A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

smile currently lingering on Dory’s face made them almost impossible to tell them apart whereas her traditional scowl had made the difference before.  Heather’s hair was a bit lighter with streaks of blond and she had those long sweeping bangs in the front, but other than that, they were the same.  Absolutely the same.  They had to be twins!  There could be no other explanation.  But the way Dory had said ‘almost’.  It was eating at him, this curiosity.  Why would she have said that?

“Hello?” Emmy sang wagging a hand in front of his face.  “Earth to Connor, are you there?”

Connor blinked and stared down at her questioning expression.  “Beg pardon?”

“You were lost in space there for a minute,” she teased.  “Welcome back.  Did you have a nice trip?”

“What?” he questioned as his brother and Dory laughed lightly.

“Dinner, Connor,” Ian reminded him slapping him on the back.

“Aren’t you going to lead me in?” Emmy asked taking his arm.  “It is, like, your job, you know.”

“Of course,” Connor put a hand over hers and led her from the room as all the others trailed behind him.  Clearly they had all been waiting for him to come to his senses.

“What were you thinking about?” Emmy asked curiously.  “Because you were completely zoned.”

“Zoned?” he asked.

Emmy whistled and fluttered her fingers away from the side of her head.  “Gone.”

Indeed, he had been gone for a moment, he conceded.  Distracted by the impossible confusion of his thoughts.  “It was nothing, just business.”

“Ahh, the old ‘just business’ excuse,” she teased as he sat her again to his right leaving the seat on the end once again vacant.  This time Dory didn’t seem to mind as she seated herself next to Ian.  “What kind of business?”

“Ahhh,” he floundered.

“Ye know, laird,” the old man sitting on Emmy’s other side leaned in, “I have been meaning to ask how the market went this year.”

“The market?” Emmy questioned looking back and forth between the two men.

“Aye,” the old man continued in his gravelly tones.  “The cattle market in Glasgow.  How was it?”

Emmy looked again at Connor who seemed taken aback to be directly addressed, but she nudged him and gave him an encouraging nod.  “Go ahead,” she mouthed.

“Well, Uncle Innes,” he cleared his throat.  Ahhh, Emmy thought, great-uncle Innes that was it!  His grandmother’s brother.  “We took almost four hundred head in this year.”

“You raise cows?” she asked.

“Only the best beef cattle in all of Scotland, lass,” Innes corrected in his gravelly tones.  “Best there is!  Lad here has more than tripled the herd these past five years.  Sheep, too.  In my day, we dinna raise a third of what the laird does now.”

“Really?”  She turned to Connor and nudged him again with her elbow.  “Tell me more.”

Connor cleared his throat again hesitantly but it wasn’t long before he was actively engaged in conversation.  Soon most of the men at their end of the table joined Innes in the discussion.  His other great-uncle Alistair who was his grandfather’s youngest brother, his uncle Robert and cousin Nab.  The lively exchange soon had those seated at the other end of the table looking on in amazement as they watched the laird laugh and debate with his kin.

Emmy slouched back in her chair – Dory did not even bother to raise a brow – and watched it all with a satisfied smile.  Connor laughed and argued the finer points of livestock with his family.  She could see his surprise when the younger men expressed an interest in taking a more active part in the work of the estate that was clearly much larger than Emmy had imagined.  The home farm and range where the cattle and sheep were housed were over a mile away on a large acreage that covered most of the southern end of Mull.  Interesting what one could learn when they had a chance to listen.

The women spent a while longer without the men in the parlor that night but could hear the shouts and conversation of the men occasionally over their own chatter in the parlor.  Instead of finding refuge the piano once again, Emmy was drawn into a conversation with the younger ladies, cousins of Connor’s, and Dory on proper prenatal care.  Gladys, who was married to Connor’s cousin Gregor, admitted that she was also in a delicate condition - here Emmy had to roll her eyes - and wondered about how best to have an easy pregnancy.  The youngest, Nora, who had just recently wed young Nab who had been debating Connor over dinner, sat eyes wide open and listened in awe and trepidation.

By the time the men joined them, Emmy was more relaxed than she had been in days.  As she watched Connor saunter in her direction, she thought he was as well, perhaps not just in days but months or even years.  He turned to make a comment to Innes who slapped him on the back as he passed and Connor smiled.  It was a full smile of happiness, Emmy thought.  No wryness or cynicism.  Just happiness.  “Look at you,” she commented lightly as he took a seat beside her.  “You keep this up people might think that you actually are a friendly, humorous man.”

He took her hand and raised it to his lips.  Placing a warm kiss to her palm, he looked into her eyes.  “Thank ye,” he said simply.

Emmy shrugged and smiled.  “Me?  I didn’t do anything.  I told you if you just lightened up a bit everyone wouldn’t be so afraid of you.  Of course, now you’ll have to deal with everyone getting all up in your business all the time.  Pestering you.”

Connor closed his eyes and groaned.  “Much thanks!”

“That’s more like it,” she grinned and squeezed his fingers.  “You’ve got a pretty decent family here, Connor.”

He looked around the room and nodded.  “They’ll do.”

“High praise.”  She released his hand and patted his knee.  “Well, my work here is done I think.”

Connor caught her hand as she stood.  “Where are ye off