“With Samhain but two days away,” Alex said, slapping Connor on the back, “we’ll have to move quickly to let the men know you’re home and ready to take your place as chieftain.”
Time was too short. Still, there had to be a way to convince their clansmen that Connor was the right man to choose—or that Hugh was the wrong choice.
They discussed their strategies for the gathering over supper. But when they were done eating, they set aside the uncertainties ahead to celebrate coming home and the start of Ian and Sileas’s life together.
Duncan pulled out his whistle, and the rest of them took turns singing verses to the old songs they all knew. As Sileas sang and clapped with the others, there was a glow about her that warmed Ian’s heart.
He leaned back in his chair, watching the others. He caught his father winking at his mother and knew how pleased his parents were that matters were settled between him and Sileas. Even Niall had come around. Although Niall had been cautious around him the day they left Stirling, his brother had warmed once he saw how happy Sileas was.
Ian felt at peace here at home with Sileas, his friends, and his family. He couldn’t remember a time when he felt so content.
“We’d best say our good-byes now,” Connor said, getting to his feet. “Duncan, Alex, and I will leave early in the morning—long before our pair of lovebirds are up. We’ll talk to as many men as we can before the Samhain gathering.”
“I’ll meet up with ye before the gathering,” Ian said.
“Sileas, lass,” Duncan said in his gruff voice, “will ye be wearing that new gown ye was telling us about to the gathering?”
Ian almost fell off his chair. Duncan was a good man, making such an effort to bring Sileas into the circle of their friendship.
“I must have been light-headed with weariness to be speaking about gowns with ye,” Sileas said, a pretty blush coloring her cheeks. “I didn’t think ye were listening to my blathering about it.”
“I don’t talk all the time like some,” Duncan said, turning to raise an eyebrow at Alex, “so I heard ye well enough. It’s green to match your eyes, am I right?”
Ian exchanged glances with Alex and Connor, who appeared to be as startled as he was by Duncan’s conversation.
“It is green,” Sileas said, giving Duncan a huge smile. “Tell me, will ye play your whistle at the gathering?”
“Ach, this little whistle is for when I travel light,” Duncan said, patting where he kept it on a cord inside his shirt. “When Connor is made chieftain, I’ll play my pipes—and perhaps my harp as well. My sister has been keeping them for me.”
The men stood up, preparing to go to the old cottage for the night.
Sileas rose up on her toes and kissed Duncan’s cheek. “I’ll see ye at the gathering.”
“Careful, lass,” Duncan said. “I don’t want Ian’s dirk in my back.”
“I’ll risk it,” Alex said, opening his arms to her. “Remember, ye promised me a kiss when we were on the boat.”
“What promise—” Before Ian could get the question out, Alex had lifted Sileas off the ground and kissed her right on the mouth.
No sooner had Ian pried her loose from Alex, than Connor said, “Since we’re leaving early, I’d best get my kiss now as well.”
Connor, wise man, settled for a friendly peck on the cheek.
“I’ve had enough of ye handling my wife,” Ian said, putting his arm around Sileas and pulling her close.
“But I didn’t get my turn,” Niall said, stepping forward.
“Ye were alone with my wife overnight and lived to tell the tale,” Ian said, lifting his hand to ward off his brother. “Ye’d best be content with that.”
After the men left for the cottage and his parents had settled into quiet conversation near the hearth, Sileas took Ian aside.
“I want to tell Gordan about us,” she said. “It’s not right that he should hear of it from someone else.”
Ian nodded. “All right. I’ll take ye up there in the morning.”
“I’d rather go now and get it over with,” she said. “Do ye mind?”
Ian recalled what his brother said about a long line of men waiting for Sileas to lose patience with him. If she was in a hurry to tell the first man in that line to stop waiting, well, that was fine with him.
“I’ll walk up with ye and wait outside,” he said. “I don’t want ye out alone.”
A short time later, Ian was leaning against a tree under a moonless sky and watching his wife rap on Gordan’s door.
When Gordan opened it, a shaft of light fell over Sileas and across the dark yard. Ian heard their murmured voices as they talked in the doorway.
Then he heard Gordan’s mother shouting, “The wicked lass has left her husband for ye, hasn’t she?”
Gordan was patient, as always, with his mother.
“Quiet, mam. I can’t explain now,” he called to her, before he stepped outside and shut the door.
The two spoke in quiet voices a while longer, then Sileas left Gordan to walk toward the tree where Ian waited.
