Page 72 of Love with a Scottish Outlaw
“I will?” Cat asked. “But—”
“Ye’ll be spending the day with my sister,” Duncan said.
That should have made Cat happy. She wasn’t sure why it annoyed her. It was probably because she was suspicious of him, as if he were dumping her onto his sister while he did something secretive.
Alice suddenly arched her little body and, startled, Cat gasped. The baby cupped her head with tiny fists, still asleep, little elbows by her ears.
“Ye’ve got her just fine,” Duncan said.
She realized he looked down on his squirming niece with an expression that bordered on contentment.
“She’s a feisty one,” he murmured, bending over the babe.
Which put his face far too close to Cat’s own.
“I try to see them as much as I can,” he said quietly. “They might be the only children of my blood.”
She frowned. “Are you trying to say you’ll never marry? You’re the chief—why wouldn’t you?”
He glanced at her, his dark eyes speculative. “I’m a man with a price on my head. I would never offer for a woman and put her in such danger.”
“You don’t know what the future will bring.” Was she trying to console him, inspire him, or alter her family guilt? Guilt—there was enough of that to go around, with the lies she was now telling.
He looked at her, and she just looked back. Lies he’d forced her into, she reminded herself.
“Alice’ll want to be fed soon, I imagine.” Muriel was on her knees next to her little boy, using her wet finger to wipe a smudge from his cheek while he squirmed almost like his sister. “But we can walk a bit.”
Duncan straightened and spoke to Muriel as if his words didn’t affect Cat. “Stay within the village.”
Muriel rolled her eyes. “’Tis where the festival is, aye?”
Duncan lifted a little purse. “Some coins for the two of ye to spend.”
Money from her family whisky, Cat knew. But she’d come prepared. “I have my own coins,” she insisted. “They were hidden within my clothing when you found me.”
Nodding, he glanced at Cat, then cleared his throat. Alice was rooting at Cat’s breast, and Cat looked helplessly at Muriel, who smiled with maternal indulgence.
“I guess the bairn won’t be waiting. Come here, sweetling.” Muriel took her child and retreated into her house, calling over her shoulder. “I won’t be long, Catherine.”
And then it was just Duncan and Cat—and a four-year-old who’d been crouching in the dirt, but now looked up at her skeptically.
Duncan squatted down. “Robby, did ye catch any worms today?”
Cat grimaced, wondering if he was trying to give the little boy ideas. But Robby held up his grimy hand, and there was something dark and squished there. Wincing, Cat couldn’t help staring in shock when Duncan smiled at his nephew.
The tug deep inside her was startling. He smiled in a way she’d never seen on his face before, genuine and full of love. It made him more handsome than dangerous, and she thought that if she’d seen him across a ballroom floor, she would have been smitten.
He nodded at the boy’s little fist. “Perhaps next time ye’d best let him go home.”
“Papa said I need him for fishing. Fish eat worms.”
“They do,” Duncan agreed. “Do ye know what else worms are good for? Gardens. Let’s put your worm there for today. No time to fish during the festival.”
Dumbfounded, Cat watched as Duncan and his nephew reverently placed the dead worm next to the last roses of early autumn. After washing up in water brought up from the well, they sat side by side, discussing the fish in the local streams. She felt like an intruder, but also a curious observer of this man who was her enemy.
Except he was conversing with a four-year-old about how to catch fish to feed one’s family. She thought about Duncan’s parents, locked in a private feud that separated them, eventually permanently, from their children. How little softness he’d had in his life, and yet he could spare time and attention to his young nephew. Confusion, anger, disappointment—they were all wrapped up inside her, and she didn’t know how she was supposed to feel.
Muriel emerged with the now-sleeping baby. “She’s happy now,” she told Cat, smiling. “Shall we go join the festival?”
