Page 45 of Highland Slayer
Zora stopped rubbing and scowled at him. “I dinna say I wanted tae marry him.”
“Dinna ye?”
“Nay!” she nearly shouted. “I simply found him interesting. He’s English, ye know.”
“I dinna know,” Caelus said. “What’s wrong with a good Scots lad?”
“Nothing,” Zora said. “Except sometimes they’re just so…Scots.”
He looked at her suspiciously. “What doesthatmean?”
She shrugged. Off to her left, blue flowers were growing on the side of the road and she went to pick them. “It means that most Scots lads never even leave their village,” she said as she ripped flowers out of the ground. “They spend all of their time in Scotland. They dunna know anything else.”
He was growing offended. “I spend all of my time in Scotland, ye know.”
She waved him off, blue flowers clutched in the other hand as she resumed her walk. “But ye’ve been places,” she said. “Ye trained in England, Cae. Ye’ve been tae London. Ye’ve even been tae Paris. Ye’ve fought in Flanders. Ye’ve seen the world a little. That gives ye a broader sense of life.”
He wasn’t so offended by the time she was finished. “So ye want a lad with a broader sense of the world?”
She nodded. “And the blacksmith that Papa and Mama are so opposed tae is an educated man,” she said softly. “His grandfather was a cleric. He can recite poems from memory. He just happens tae be a smithy, and that’s nothing tae be ashamed of.”
She had a point. Caelus looked down at his little sister, a smile playing on his lips. “And so, my little Zee is growing intae a woman of substance,” he murmured. “Just like that.”
Zora looked up at him, seeing the warmth in his eyes, and she smiled. “I want the man I marry tae be a man of substance, too.”
Caelus nodded, thinking about his father and how he was going to handle Zora being married at any time before she was fifty years of age. “Someday,” he said. “When the time comes, we’ll help ye find someone worthy.”
“Will ye?” she said earnestly. “Well, ye and Darien and Aurelius, mayhap. Even Estevan. He’s very smart. ButnotCruz andnotKal. They’ll simply beat on the man and I’ll never be married.”
Caelus started laughing, mostly because she wasn’t wrong. Cruz had a temper, all fists at times, and Kaladin was simply big and frightening and liked throwing that around for the reactions he would receive.
“Dunna worry about them,” he said. “When the time comes, we’ll make sure they leave yer lad alone. We did it for Lily and we’ll do it for ye.”
“Thank ye.”
“Ye’re welcome,” Caelus said. He started looking around, at the landscape around them, feeling the sun on his face. “Do ye want tae ride with me now? Mae will swat me if I let ye wear yerself out.”
Zora saw more flowers on the side of the road, yellow this time, and ran to them. “In a moment,” she said, tearing the yellow blooms out of the earth. “Where are we, anyway?”
Caelus had to think a moment. “We left Annan this morning and are taking a wide berth around Douglas lands,” he said. “We’ll run intae the mouth of the River Nith as it meets with the sea and then head north tae Dumfries.”
“How long will it take?”
He shrugged. “We should be in Dumfries by nightfall.”
“Are we going tae see Estevan and Kal?” she asked. “They left before us, but mayhap they dinna travel so fast.”
Caelus paused before answering because the first thing that popped into his mind was the fact that The Butcher’s was in Dumfries, and if his brothers had spent more than a couple of days there, then Mabel was sure to spy their horses and those two would be in for a row. There were two things going against Estevan and Kaladin right now—the fact that all of the dun Tarh brothers knew about The Butcher’s, and enjoyed gambling there, and the fact that hardly two days had passed after they’d departed Ashkirk that Mabel and Lares and the entire army had departed behind them. They weren’t supposed to leave for weeks, but Lares was homesick and wanted to get back to the Hydra.
So… here they were.
Caelus had a mind to send Lucan up ahead to Dumfries to warn Estevan and Kaladin if they were, indeed, at The Butcher’s. Caelus knew that was where he would be. The last thing they needed was for Mabel to bust into the place and drag them out by their ears.
Not a good look for a grown man.
As he was pondering that very scenario, something caught his eye down the road. It took him a moment to see that it was a rider, so he called over to Zora.
“Zee,” he said quietly. “Come over tae me. Now.”
