Page 60 of The Laird's Secret Bairn

“Skye?”

“Aye?”

Lily lowered her gaze. She rarely looked uncomfortable, so Skye’s hackles rose immediately.

“Do ye think Da kens how happy I am? I daenae want him to think I’m nae grateful for everything.”

Skye’s chest tightened. “I think yer da kens exactly how happy ye are, Lily. He watches ye more than ye realize.”

There was no chance Dougal thought his daughter was ungrateful. Skye wondered what Lily heard when no one thought she was there. People thought children didn’t listen, but one would be surprised by what they heard when adults weren’t paying close enough attention.

“He does worry an awful lot,” Lily murmured.

“Because he loves ye an awful lot.”

Lily seemed to accept that, tilting her head to allow another flower to be tucked behind her ear. “Freya and Kaden love ye a lot too, I think. Ye talk about them like ye miss them.”

“I do miss them.”

“Will ye miss us when ye leave?”

The question landed soft and unguarded, the way children’s questions always seemed to, without any sense of how heavy they might be to answer.

Skye was struck by how reluctant she was to leave. Just a few days ago, she and Dougal had been at odds, and she had been itching to go back home, where she would be surrounded by family and everything she needed.

But now? Now she did not want to leave. She balked at the very idea of leaving, to her shock. It wasn’t just about leaving Lily, but also Dougal.

That wasn’t something she was willing to think about right now.

“Aye,” she said, before she could think better of it. “I think I will miss ye something fierce, Lily.”

Lily twisted around to look at her properly, flowers falling loose from her half-finished braid. “Then daenae leave. Ye can stay here since ye already have a room. And yer sister and braither can visit whenever they want. I daenae think Da will mind.”

“It isnae so simple as that, sweetling.”

Children viewed the world so simply. Skye yearned for the days when she could do such a thing. It was not so simple when one saw the world through adult eyes.

“Everything’s simple if ye want it to be. Grandmaither says so,” Lily said with the absolute conviction only a seven-year-old could summon, then promptly dropped the subject. “Can we find the hedgehogs now? I want to introduce them to Blossom properly, so there’s no more talk of rivalry. She might even make some friends.”

Skye let herself be pulled to her feet, grateful for the distraction.

However, Lily’s question lingered long after the girl had gone chasing after her kitten through the hedges, refusing to be shaken loose no matter how much she tried to busy her hands and thoughts.

The end of the month was coming soon. She was going to have to decide once and for all what she was going to do. She had thought it would be an easy decision, but as it turned out, it was going to be very difficult.

They ventured no farther than the gardens that day. As the sun set, Skye coaxed the girl inside with the promise of raiding the kitchens for sweets and sneaking her some later tonight.

Then she saw Dougal.

He was watching from the training yard, seeming to take note of her every move, his gaze darkening every time it fell on her. Shecould see a hint of hunger in his eyes, which seemed to penetrate her very soul.

She often dreamed of his hands on her. But the dreams that had her waking up hot and bothered were the ones where his lips descended on hers. Many times, she would imagine him kissing her, unraveling her inch by inch. She’d wake up with her lips tingling and bruised from her teeth sinking into them to muffle her cries.

She forced herself to look away first, though her pulse hadn’t steadied by the time she turned back to Lily’s chatter. She knew it was foolish to let a man’s stare undo her so thoroughly in the middle of a yard, but some traitorous part of her hoped he was still watching, even now.

She busied her hands with Lily’s ribbons, grateful for the distraction, though she could still feel the weight of his gaze on her, patient and unhurried, the way he always seemed to watch her when he thought she did not notice.

“Skye, are ye all right? Ye are blushing!”