Caelen's Wife - the Complete Collection Read Free Page B

the McDunnah only once, more than ten years ago, and long before she had married James. Though nearly everyone did their best to avoid the man with the terrifying presence, Fiona had found him to be intriguing, and quite handsome, even with the jagged scar that ran down his face.
    They’d been at a summer festival on MacDougall lands and several of the clan chiefs had gathered together over food and drink at the McPherson table. Fiona had been helping to serve the men when someone called out her name.
    Caelen had reached out and placed a hand on her arm. “Fiona?” he asked with a wan smile. “That be a right pretty name.”
    Fiona had been taken aback by the profound sadness she’d found in his dark brown eyes. Something unsaid had passed between them, something she couldn’t identify back then. Now, as a widow, she knew all too well what it was. On Caelen’s part, it was a deep sense of loss and longing. On her part, it was the sense of wonder and excitement that only a girl of six and ten could feel.
    She let loose with a frustrated breath and pushed the memory aside. “Seventeen sheep?” she repeated with dismay. “The McDunnah owns at least ten times that many. Why on earth would he reive ours?” she asked to no one in particular.
    William cleared his throat before answering. “I believe ye ken why, Fiona.”
    “Ye think he stole the sheep as a means of a proposal?” she asked with a raised brow.
    “Mayhap not a romantic proposal , ” William answered. “More his way of warnin’ ye he can take whatever is ours unless ye agree to marry him.”
    There was a strong possibility that William was correct, but doubts still lingered. “But he’s no’ yet come to me to make an offer.”
    William ran a hand across his bearded chin. “Aye, ’tis true. Mayhap this be a warnin’ that he’ll be comin’ to do just that.”
    Brodie spoke then. The frown creasing his brow took nothing away from his handsomeness. “I’ve known Caelen McDunnah for many years, Fiona,” he said over the din of voices. “This does no’ seem like anythin’ he would do.”
    “Nay?” Fiona asked. “Ye think him above such a thing?”
    Brodie shook his head. “Caelen McDunnah is no’ the kind to play games such as these. He’s far more blunt and to the point. If he wanted to ask fer yer hand, he’d ask fer it.”
    Uncertainty and doubt lingered in Fiona’s mind. In view of the manner in which the other clan chiefs had behaved of late, she’d put nothing past any man at the moment.
    William apparently shared her concerns and doubts. “Ye canna deny the evidence, Brodie. The knife? The plaid? It all points to the McDunnah. Besides, how long has it been since ye’ve seen Caelen?”
    “More than two years, but still, I do no’ think—”
    The more she thought on it the angrier she became. Rapidly, an idea began to form. An idea that turned her skin to gooseflesh with anticipation. “Well then, let us say wego to him and let him ken well that his scare tactics will no’ work.”
    A collective moan went around the room as one brother after another tried to talk her out of going to the McDunnah.
    Fiona raised both hands to stop them. “Lads! I’m no’ sayin’ we attack the fool.”
    Her brothers stopped their protests to listen.
    “I’m just sayin’ that we visit him, in person, to let him ken that I canna be frightened into marriage.”
    And if he won’t listen to reason, he can listen to me sword.
----
    N ot long after the nooning hour, Fiona, Brodie, William, and several other McPherson men, were standing outside the gates of the McDunnah keep. Brodie shouted to a young man standing on the wall, announcing who they were and requesting to see Caelen McDunnah.
    When asked what their business with the McDunnah was, Fiona eagerly answered. “I’ve come to discuss Caelen McDunnah’s proposal of marriage.”
    Even from atop her horse and a good twenty feet from the wall guard, Fiona could see the man’s eyes grow