but this is nay way to live.”
She heaved a dreamy sigh as she turned her attention back to the dance floor.
Kaden could see in her eyes how badly she wished to be whisked to the dance floor, how badly she wanted to have somebody twirling her around.
There was something that he would have called romantic about the way she was imagining herself out there. But, personally, he couldn’t imagine anything more nauseating to constantly worry about, to have to spend all of his time focusing on. As if he didn’t have enough to worry himself with.
No, that was not a person he could afford to be any longer. If he were to get married, he would have to find a woman who didn’t want anything from him other than the title of Lady and who would agree to give him heirs. Just a wife, no emotions.
Maybe, just maybe, that might be something that would appeal to the lass he had been watching. There had to be a reason she was rejecting all those men.
Freya followed his gaze. “Maither said that the council was going to find ye a bride within a month if ye daenae find one today.” She nodded once more toward the tall lass.
Kaden tried to ignore the resentment that stirred within him at learning that people were meeting and speaking about him behind his back.
“Ye need a wife, and Emily Reid cannae be it.”
Well, Sister, I think Emily Reid is exactly what I need.
3
“If I take one more spin around this dance floor, I fear that me feet might very well fall off!” Emily giggled as the song that she had been dancing to came to an end.
“The more times I twirl ye around the dance floor, the less either one of us has to focus on the number of eyes that keep leering at us like flies on hogs,” Magnus replied, plucking glasses of wine off the nearest table and extending one toward her, which she happily accepted.
She took a large sip and relished the bright fruity flavors on her tongue as she glanced around and noted that he was correct.
“I suppose that ye have a point.” She nodded. “It isnae every day that ye see a woman dancing with the man she refused to marry.”
She was sure that all those eyes were trained on them because of that very reason. She had been asked no less than a dozen times this evening alone how their engagement had been broken, and now she was dancing with the man in question.
Magnus’s smile widened as he regarded her happily. “Ye left so quickly that night, I didnae even have a chance to thank ye.”
Emily shook her head and held her wine glass up to her lips in a gesture for him to stop speaking.
“None of that now. It isnae the time or the place.” She glanced around once more.
