Highland Song Read Free Page B

brothers had wives to warm their beds and breasts to lay their heads upon and his own room was dark and cold.
    A sudden image of his painted lady came to mind… she was standing in the house he was building... the two of them preparing to sup together... her face aglow by the fire in the hearth and her wavy hair tied at her nape, like a fire bound by magik twine. Her lips turned gently at the corners and she laughed, the sound musical and free.
    He blinked and the image disappeared.
    He didn’t want a wife, he told himself and turned from his bower and from the vision, heading toward the hall.
    Wafting from the same direction as the voices, the peppery scent of haggis teased the air. Gavin followed the scent, ready for a wholesome meal after a long day’s work.
    This, in truth, was the one thing he sorely missed since Meggie’s marriage, and the one thing he would long for once he was gone from the manor: the dinner hour. For all his years, the family table had been filled with love—at least as long as his Da was not about—ornery bastard that he was. Gavin was determined never to become like the man who had sired him.
    Belly grumbling, he walked in to the hall and found his brothers both already at table, staring mutely at their plates while Alison and Seana chatted endlessly across the table. The two wives seemed to have become fast friends, and their affection for each other seemed genuine. At least they would not be pulling at each others’ hair over the running of the house, Gavin mused.
    “ Oh!” Seana said when she spied him.
    “ Gavin!” Alison exclaimed. She leapt up from her seat next to Leith. “Let me get you a plate,” she offered.
    Both of his brothers heads popped up and they shook their heads in unison, both looking horrified by the prospect of Gavin joining them.
    Not quite understanding their warning expressions, Gavin took a seat beside Colin, confused, until he chanced to peer into Colin’s plate.
    At the same time, Alison slid a full plate of mashed sheep’s pluck beneath his nose and a truer scent accosted him—a sour, peppery smell that curled the hairs in his nostrils. God’s bloody teeth, it looked nothing at all like Meggie’s haggis.
    Meeting Leith’s gaze across the table, he spied the terror there, though his wife, now reseated at his left elbow seemed not to notice.
    “ We’re so pleased you joined us at last!” Alison declared.
    Seana nodded enthusiastically, shoving a spoon at him.
    As for Colin... for the first time in recent memory, his brother seemed not the least inclined to meet his wife’s gaze. Gavin tried not to snicker, but then again, a glance down at his plate was enough to sober his expression.
    Seana peered over Colin’s shoulder at him. “Alison taught me how to make haggis!” she revealed excitedly.
    Leith cleared his throat. Something like dread settled in the pit of Gavin’s gut, and the continued looks of trepidation upon both his brother’s faces only deepened it.
    Everyone was staring at him expectantly.
    “ How was your day?” he inquired of them all, stalling.
    “ Oh, wonderful!” Seana said.
    “ Verra good,” Alison offered. “And yours?”
    Both Colin and Leith had yet to speak and it seemed to Gavin as though the gook in their mouths had sealed their lips shut. He grimaced at the thought.
    “ My goodness!” Alison declared suddenly, interrupting whatever Gavin was about to say—if anything at all—and leapt up from the table, exclaiming, “I forgot the bread!”
    “ I’ll help!” Seana announced and bounded up after her.
    The very instant both women quit the hall, both Colin and Leith spat out mouthfuls of gray muck onto their plates and jumped up from their seats. Plates in hand, in unison they dove for the fireplace, dumping the contents of their platters into the flames and racing back to their seats before their wives returned to the hall, bearing in a heaping plate of freshly baked bread.
    Suddenly noticing the telltale