Talk of preparations only heightened my curiosity further. Eoghanan must have sent a rider ahead of us to request such work of Tinley right after we’d announced our wedding for it to be ready and awaiting us today.
Eoghanan handed the reins over and reached for my hand. “I have no doubt that ye are right, but I’ll do me best to keep her as long as I can.”
“Aye, I’m sure ye shall. She is far too pretty for ye, even before what happened to yer face.”
The man’s words made me flinch. I’d never known him without the scars, which made it easy to forget that once his face and body had been entirely undamaged by Niall’s blade. He looked perfect to me now. The realization that others saw him as injured, as different from how he once was, had trouble resting with me.
No matter what I thought of the man’s words, Eoghanan seemed unbothered by them, only nodding in the man’s direction as he pulled me toward the winding trail. “Aye, she is. Thank ye for everything. Ye’ll find yer payment,” he pointed to one of the packs hanging off the horse, “in there.”
I waited to speak until Tinley was out of sight, making sure to look down at my feet as I climbed so I wouldn’t step on the bottom of my dress. “If you’d warned me, I could have packed my pair of jeans.”
He chuckled but continued his trek upward. “No, ye wouldna have. The first time I saw ye in such things I couldna look anywhere but yer thighs and yer backside. I willna have another man see ye dressed in such a way.”
I paused for a moment to hike up the dress. “And are there people that would see me dressed in them wherever we are going? I assumed you’d be taking me somewhere a little more secluded.”
“Aye, ’tis secluded. I doona wish to see anyone but ye for many days still.”
*
We marched upward for the good part of an hour before I heard it—the loud rush of water so strong that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed the sound before. The trail must have wound up the cliffside more than I’d thought, otherwise I couldn’t imagine how the sound could have remained so well hidden. “Are we going to a waterfall? Is there a cabin near it that we are staying in or something?”
He slowed for the first time since we’d begun and smiled back at me with a smile that told me I’d still not quite figured it out. “No cabin.”
“A castle then? What? A river boat?”
His eyebrows pulled in. “A river boat? No, lass. Why doona ye just wait and see?”
“Patience was never my strong suit.”
“Aye, I can see that. But ’tis mine, so no matter how many questions ye ask, I willna say a word. There is no need for ye to ask anything else, for we are there. But first…”
He moved to stand behind me, cupping both hands over my eyes.
“I’ll trip if you make me walk like that. My arms are too full of my dress for me to even catch myself.”
“I’ll catch ye, just step forward and turn when I tell ye to.”
He didn’t remove his hands from my face until I could feel the spray of the water against my skin. “Now, ye may look.”
Chapter 40
McMillan Castle
Bebop was sleeping, but Cooper could still see that his grandfather was worried. He could tell by the deep lines in his forehead and his wrinkled brow. Cooper knew how he felt. For some reason, he was worried, too.
He approached the chair where Bebop slept quietly, hoping he wouldn’t wake him up as he crawled carefully into his lap. He should’ve known better though. Bebop was always a light sleeper, and his light blue eyes flew open as soon as Cooper settled onto his lap.
“What? Oh good, it’s you, Coop. What’s my favorite grandson up to? I was just resting my eyes for a while.”
Cooper smiled, reaching up to try and stuff the puff of white hair that stuck out the side of his ear back inside. “I’m your only grandson, Bebop. And you can’t fool me. I know what it means when you say you’re resting your eyes—it means that you’re sleeping.”
Bebop reached up to swat his hand away. “Sleeping? No, I don’t sleep during the day.”
Cooper didn’t argue but nodded to let Bebop know that he knew he did.
“And just because you’re my only grandson doesn’t mean that you can’t be my favorite. What did you and your father do this morning?”
Cooper shifted on Bebop’s lap so that he could face him. “We rode with Ba-o into the village and helped him pick up a crib for the baby that’s coming. It’s really pretty, Bebop. He had some man who can do super cool things with a block of wood make it.”
“I should like to see it. Were you a big help?”
Cooper shrugged. He knew he was still too small to be much help to anybody. “I tried but, not really. Hey, can I ask you something, Bebop? What’s bothering you so much?”
“What do you mean, son? Nothing’s bothering me.”