Page 39 of Her Highland Prophecy
They both laughed, the joke a familiar one between them.
“You two are close then?” Diana asked, looking from one to the other.
“Och, aye. Gordain is more like me brother than me own brother is.”
“That’s nice. I wish that I had cousins that I felt that close to,” she said. Her face was sad as she spoke and somehow, he knew that she was thinking of her sister. She hadn’t spoken much of the rest of her family, but he had gotten the impression that she wasn’t close with anyone else.
“Do ye nae have many cousins then?”
Diana jerked, a panicked look coming into her eyes again. She glanced at him quickly, but then turned back to Bhaltair.
“We are not very close, unfortunately,” she said vaguely. He grimaced slightly. They did not know much about the Huntington family, other than the fact that they were wealthy. If anyone started asking questions and then chose to investigate…
It was time for a change of subject.
“Have ye spoken to Calum yet? I dinnae see him here.”
Diana sent him a grateful look as Bhaltair launched into his narrative about their tenant. His hand found hers beneath the table and squeezed in response.
Somehow she seemed to fit in despite her strangeness. He knew that the next few weeks were crucial. He needed to find a source of income for the Clan or a wealthy woman that he could marry to help before Diana returned to the future, Even so, seeing her interacting with his family gave him pause.
She will be gone in three weeks.
The reminder was disheartening. As if she sensed where his mind was, she turned around and looked at him quizzically. Ignoring his thoughts, he smiled at her in reassurance and she returned to her dinner. It was pointless, she would leave soon and yet all he wanted at that moment was to spend more time with her.
14
Diana looked around to all the people surrounding them. It was overwhelming and she was thankful that Gordain hadn’t left her side since they arrived. She had not expected the Clan to be quite so large as it was. The hall had four very long tables along with the head table where the Laird sat and all of them were full to the brim with people.
More than once, they had been interrupted by well-wishers who wanted to speak with him. Most of them looked at her curiously, but hardly anyone spoke to her directly. She honestly felt like a monkey in a zoo more than a person.
She quickly came to appreciate Bhaltair’s company. While Gordain spoke to the people who approached them, he ran a constant commentary about everyone.
“That is Seamus Boyd,” he said in an undertone as a smelly man spoke with Gordain about his flock. “He loves his sheep, if ye ken me meaning.”
Diana snorted in response, quickly covering it up with a cough and he gently patted her back, chuckling.
In the small moments when they were left alone, she took the time to get stories about Gordain from him.
“Aye,” he said. “Gordain is a bonnie fighter now, but he wasnae always so strong.”
“He wasn’t?” she asked, curiously, her eyes cutting to Gordain’s figure next to him. He was so tall and broad that she could hardly imagine him being anything but the tough warrior he appeared to be now.
“Nay. Indeed he was nay weak as a lamb at one point. I remember one day when he had but sixteen summers, and was skinnier than ye are now, lass,” he said pointing at her. “He decided that it would be a guid idea to challenge the strongest of the Clan to an arm wrestling match.”
“What happened?” she asked, chuckling. She could already imagine the outcome. Next to her, Gordain rolled his eyes.
“He handed me me arse, that is what happened,” Gordain said in a dry tone. “I barely lasted one second, but I wouldnae accept it.”
“Nay, ye did nae. After the third try, ye attacked the man to prove that ye could best him in a fight. It caused such a stramash that yer Da heard and came outside.”
“And then me arse really hurt,” Gordain said. “I couldnae ride a horse for a week, but I didnae challenge the man again until I was strong enough to best him.”
“And did you?” Diana asked, amused at the tale.
“Aye, I did,” he replied with such a smug look of self-satisfaction that she couldn’t help breaking out in giggles.
She turned back to her plate, still giggling occasionally and poked at its contents gingerly. It did not look particularly appetizing, but then again, she also had no idea what she was looking at. Stuffed meat of some sort, but it tasted too different than anything she had ever had in her time that she couldn’t begin to guess its animal of origin.
