Murray smiled. ’Twas almost as if they were family already. “I would be honored. Everyone calls me Murray, friends and enemies alike.”
“Murray.” Rebbie lifted his glass again.
“Rebbie,” he began again, though he felt awkward not calling the esteemed man a more formal name. “I thank you for bringing my daughter home and keeping her safe.”
“Well, I—”
“Nay. I ken you will deny it, being the good man that you are. But I’m certain my daughter felt much safer with you than the rest of those men.”
Rebbie shrugged. “In truth, I wasn’t the one guarding her. ’Twas Keegan MacKay who kept her safe during the entire journey. He is the best of men, highly honorable like his cousin, the chief. They were practically cut from the same cloth.”
Murray waved off his humility. Besides that, he didn’t want to hear any more about the detestable MacKays—men who couldn’t keep their word.
“’Haps you would like Keegan MacKay to join us,” Rebbie suggested. “He was the one Chief Dirk MacKay sent with a gift for you.”
“What gift?” Murray did remember a gift being mentioned earlier. So, this Dirk MacKay sought to mollify him for breaking the contract of his father.
“A fine stallion,” Rebbie said with enthusiasm.
“Aye? Very good.” If the earl thought the horse was fine, then indeed it must be. “I will look him over on the morrow. Please send Chief MacKay my thanks.”
Rebbie gave a sincere nod. “I will do that.”
“You were very generous to travel with the MacKays to bring my daughter home. I’m certain you have far more important things to do.”
Rebbie shrugged. “’Twas no trouble at all.”
“Are you related to the MacKays, then?” Murray had to figure out their connection.
“Chief Dirk MacKay has been a very good friend of mine for a decade. We attended university together and traveled on the continent.”
“Ah. I see. Well, the MacKay party was lucky to have you leading them in the absence of their chief. I’m certain they listenedto your decisions. If not, they were daft.”
Rebbie gave an enigmatic grin. “Well… I thank you for your confidence in me but Keegan—”
“How could I not have? You’re an experienced soldier, an earl, and a future marquess.” Murray near had heart palpitations at the thought that one day his daughter could be the wife of a marquess. And his grandson, one day a marquess, too. But first, he must convince Rebbinglen he needed Seona… or Talia… as his wife.
Murray gulped the last of his whisky. “One day soon, you will want fine sons—an heir—to follow in your exalted footsteps.”
Rebbie quirked a brow, his dark brown eyes taking on a displeased look.
“I have two beautiful, sweet daughters. You have met Seona and, on the morrow… or the day after, you will meet Talia. She is eighteen summers, and just as lovely as Seona. I am providing them both with generous dowries, including land… not that you have need of it, of course, but ’tis always good to have a few more acres.”
Rebbie was already shaking his head and sitting back farther in his chair. “I thank you, Murray, but I’m not looking for a wife at present,” he said firmly.
Too firmly.
Damn. Murray shoved to his feet and paced, then poured more whisky into their empty glasses. How could he convince the stubborn earl? What did he want? What did he value most?
“Well, I can understand that. You are a young man who doesn’t want to be tied down, but it need not be that way.” Murray forced himself to stop pacing and sit in the cushioned chair across from Rebbie. “While I was married, ’twas almost like I wasn’t really. I was five-and-twenty when I married Seona’s mother, but I still dallied with the lasses everywhere I found a willing one. And there were plenty, let me tell you.” He grinned.
Rebbie frowned, his mouth a firm line. “You want your daughter’s husband, whoever he may be, to be unfaithful to her?”
Murray shrugged. “He will be whether I approve of it or not. Aye?” He laughed. “A wife is for providing heirs. For bed-sport, a man must look elsewhere. The buxom village lasses are far more entertaining betwixt the sheets.”
Looking morose, Rebbie stared down into his whisky. Whatwas the man thinking? His dark eyes made reading him near impossible. He was no doubt a rogue like any other man his age, and the lasses probably chased after him, considering how handsome he was.
“Once you married her and took her to one of your estates, you would only need to see her once a year or so,” Murray said.
