Page 206 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
That was part of what made him so difficult to bear. He could wound her deeply and still do right by the people she loved. He could retreat from her and still open his home without hesitation. There was no easy shape for him.
Why could ye nae just be one or the other, ye strange man?
Her father gave a slow nod. “Aye.”
Ciaran lowered his head once and seemed for half a second as though he might stay. Then the familiar restraint returned to his face. “I will leave ye to rest.”
Ava watched him go, his feet gently trudging across the floor. Bruce watched him too, wagging his tail, still excited from seeing her again, she could imagine.
When the door closed behind him, Isobel let out a breath through her nose. “He escapes like a man pursued.”
Laird MacKenna grunted. “Hewaspursued. By women with eyes.” He shifted in his seat and winced only a little. “Now, have either of ye decided whether ye mean to fuss uselessly over me or do something sensible?”
“Ye arenae allowed to be yer usual ruling self when half yer skin is singed, Father,” Ava said.
“Then I shall be grateful instead. Why daenae we start with something simple? Bring me water and stop staring.”
Isobel reached for the jug first, and Ava fetched the cloth. Together they moved around him, and he submitted to it all with grim patience and several muttered remarks about being overmanaged in his surviving years.
When Isobel touched too near one of the rawer burns, he hissed and pressed his lips together. “There now, lass. If ye mean to punish me for frightening ye, I would prefer a cleaner method.”
“Ye deserve worse,” Isobel sniffed.
“So I am learning.”
Ava wet the cloth again and dabbed carefully at the edge of another burn. “Does it hurt ye much? Ye ken ye daenae have to be too brave about everything. We can send for the healer.”
“Ach. ’Tis a burn. I suppose it has to hurt. It just doesnae hurt enough for me to need other long faces.”
“We arenae giving ye long faces,” Ava protested, her voice sharp.
“Ye are giving me the very face yer mother used to wear whenever I came in muddy.”
Ava scoffed. “That was asensibleface.”
“It was a condemning one.”
Isobel smiled despite herself. “Ye do sound quite stronger.”
“I have always been strong,” he declared proudly. “I am merely smoky now.”
That broke the last of the tension in the room. Ava laughed, and Isobel did too, and even Bruce made a pleased little sound from where he had settled beside the chair and rested his jaw on her father’s boot.
Laird MacKenna looked between the two of them with obvious satisfaction. “There. Better. If I am to sit here roasted and inconvenient, the least ye can do is laugh at something.”
“Oh, please, the last thing ye are is inconvenient,” Ava said at once.
“I have arrived burned, homeless, and followed by a dog. I am thedefinitionof inconvenient.”
Bruce lifted his head at the word dog, looked mildly offended, and then dropped it again.
Laird MacKenna’s mouth twitched. “Speaking of household burdens, Isobel, do ye nae think it is time ye found a man of yer own as well? I believe I still have one more wedding in me.”
Both women spoke at once.
“Da!”
“Absolutely nae!”
