Page 52

Master Finlay looked between them. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Finlay, I would like you to meet my wife, Lady Avelina. Perhaps you can tell me where I might find my parents to apprise them that I’ve returned. With a wife.”

Avelina could not help but smile at the steward’s surprised expression.

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Finlay.”

He bowed, “And yours, my lady.”

Avelina noticed her husband failed to mention her surname.

“I believe both of your parents returned to the solar chamber after supper, my lord. Shall I have meals sent there for you?”

“Nay,” Niall replied. “We will go to them and then to my chambers. If you would have a bath and meal sent there.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Leaving the befuddled steward, Niall led Avelina from the hall up another set of stone stairs. “In this, the great tower, are my parents’ chambers and their solar. I am in the east tower, which is where we will remain for now.”

“For now?”

We’d not talked about our living arrangements beyond returning.

“I’ve a property within a half day’s ride I had intended to reside in once married. We can visit it on the morrow if you would like. I must speak to my father about the arrangement.”

“Should you not remain here, as his second-in-command?”

“We discussed it, but the manor is close enough. But we shall speak to him.”

Much too soon, they stood outside a door where Niall’s parents were currently located. He must have sensed her worry, because Niall took her hand.

“Lina?”

She looked into his eyes.

“‘Twill be well, love,” he said.

Though he’d used the term before, this time Niall said it in a way that made her believe just possibly. . .

The moment was gone. He knocked at the door and waited.

A man who looked nearly identical to her husband, albeit with some gray hair and more lines in his face than Niall, opened the door. She’d not meant to squeeze Niall’s hand looking upon his father, but every part of her tensed as she tried to push aside the feeling. Openly hating the man would do little to endear either of his parents to her.

He looked back and forth between them before opening the door wider.

“‘Tis Niall,” a woman said. Though how his mother knew her son had returned without being able to see him, Avelina was unsure.

Her father-in-law shook her husband’s hand and then stood aside.

“Our son, aye, and…”

He watched her carefully as Lina followed Niall into the chamber. He still held her hand, which seemed to be the first thing his mother noticed.

Avelina had not been expecting her to look so young. Or to have red hair as there was not a trace of the color in Niall’s. She appeared younger than her husband and quite beautiful, in fact. A handsome couple to be certain.

“And my wife,” he promptly announced, releasing her hand and stepping toward his mother. Leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead. A gesture he’d done many times by the casual nature of it.

Returning to Avelina, he held her hand once more, for which she was grateful.