Highland Strength (Book 3)

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Aonghus sat by the roaring hearth in the main room of his cottage. Scottie sat on a small stool beside him chewing thoughtfully on an oatcake. The only thing he had in that he did not have to cook. With a wry smile, he looked at the top of the lads head as he picked little bits off and chewed them slowly. It was the only thing he could give the lad and know that he would not take sick. Meat Aonghus could cook fine on a fire in the middle of a forest. In his own cottage, he had some difficulty with the simplest of meals, the majority of them coming out black tasting disgusting. Mind, Artair was no better, hence the reason they spent the majority of their time eating up at the main Keep.

Due to his quick, but deep nap, Scottie was still wide awake beside him as twilight twinkling through the open shutters of the cottage. Not that he was any trouble. Sitting quietly, twiddling one thing or another as his attention was caught, and was a captured completely until another item wrenched him away from the former. It was peculiar to watch at times, for he knew what he had been like at that age, and how the bairns of the village were now. They would be racing around the cottage, getting into all sorts of havoc and he would most probably be tearing his hair out as his poor old mum had been. Instead he was worrying for the fact he was not doing so. The emotions were entirely contradictory, and yet at the same time he knew exactly what he meant by it.

He really should be happy. Happy that he had a bairn that was so easy to look after in times such as this, and yet he knew that if this was how the laddie acted the boys of the clan were not going to take to him. It was going to be a hard life for the lad, but he was not going to let the lad alone, he would always know that he had people he could count on. It was going to be a hard life until he was old enough to prove himself, but Aonghus would make sure those under his command knew what he expected, this lad was not going to be alone. Not only that, but he knew that Sheena would not allow it either. Aonghus had always had Artair, but Sheena, even with a brother had never been truly included and involved with her clan, as herself. Scottie needed to be allowed to be who he is and never expected to be anyone else.

Placing his hand on the laddie’s head, he ruffled the wiry hair until the lad looked up, his eyes stopping about Aonghus shoulder, but Aonghus knew that it meant the same to him as someone else looking directly into his eyes. “Scottie, do you really want to stay here?”

His small brow furrowed. “You not want me?” This time it was Aonghus time to frown. Scottie’s tone had been so smooth, as if he did not care either way, but he could sense the emotion that the laddie could not put forward in any way he knew how. Lifting the lad under his arms, and over the arm of the chair, he held him securely in his arms on his lap. “Nay, lad, that’s not what I meant. I promise. I want to know if you actually want to stay, or if you wish to be with someone else.” He did not want to put such a decision on one so young, but without this, would they really know what the lad wanted? “If you do not want to stay we will find you someone you can be happy living with. But if you want to stay Sheena and I will try and make you happy, and keep you safe. But I want you to know that we want you. But we also want you to be as happy as possible.”