His father was chieftain, true, and consulted with Finlay on many matters, but Duncan remained at Galbury while his son was out dealing with issues face-to-face. Not that Duncan wasn’t appreciative and complimentary of Finlay’s efforts. Adam and Roderick were attentive as well to the needs of the lands and the crofters, and it did allow Duncan to function without many hired men. But Finlay was the one people asked for, who they wanted to deal with, for what he lacked in friendliness, he made up for by ensuring all matters were addressed efficiently.
“Give him time,” Jane continued to tell Kyla as she noted Finlay’s disregard for her. “He’ll come around and show more warmth. Have some patience, dear.”
Kyla was having some difficulty waiting for the day. She knew Jane meant well and wouldn’t tell a lie, but Finlay was her son, and Kyla supposed Jane had a much different view on him than she ever would. Peggy, similarly, was encouraging, telling Kyla that Finlay was opening up since she had married him. Kyla had raised her eyebrow at that. If this was opening up, she wouldn’t like to see what a closed-off Finlay McDougall looked like.
Kyla had been spending more time than she liked in the house despite the chilly weather, and one afternoon she could stand it no longer. There was only one solution to the restlessness that coursed through her soul—running Cadarn. She was headed to the stables when a groom came racing out before she reached the door. “Miss! Is Finlay in the house?”
“No, I believe he’s out at the moment,” she responded, frowning at his urgency. “Is something the matter?”
“It’s Hurley. Something has that horse agitated and we canna calm him down. Only his master can.”
With that, the groom ran off, she supposed to continue searching for help. Kyla looked after him for a moment, then slipped inside the stables to see if something could be done with the horse. When she entered the building, she saw the man had not been exaggerating. The beautiful black stallion was on his hind legs, pawing at the air with his front hooves.
In the stall next to him, Cadarn’s nostrils flared as she stepped back as far as possible from the stallion, who was clearly trying to break free. Kyla slowly, calmly, approached the stall, murmuring gentle words as she reached a hand in over the door, crooning to the horse as he came down on all fours. He shoved his nose hard against her hand, and she ran her fingers over his face before patting his neck, softly speaking to him and taking his attention onto her and off whatever had spooked him.
When he seemed calm enough, beginning to tap his nose against her hand instead of the urgent shoving, she let herself into the stall, continuing to pet him. She slowly walked around the horse, trying to ascertain what might be wrong. Noticing his continued tamping of his right front leg, she reached for it and finally saw a long splinter stuck in one his hooves.
She knew she would need help to remove it and avoid being kicked by the horse, so she continued to soothe him gently as she waited for help to return.
The stable door burst open as Finlay ran in.
“Kyla, get out of there!” he said urgently, seemingly trying not to shout to keep from startling the horses any further.
“It’s fine, Finlay,” she said softly, holding out a hand in front of her. “I do need your help though. Come in.”
With deft movements, he let himself into the stall, eyeing her with trepidation. She could tell Finlay would prefer she leave, but he seemed to accept the fact that she was remaining in the stall with him.
“Get back from his head a bit,” he muttered instead. “Hurley’s been known to knock stable hands to the ground before.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Animals seem to understand what I’m about.” She pointed to the foot, showing him the issue. “We’ll need some tools.”
Between her steady assurance at the animal’s head and Finlay’s patient work on the foot, they managed to quickly and easily remove the splinter of wood.
Finlay fed Hurley and wiped him down before wordlessly following Kyla out of the stall and into the stable corridor.
“You have quite the way with horses,” he said, leaning back against the stall as he studied her. Kyla figured it was the closest he had ever come to providing her a compliment.
“I do,” she responded with a nod. “You would know that if you spent time with me on occasion.”
He pushed off the hard planks of the stall door and began walking back toward the house. “I believe I spend time enough with you, Kyla,” he said as she had to stride quickly to keep up to him and hear what he was saying. “Every meal, most evenings—”
“We sit with your entire family,” she finished. “We are husband and wife, Finlay. Should we not spend more time with one another—alone?”
“What did you have in mind?” He turned toward her then, his big body suddenly within her space, his face inches away from hers. Her heart began to beat rapidly of its own accord. He was so close she could see the stubble of hair on his chin, beginning to grow back already after his last shave, lines around his eyes from taking on too much responsibility and not resting often enough.
She swallowed hard.
“I… I meant time to speak, to learn more about one another.”
“What do you wish to know? You know who I am, where I am from, who my family is. I am who I am. There isn’t much more to it.”
“All right then,” she responded slowly. “Perhaps, then, more about our desires, our wishes, what we see for the future.”
“My future is this clan. I believe that has been fairly
