Page 13 of Return to Clan Sinclair
“Not anymore,” he said, standing.
She’d turned the tables on him quite ably, hadn’t she?
He left before she could ask him anything else.
CHAPTERFIVE
“Aunt Ceana?” Fiona said, standing in the doorway of the Tartan Parlor. “May I ask you a question?”
“Of course you can,” Ceana said, making room on the settee for Fiona.
Her niece sat beside her, folded her hands very primly and looked at her somberly.
“Is it so terrible living in Ireland? Do you miss Scotland so very much? Papa said you must. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but at Drumvagen. But I suppose I must, because one day I’ll marry and move away.”
“And you’re afraid you might go as far away as Ireland, is that it?”
Fiona nodded.
“I doubt you will,” Ceana said. “But if you fall in love and wish to marry someone, the distance won’t matter. You’ll go anywhere with him and hardly notice where you are.”
“Does it hurt very much to be in love?”
What a question. How on earth did she answer? Perhaps it would be better to direct the girl to her mother, but then Fiona continued.
“Sometimes I see them, my parents, and they look at each other and there is such pain in their eyes.”
Oh dear.
“I don’t think it’s pain at all, Fiona. I think it’s love you’re seeing. I was there, at the very beginning, you see. I remember when they first saw each other and it was like no other person existed for Virginia and Macrath. Or nobody was ever more important to my brother and your mother.”
Fiona threaded her fingers together.
“Sometimes I think they don’t notice when anyone else is in the room.”
“That’s a wonderful thing, don’t you think? A mother and a father should love each other the most first and then their children. Your grandfather, for example, spoke fondly of your grandmother every day of his life. When he died, it was with her name on his lips. I like to think he saw her at that moment and went to join her in heaven.”
“Like you’ll go and join Uncle Peter?”
The child knew how to ask questions, didn’t she?
Very well, she would turn the tables on her. “How do you like being the only girl in the household?”
Fiona sighed. “I do wish I had a sister. But then, she’d probably steal my hairbrush and want to wear my ribbons. Carlton steals things from me all the time, but he never wishes to wear my clothes.”
Ceana bit back her laughter with difficulty.
“There’s always a first time,” Bruce said.
She looked up to find the man grinning at her.
“I wouldn’t put it past Carlton to wear your clothes and pretend to be you, Fiona, in order to escape Drumvagen. He’s the master of escape.”
Fiona nodded. “He would. He doesn’t like to be confined. Or punished.” She sighed. “He’s very trying for a younger brother.”
“I can attest it’s also very trying to be the youngest,” Ceana said.
“Did you disobey your father?” Fiona asked.
