In Scot Water - Caroline Lee Page 0,56
“The clan needs farmers, Liam.” He glanced over at Father Ambrose, who was still seated serenely atop the donkey, watching them. “The clan needs all sorts of men, and ye dinnae have to be just one kind.”
“Ye’re a warrior and a scholar.”
“Aye, I suppose I am. Although my brothers would say I’m more scholar than warrior. But of course I’ll teach ye. Ye can start training with the other lads when ye’re auld enough.”
“And can I be a scholar too? I like learning things. I want to see the book of pictures of animals’ penises!”
This time Malcolm chuckled. “I dinnae have one of those. I dinnae ken if one even exists! But I do have a bestiary—full of pictures of animals no’ being ungentlemanly—and I can teach ye to read it.”
The lad made a sound of acceptance, but didn’t say anything more.
They sat there in silence long enough for Malcolm to catch Ambrose’s eye. The priest said naught, but smiled and nodded encouragingly. Taking that to mean he approved of what Malcolm was doing, the younger man propped his chin on top of the lad’s head and smiled softly.
“Ye made Mama mad,” came the little voice from down around his collarbone.
“I did,” Malcolm immediately admitted, “and I have apologized. Because a gentleman recognizes when he is at fault and makes amends.”
“Is she still mad?”
“I dinnae ken. I have to hope she’ll forgive me.”
“She might.” The lad tilted his head to look up at Malcolm. “She always forgives me when I make her mad.”
“ ’Tis because she loves ye.”
Liam blinked solemn eyes. “Does she love ye?”
I love ye. He’d said the words to her, but she hadn’t done aught to acknowledge them or admit her own feelings. After what he’d done, ‘twas unlikely she could love him, and the realization left him feeling hollow.
But all he could do is shrug. “I dinnae ken, Liam.”
The lad hummed and looked down again, pressing his cheek against Malcolm’s shoulder.
They sat like that for a moment, before Malcolm tightened his hold briefly. “What else is bothering ye, laddie?”
Because as desperately worried as he knew Evelinde—and the rest of his family!—was, he was determined to sit right here and talk through each of Liam’s concerns.
“I was just…just thinking about Tomas,” Liam finally admitted, in a small voice.
“What about him?”
Liam shrugged nonchalantly. “It might confuse him if everyone around him has a father, and he doesnae.”
Malcolm frowned slightly, trying to reason through this discussion. “He’ll have me.”
“Aye,” Liam was quick to point out, “but I call ye Malcolm.”
Ah.
Malcolm understood now. “Hmm. So if Tomas hears ye calling me Malcolm, and all of his cousins and friends call their fathers Da…?”
Against his shoulder, Liam made a little sniffing noise. “Aye.”
Carefully, Malcolm leaned back and set Liam away from him, just enough so he could look into the boy’s eyes. “I think I have a solution.”
“Ye do?”
“What if ye called me Da as well?”
Malcolm held his breath, watching the play of emotions across the lad’s face.
“For Tomas?” he finally asked, uncertainty warring with hope in his green gaze.
“Aye, Liam,” Malcolm said softly, “for Tomas, to make him understand better. But also for ye.”
Liam held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “Aright, Da.”
Blowing out a breath, Malcolm pulled his son in for a tight hug. “I love ye, Liam.”
“I love ye too, Da.”
And Malcolm was surprised at the tear pricking the inside of his eyelids. “Come on, son. Let’s get ye back home to yer mother.”
Evelinde paced in the courtyard.
Inside the keep, the evening meal had already started, but she had no appetite, so she paced and waited for Malcolm.
Over the last hours, her husband’s family members had come straggling in from their searches, all reporting no sign of Liam. But all of them, once they heard Finn’s report, brightened and declared that, clearly, the lad had tried to return to the croft, and Malcolm would fetch him home, easy-peasy.
She had no idea what peas had to do with something being simple, but was willing to admit the Oliphants were a bit strange.
And now ye’re one of them.
The thought surprised her enough to root her feet in place.
She’d been made an Oliphant when she’d married Robert, had she not?
Nay. That just made ye lonely.
‘Twas true. Marriage to Robert made her a wife and mother, but she lived in a simple croft, worked hard, and rarely saw anyone besides her new family. She had no neighbors, and the few times she traveled into the village, she knew no one.
But