But deeper sounds. At times she swore she could hear slight noises when Brodie was angry and was surely raising his voice. Once when her father had been angry with her for wandering too far from the keep, she’d been almost certain she’d heard or at least felt a vibration in her ear from his yelling.
It was all a very mystifying puzzle that fascinated her. It made her want to go seek out her husband-to-be again, just so she could make him talk to her. Anything was better than the yawning silence that held her captive. Any sound, no matter how insignificant was welcome.
Her mother appeared in front of her, grasped her shoulders, and shook her gently. “Eveline! Are you listening to me?”
Eveline blinked and stared back at her mother. They were standing in her mother’s chamber while Eveline was being fitted for a gown to wear to her wedding.
Robina had the entire keep in an uproar with wedding preparations, and she had no fewer than six women attending Eveline to make sure the dress was sewn quickly enough for the ceremony.
“What were you doing down there?” Robina asked.
There was gentle concern in her mother’s eyes. Worry for Eveline and genuine curiosity as well.
“You must learn to temper your responses,” Robina chided. “Graeme Montgomery isn’t a man to be trifled with. I fear what he’d do if you were to have such a breech in propriety in his keep. I don’t know the manner of man he is. He swears he’s no abuser of women, but one never knows the full character of a man right off, and you must realize this.”
Eveline frowned at that. Graeme hadn’t seemed quite so frightening after she’d had time to study him close. His features were set in stone. Some might even say he looked as though he would snap a man in half if the man so much as looked at Graeme wrong. But Eveline had sensed something else entirely and she couldn’t even be sure what. What she did know was that he’d been exceedingly kind and patient with her.
He hadn’t berated her for her rude intrusion. He hadn’t demanded that she back away. He hadn’t struck her for her forwardness. He’d spoken kind words to her. Hardly the words spoken by a true monster of a man who planned ill for his new wife.
Surely she wasn’t wrong about that much.
But then she wasn’t a judge of character. It was a fact she avoided most people simply because she didn’t want to be faced with derision, fear, or mockery. She didn’t have much experience with people at all outside her parents and her brothers.
She hadn’t been wrong about Ian McHugh, though, and she’d keep reminding herself of that fact. Ian had fooled even her own father, not to mention her brothers.
She reached for her mother’s hands, pulled them up to her heart. Robina looked startled, her brow wrinkling in confusion. Eveline squeezed her mother’s hands and then leaned over to kiss her cheek.
When Eveline pulled away, her mother looked dazed. Her eyes burned with sudden understanding and shock.
“You want this. You want to marry Graeme Montgomery.”
Eveline squeezed her mother’s hands again and then slowly nodded.
Robina backed away and then slumped into the chair by the small table near the window. “I never expected this. I’ve been so afraid. I don’t want you to leave our care and protection. You’re our baby, Eveline.”
She looked so distraught that Eveline’s heart clutched and her lips twisted unhappily.
“I should have known. I should have realized that you’d want what all normal girls want. A husband. Children. A life of your own. I just hadn’t imagined you were capable of it—of understanding your duties. Do you even understand, Eveline?”
Her mother looked anxiously up at her, her gaze seeking information from Eveline’s expression or her eyes or perhaps from something else entirely.
There was a lot Eveline didn’t understand. She understood well enough the day-to-day things, but there were certainly some matters that hadn’t been explained to her. But she wasn’t about to upset her mother even further by shaking her head.
Surely the business of marriage wasn’t that difficult, was it? She’d watched her mother and father her entire life. Her mother was quite adept at running a household and capable of running her husband as well when it suited her.
Eveline might not have practiced what knowledge she’d gained, but it didn’t make her any less capable.
She looked at her mother and simply nodded and let her mother make of that what she would.
Robina sighed and rubbed wearily at her forehead. “I want you to be happy, Eveline, and I hate to think you’ve not been happy here. We’ve only sought to protect you. I hope you know that.”
Eveline smiled, allowing all the love she felt for her mother to show on her face. Robina’s reaction was swift. She rose and then hurried forward, enfolding Eveline in a fierce hug.
Eveline knew no more of what her mother was saying, but it didn’t matter because Eveline understood. Everything she needed to know was right here in her mother’s hug.
“We need to have words, Armstrong,” Graeme said as he faced Eveline’s father.
Tavis stared back at him with weary eyes, and for the first time, Graeme felt a twinge of sympathy for the older man, but he quickly squashed it. The Armstrongs didn’t deserve his sympathy. They’d given no mercy to his clan and he’d give none in return.
“Come, let’s sit and have some ale. Then we’ll speak of what’s on your mind.”
Graeme motioned for his brothers to remain back as he followed the laird to the high table on the dais at the opposite end of the great hall. He was surprised Armstrong bothered to show him the courtesy of placing him where honored guests would be seated when in attendance.