Her prompting was obvious, and Joshua started to move forward. Osk caught his arm. Joshua looked down into his frown. “You will wed her then, my sister?”
Wed Kára? Did she want that? Joshua looked to where she spoke with her grandmother, Harriett, a small line of villagers forming before her. She could be with his child already, and he would never abandon a child.
“If she follows you all the way to your home and then you leave her aside for some other woman…” Osk gritted his teeth, his hand fisted. “If she does not kill you, I will.”
“Your loyalty to your sister is honorable, Osk Flett, but ye will leave this matter to Kára and me.” Before Osk could say anything foolish that would endanger himself or push Joshua’s patience, Joshua walked away.
Kára spoke with the woman from the corner. “I am sure there are many strong men who could wed your daughter there, but since she is only twelve right now, you can wait to worry about that, Alyce.”
Alyce looked at her husband. “Here, everyone seems related so closely by blood. She could meet a Sinclair there, a strong warrior with horses.”
“Maybe that’s what worries me,” the husband grumbled.
“When I left,” Joshua said, “there was talk of starting a school to teach writing, reading, and cipher. Both for lads and lasses.”
The woman smacked the man’s arm. “She could be educated, too.”
The man nodded thoughtfully. “My angel is very clever.”
Alyce looked back to Kára. “We will go with you, the three of us.” She yanked her husband’s arm, and they walked toward the door where several small groups still spoke.
Hilda sat beside Kára. “Will Robert call on his nephew, the king, to harass the Sinclairs for giving us a place to live?”
“I do not intend to tell him where we are going,” Kára said. “He may not even realize that our numbers have declined until spring when he comes to round us up to work on his new fortress in Kirkwall.”
“But when he discovers that we have gone with Joshua,” Harriett said, glancing his way, “if he puts in a complaint to the king, James could ride against the Sinclairs.”
Before the death of his father, Joshua had heard his sire’s plans to take over all of Scotland, dethroning King James. He had kept such treasonous ideas only among his four sons and himself. Since his death, Gideon tried to plant the seed of treason in his eldest brother’s ear. Of all the Sinclair brothers, the third eldest was the one with far-reaching plans for success. But Cain had seemed to care little for taking the throne of Scotland, despite him being raised as the Horseman of Conquest.
Joshua met Hilda’s wise eyes. “King James would be a fool to waste his resources battling the combined strength of the Sinclair, Sutherland, and Mackay clans for a mere one hundred people. If Robert petitions for intervention, my brothers and I will see that nothing comes of it.” Surely, Gideon could convince the king that turning the Sinclairs and their allies against him would not be in the best interest of the Scottish realm.
“And will you wed my granddaughter?” Harriett Flett asked.
Kára coughed into her hand. “Amma, I have no plans to marry again,” she said, passing a glance his way before turning her gaze back to her grandmother.
Harriett looked directly at Joshua, assessing him, and he saw the resemblance to Osk in her fiery stare. Turning back to Kára, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You should make plans to, then,” she said.
Kára did not want to marry again? Would she turn him away if he asked Kára right then and there? His heart beat a little faster at the thought. Of what? Of him tying himself to one woman in a union before God or her saying no to the idea? His jaw clenched, and he made himself release the crushing press of his upper and lower teeth.
“Amma—” Kára started.
The woman held up a hand. “Aye, this journey would be to help your people, but you are a young woman who should remarry. A husband is helpful in many ways, especially if children come from your carnal adventures.”
Kára dropped her forehead into her cupped hands.
Carnal adventures? Joshua looked between Kára and her grandmother, ignoring her elderly Aunt Hilda whose gaze made him think she would ask him to strip for her medical assessment of his manly virtues. No one said anything for a long moment, and he cleared his throat. “Ye are wise to worry about your granddaughter,” he said. “I will not abandon her or any who decide to journey to the mainland.”
Harriett pointed at him. “You should marry her.”
He’d never had a grandmother, or any family member, want him to wed a lass from their family. The Horseman of War had never been serious enough to attract a woman who might want marriage. They certainly wanted his jack and strength, but not his heart.
No plans to marry. He frowned. Was Kára Flett another lass who wanted him only for the pleasure he could bring her? Before, that would not have mattered in the least. Before what? Before he’d committed to helping move her people to safety? Or before he couldn’t go an hour without thinking of the taste of her lips, the warmth of her touch, and the sound of her laughter and moans?
The room was slowly emptying. “I must check on Fuil,” he said, walking out of the tense room. The constant wind whipped around the eaves of the three aboveground houses, the cold hitting him like an icy slap. Aye, he needed to go back to Caithness before he lost bits of himself to frost, likes toes and the tip of his nose. He raised and lowered his shoulders to conceal his
