Memories of the pair of them resting by the lake and Emily taking care of him flashed through her mind.
“Daenae fash, me Laird. I’ll take care of everything,” the woman muttered, placing the supplies on the table and then bending to start picking up the pieces of the thing he had broken.
“Cleaning up after me now, Shona?” Kaden teased.
They were on a first-name basis?
Emily stole another glance at this Shona, who blushed and looked away from Kaden a touch too quickly.
Did the two of them have history?
A sour, sinking feeling settled in her gut. If Kaden had a mistress here in the castle, he should have at least said something to her.It would have been the decent thing to do. What was the point in even attempting to seduce her when he was clearly involved with another woman?
Rage was building far too quickly in her chest, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her.
Shona bent and started picking up the shards of glass and porcelain, the pieces of whatever they may have been before, and Kaden leaned against the table, putting the ointment on his injured palm and setting about bandaging it. He looked far too comfortable and experienced in patching himself up. Why had he let her attend to him by the lake, then?
“And since when do ye call me ‘me Laird’ when we are alone?” he asked, but there was no hint of a playful smirk on his face like there was when he spoke to Emily. At least there was that.
Shona shrugged. “Seems more appropriate now?” She set the broken pieces onto the table. “I daenae think that can be mended, though.”
Kaden shrugged back. “Doesnae matter. It was in the way anyway.”
“Ye seem tense. Is it about something else, then?”
He shook his head. “Would it matter if it were?”
“I could help relieve some of the tension, if ye like?” Shona suggested.
As sultry as her words sounded to Emily’s ears, they seemed to have almost no effect on Kaden whatsoever. If anything, he sounded almost cold when he answered her.
“There’ll be nay need for anything like that now.”
“Ah, right, because ye are to be married now?” Shona asked, her gaze trained firmly on the floor.
It looked like she was scanning it for more broken pieces, but her question was anything but casual.
“That’s right. I am to be married.”
Emily knew that she ought to be relieved that this woman was no longer his mistress, but the jealousy gnawing at her wouldn’t settle. She wanted it to be gone, but it wouldn’t release, her knowing that this stunning woman had had Kaden already.
Her mind immediately ran away with her, wanting to know more about their history, how long ago it was, and how long it had gone on for. She didn’t want to have to live in the shadow of another woman who was still living in the damned castle.
Her hands fisted into the skirt of her dress tightly, and she bit down on her lip to keep from making an indignant sound.
Her first fiancé had been perfectly clear that she would never be pretty enough to be his only woman, that she could never, ever hope to satisfy a man like him. He had gone on at length, beating her down with comments that she would be a terrible wife, that even looking at her was difficult sometimes.
She knew that she was a handsome woman, and he only wanted her to feel bad or inferior. It had enraged him that she refused to be made less than. And he was a man that she hated.
ShewantedKaden to like her.
“I apologize, Kaden. I hadnae realized that it was like that.” Shona brushed her hands off on her skirt and moved to sit on the table beside him. At least she wasn’t trying to touch him. “I’ve ken ye for a long time. Since we were what, wee bairns?”
Kaden nodded once.
“Even before ye were taken, and even then I had never seen ye look at a lassie twice.” Shona bumped his shoulder with her own. “It’s nice to see ye besotted. So many rumors say that yer time away had robbed ye of all emotion, ye ken?”
“We had our fun once, hadnae we?” Kaden huffed a snort, but the moment passed quickly. “Sometimes I think that ye were the only one who paid me any real mind after I returned.” He sighed and nodded once. “But there hasnae been a lady like Emily.”
