Page 22 of Married to the Icy Highlander
“But he didnae send it to me. He sent it to me wife, might I add,” Neil grunted.
He tried to hide the bitterness in his voice when Arthur joined them at the table, setting down pints of ale in front of each of them as well as smaller glasses of whiskey that he had been precariously balancing on his arm the whole walk from the bar to their table.
“Are ye sure that yer braither wishes to be found?” Alastair asked, accepting his glass of whiskey and lifting it in a toast. Neil mimicked the gesture, but his irritation flared nonetheless.
He was getting really sick and tired of that question.
“I dinnae care what he wishes. He needs to give me answers, and I didnae give him permission to leave me lands in the first place,” he seethed. “Me wife insists that they are only friends, and she doesnae ken where he went either.”
He stopped there. The natural conclusion to his thoughts was that there were a lot of things that his first wife had said to him as well that proved to be utterly false. He did not bring Jessica up very often, as thinking about her tended to only dredge up bad memories.
Arthur was the one who spoke up next. It was not surprising that he knew what Neil was thinking without having to say it out loud.
“This is a new beginning, M’Laird.” He took a long sip of his ale before continuing. “Ye shouldnae let yer past interfere, nor should ye compare Ceana to yer first wife.”
He had a point. It was rare enough for Arthur to speak so sagely, but it didn’t help ease the doubts that had taken root in Neil’s mind.
Ceana did seem honest. She hadn’t seemed like she had any reason to lie or twist the truth. But what did Neil know? He had been wrong before.
“Either way,” Neil continued, steering the conversation back to the main issue, “I need to find me braither. He cannae be left out there, unattended and alone, after he embarrassed our family. He’s committed an offense, and he needs to pay for it.”
It would be the same punishment regardless of who had besmirched their family name in such a way. But Neil was more adamant than usual because he was Laird and his brother’s transgressions reflected badly on him.
“Well then, I’ll keep a sharp ear out for any news. If he’s on this side of the Highlands, then I’ll hear about it sooner rather than later, ye ken?” Alastair said flatly.
But Neil knew him well enough to know that he was trying to comfort him.
“I’ll ensure that ye’re compensa?—”
“That’s nae why I’m doin’ this. I consider ye a friend. I havenae forgotten the things ye have done for me over the years, M’Laird,” Alastair insisted.
That suited Neil just fine, but he wasn’t going to allow the man to work without adequate compensation either. It was a job that he was doing for him, and no matter how personal the nature of the task might be, he didn’t want him to do it for free.
“We’ll find him. It’s only a matter of time.”
He liked to think that he knew his brother well. Or rather, he hadthoughtthat he knew his brother well. Leaving the castle was one thing. Deserting his post was another. And then the combination of the two out of nowhere? Because he didn’t want to get married?
Something else must have happened. There was something Neil was missing here, and he needed to figure out what it was.
He downed his whiskey and moved on to his ale, a sour feeling settling in his gut. The thought that his wife and his brother might have been involved with one another on a carnal level unsettled him.
He didn’t want Ceana to think about anyone other than him. He wanted to be the only man on her mind and the only one in her bed. It was shocking to him how much he wanted his wife to be his and his alone. That way, by the time Blaine was found and dragged back to the castle to make amends, there wouldn’t be any doubts as to whom she belonged.
Neil took another sip as Alastair and Arthur started to discuss various other avenues and informants, places that they hadn’t yet looked and when their scouts were due to return from combing the forest.
It was easy to convince himself that he only desired Ceana so strongly because he knew in his bones that she would give him a strong, powerful heir. He could focus on their rules and operate within them until she couldn’t stand it. She was supposed to be a means to an end, nothing more. He just… needed to remember that.
10
To say that the meeting with Alastair had been disappointing would be putting things mildly. Neil was still no closer to obtaining more information about his brother’s whereabouts than he had been when he had woken up this morning.
Despite the buzz in his head from the ale, he could not seem to shake off his irritation. He needed to have a clearer head or retire to his bed, lest he be even more tempted to seek out his wife and test her temper once again.
As irrational as it might be, he felt a nearly overwhelming urge to seek her out and demand answers from her that she was unlikely to have in the first place. She kept claiming to be just as shocked by Blaine’s disappearance as he was. Mostly, he wanted an excuse to lose himself in those big, blue eyes of hers. Perhaps that would steady him more.
The sky had darkened a few hours ago, and he trudged across the damp earth back up to his castle. Slowly, and with each heavy step, he slipped out of the role of concerned elder brother and into the role of Laird. A blanket of stars glittered over his head as he pushed open the front gates and walked into the empty courtyard.
The guards posted on the battlements nodded in his direction respectfully as he pulled a small bottle of whiskey out of his pocket and tossed it to the man waiting beside the door.
