Married to the Icy Highlander (Unwanted Highland Wives #3)

Chapter 21

21

“ C eana!”

At the sound of her name, Ceana whipped around, searching for the source of the familiar voice. It had been a while since she had last seen her friends.

Freya extended her arms toward Ceana, a bright smile on her face. For how swollen her belly was, she still moved with remarkable ease.

Ceana rose to her feet quickly, happy for the distraction as well as the familiar face, and happily embraced her friend. Doughall stood behind Freya, sipping from a large horned cup, but Ceana couldn’t see its contents. It was the only one of its kind in the hall, so she had to presume that he had brought it with him.

Amusing, there was no denying that.

“I havenae seen ye since yer wedding!” Freya continued. “I started to worry about ye when I didnae receive a single letter from ye, but I didnae want to interrupt yer period of… adjustin’.”

It would have been nice to receive a letter or two from her friends to help her pass the time. Ceana had gotten so very lonely now that her husband avoided her and she wasn’t working in her father’s distillery all the time, but she wasn’t about to say that and make her friends feel guilty.

Instead, she reached for Freya’s stomach with a grin. “I’m sure ye had better things to do!”

Doughall quickly and wisely hid his smirk behind the wide rim of his cup before Freya hit him for insinuating something lewd.

“We have been very blessed, aye. Mercifully, we have found a wonderful healer who has made me pregnancy very comfortable. At least, so far. I do miss Ersie, though. With Laura still away, I just want me babe to…”

Emily stepped up beside her, looping her arm through Freya’s and putting a hand on her own slightly swollen belly. Granted, hers was barely showing. “Yer babe will have all of us. And when Laura is ready to return, she’ll have a lot of nephews and nieces to meet, too.”

Ceana had to bite her bottom lip to keep from laughing as Emily glared over her shoulder at her husband, Adam, who was looking far too pleased with himself.

“Me husband seems to think that it is perfectly acceptable to keep me with child year-round at this rate,” Emily said with a sigh.

Adam shrugged. “I dinnae ken what the problem is. We both want a big family, and our son is excited to have a braither or sister.”

Emily swatted her husband’s arm. “Ye only say that because ye arenae the one who has to give birth!”

“Perhaps once I have me baby, we can send our healer to ye? It might make things a little bit better. Simpler,” Freya offered.

Ceana nodded. “I, too, have a very good healer in mind. She makes lovely tonics and remedies. Just say the word and I’m sure she would love to come and assist ye. Though, I think it will be rather difficult to keep young Jeanie from wantin’ to accompany her.”

Emily grinned. “The more the merrier. That’s the Laird’s daughter?”

Ceana flushed and nodded. “Aye.”

There was a good deal that she hadn’t told them. Things with her and Neil had progressed so quickly that she had rather shirked her duty to her friends. She ought to have written to them or invited them over, done a great many things that would have been customary for people in her position, and she had no excuse.

At least her friends seemed to understand that easily enough. Emily and Freya exchanged knowing glances and then spoke over one another in an effort to change the subject.

“Are ye still workin’ in the distillery?”

“Is the Laird as burly as he seems?”

Ceana couldn’t help but laugh at the difference in their questions, and she had no idea whom she should answer. So, she addressed Emily’s question first.

“Well, he cannae be any more different than Blaine, that is a fact.”

“I cannae believe that he just up and left ye like that.” Emily tutted.

“Ye think he’d have done that if he truly kenned his heart?” Freya shook her head.

And that was when both of their husbands felt the need to step away from the conversation. Freya and Emily did not say anything as they suddenly retreated, for they were far too invested in Ceana’s marriage.

“I admit that I’m also havin’ difficulty understandin’ why he did what he did. Ye ken very well how close the two of us have always been. But deep down, I feel there is more to the story that I dinnae ken,” Ceana admitted quietly so only they would hear her.

It felt good to be sitting here, catching up with her friends again. No worries, no thoughts about Neil and his mixed signals. She knew that anything she said to her friends would remain between the three of them. No judgment on any side of their little triangle.

“He’s written letters, but he hasnae given me even the smallest hint as to where he went or why he had to leave without so much as a goodbye,” she sighed, before taking a swig from her goblet.

It would have been nice to have had a conversation. If Blaine had come to her that morning and spoken to her about his reservations, she would have tried to understand. She knew that she had put him in a difficult position by begging him—it wasn’t small, what she had requested.

She had truly thought that if he could not help her, he would have told her so. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all her fault somehow. She had forced his hand, after all.

But now she just wanted answers.

“He says that he’s safe, and that’s the most important thing. But I still have so many questions,” she muttered.

“And his braither doesnae have any idea where he might be either?” Emily asked.

Ceana shook her head.

Freya dropped her gaze. “I’ve come to hate letters.”

“What do ye mean?” Ceana asked.

“Well, ye ken about me twin. I hope with all me heart that wherever Laura has ended up, she’s happy,” Freya said, tears welling up in her eyes. “She left such a long time ago. There’s nae a day that goes by that I dinnae want her to come back home… nae a single morning where I dinnae want to see her smilin’ face at the breakfast table. And these bloody cryptic letters of hers. ‘I am all right.’ ‘I will return when I’m ready.’ I am happy she is unharmed, but I’ve never been away from her for so long. I’m grateful for Emily, of course. Ye and Ersie. But a twins’ bond is different. Doughall asked me if I want him to go find her himself, but we cannae force her to return.”

Ceana was shocked. She had no idea Freya felt that way. Now she felt guilty that she had asked Ersie to stay with her.

Freya took a moment to compose herself, and Ceana took her hand, squeezing it slightly in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

Freya patted the back of Ceana’s hand as she sniffed. “What I wish for the most is to tell her that she’s welcome home. It doesnae matter why she left or where she went, but she’s welcome home, and if she doesnae ever want to talk about it, we dinnae have to… But I miss her so very much.”

Ceana couldn’t agree more. That was almost exactly the conversation she wanted to have with Blaine. While she was, of course, still hurt by his actions, everything worked out in the end.

“I’m sorry that ye can relate to this situation at all. I wouldnae wish it upon anyone,” she said.

“I wish that it had never happened to any of us,” Freya sighed. “I would give anything for me babe to be able to meet their aunt as soon as they come into this world.”

Ceana nodded. She didn’t know what she would do if her mother or Peter were no longer in her life. Even though she didn’t live with them anymore, she still needed them. Losing Blaine was one thing, but… Well, that was a road that she wasn’t willing to go down.

With tears in her eyes, Emily nodded and glanced between them. “Well, let us hope that all will be resolved in time.”

Ceana nodded. “As to yer other question, I’m still helpin’ out with the distillery as much as I can—at least until Peter comes of age.”

“Peter?” Emily looked at her incredulously.

“I ken. He has nay desire to run the distillery, but he will have to assume his duty sooner or later. I willnae allow him to run our faither’s business into the ground because his heart is too kind and his head is up in the clouds,” Ceana said. She knew that she might sound too strict, but her friends would understand where her heart was. “It will provide a steady income for him and whatever wife he chooses to take if we keep it runnin’… It will keep our maither in her house for the rest of her days.”

She didn’t continue. There was no point in telling them what her mother had to do to keep them afloat, or why she needed to get married so quickly. The important thing was that they were no longer in debt, and Peter would inherit the distillery without storm clouds constantly hovering over his head as they had when she had to run it.

“But will he be happy there?” Emily asked.

“He will learn to be happy there, in time. I dinnae think he would be overly fond of any job that requires hard labor.”

“He has a soft heart,” Emily agreed.

“But in the best way possible,” Freya chimed in.

Ceana nodded. “If only we could leave the distillery to his cat, Myrtle. I ken that beastie would get things done quickly. Nay ship would be run tighter if he had a say on the matter!”

The three of them laughed, and soon the dinner bell rang.

“Shall we?” Ceana asked.

Her friends nodded.

Freya attempted to get up, but her stomach restricted her movements.

“I am fine when I’m standin’, ye ken? It’s just the gettin’ up and down that is challengin’,” she huffed as her friends each took one of her arms and helped her up.

Emily grinned. “And it doesnae get easier.”

“Och, joy,” Freya groaned.

“Just ye wait,” Emily teased, nudging Ceana with her shoulder. “Soon it will be ye we are helpin’ up.”

Ceana laughed at the joke. It wasn’t as if Neil hadn’t been explicitly clear about what he expected from her. He wanted her to carry his heir, but somehow it was Emily’s comment that made the situation all too real for her.

Soon, she would be the one with the rounded belly. Soon, she would be the one decorating a nursery and picking out names… She was going to have Neil’s son.

Provided, of course, that he ever got around to actually touching her.