There was a long pause.
The paperweight grew too heavy in Skye’s hand, so she set it down with athunk. She wasn’t really going to throw it at him. He’d probably just dodge, anyway.
“I am the son of a traitor,” Evander whispered. “I worked so hard to make me clan safe, to restore our reputation. The day I brought ye home from the Leanan Festival was the best moment of me life. I thought that I had done it. We grew closer, and I felt… I felt drawn to ye. Ours was only a marriage of convenience, sure, but it felt like… likesomething. Like a start. And then ye vanished, and everything I’d worked so hard for vanished too. I did wonder if it was all somehow me fault, and now I ken it was.”
Skye chewed on her lower lip. “Ye shouldnae blame yerself.”
“Well, I do. I am a dangerous man to be around. Treacherous blood runs in me veins, and everybody is waiting for me to show it. What sort of life can I offer anyone? So, it made sense to keep ye at arm’s length. Ye wouldnae have chosen me of yer own accord, after all. I stepped back. I… I wanted ye to have a good life, with love and safety in it. That’s what people want, is it nae? Safety.”
“And love,” Skye whispered. “If I had to pick one, I ken what I’d pick.”
He closed his eyes. “Sometimes a person can only learn a lesson from experience. The truth is that I love ye, Skye. I’ve wanted ye since that first meeting at the Leanan Festival. I was happy to wait to see what came of our marriage. But when ye vanished, I… I went mad. I began to think that I truly was cursed. After all, if a person loses what they love, they fear loving again, daenae they? I thought I could go on without ye. But I cannae. So here I am. Let me try again, Skye, please. Let me show ye that I love ye. I… I cannae promise nae to make mistakes. I daresay we’ll both make them. But we could make them together, could we nae? What do ye say?”
He loves me. He loves me. He loves me.
The words bounced around in her head, pulsing in time to the beat of her heart. She wanted to laugh, cry, dance, all of it at once. Instead, she stood stock-still, her fists clenched tight in her skirts.
She swallowed, her gaze fixed on his face, and managed to speak in a thin, croaky voice. “Well then, now what?”
Ugh. Pathetic. The man tells ye that he loves ye and cannae live without ye, and ye respond with ‘now what’? Disgusting.
Still, there wasn’t a great deal she could do about that, considering that the words simply would not come. She could only watch him, waiting. Hardly a love confession, but part of her was still convinced that this wasa dream.
He opened his eyes, meeting her stare squarely. “Now we start again from the beginning,” he said simply.
“From the beginning?”
Nodding, he drew out a scroll of paper. Setting it down on the table, he unrolled it to reveal that it was blank.
“Our contract,” he stated. “I have a suggestion for the first rule.”
“I’m listening.”
He drew out a rough pencil and began to scribble.
“Rule Number One,” she read aloud, shuffling closer to read over his shoulder. “Give shelter to any animal that needs it.”
“An important note,” he murmured, moving on to the next rule. “Rule Number Two: Dance at least once a week.”
Skye giggled, a smile creeping onto her face. “Ye can say that again. Me feet are itching to dance. How long has it been?”
“Too long for ye, lass.”
She read out the third rule, her smile softening. “Rule Number Three: Have a big, happy family.”
“Now, we may nae be able to control the size of the family,” he conceded. “Maybe we’ll only have one or two children. But their happiness? We can take care of that.”
“I thought ye didnae want children?” she queried.
He bit his lip, his gaze burning into her. “I was afraid that I would become like me faither, and so me children would be like me. Me, and therefore him. But then I met ye, and I stopped living in the past. The beauty of the future is that we can change it, aye?”
A slow smile spread across her face. “Aye.”
“So, what do ye think of that rule?”
“Agreed. Is that it, then?”
“There’s one more rule.”
