Read Online Thorn in My Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs - Free Book Online

eyes downcast. “Tonight, seeing you and your brother tear each other apart, I thought I might lose both of you.”
    He took the bloody cloth from her hands with a gende tug. “You worry too much. It's not Evan who concerns me. It's Father.” He met her gaze, measuring her mood. “Will you make things right between us?”
    She lifted her shoulders in a light shrug. “He's always known you were meant to inherit the land, Jamie. Haven't I told him so a thousand times? Now's the time to remind him.” She turned and knocked softly on the door as she pushed it open, clearly certain that her husband would not refuse her company. “Alec?” Rowena left the door open and swept into the room where the laird of Glentrool sat, his head hanging low over his empty glass, waiting for someone to tell him it had all been a ghasdy nightmare.
    “Alec, we must talk.” She eased gracefully into a chair and scooted it closer to his, reaching out to brush her tapered fingers across his arthritic ones. The hour was late, the fire in the grate reduced to a dull glow from the dying embers. “This…this creature that Evan took for his wife is driving me mad with her demands and complaints.”
    Jamie watched from the doorway, incredulous. Why was she discussing Judith, of all people? Weren't the disastrous events of the day sufficient without bringing up old news?
    Across the room his father merely nodded in agreement. “Whatwould you have me do, Rowena? She's from die soudi, aye, and a sharp-tongued, contentious young woman. But she's still our daughter-in-law.”
    “You're right, of course.” His mother's smooth words gave away nothing. “Not much to be done there. All the more reason we must be very certain Jamie doesn't make the same mistake.”
    “Jamie,” his father grumbled, shaking his head. “Always young Jamie. You think of no one else in this household, do you, woman?”
    At the mention of his name, Jamie's pulse quickened. His father had yet to notice him hovering in the wings, so poor was the man's eyesight. Would his mother wave him into the room? Include him in the conversation? Jamie quiedy took a step closer, his ears straining to catch every word.
    “I'm thinking only of you, Alec,” she crooned, patting his hand. “Of your future grandsons and the future of Glentrool. You know as well as I do that Almighty God himself promised this land to your children's children.
Jamie's
children, Alec. Not Evan's. Don't you see?”
    “Nae, I can't see!” he answered gruffly, the corners of his mouth turned down. “My eyes failed me miserably today, which is how Jamie managed to steal an old man's pride and an older brother's blessing with a single plate of food.”
    “Several plates/’ she teased him, “judging by how litde came back to the kitchen.” She fiddled with a frayed edge of his plaid, no doubt choosing her next words for best effect. Despite the tension in the room, Jamie couldn't help but marvel at his mother's ability to turn things in her favor. A worthy advocate, Rowena McKie. And a formidable foe, as his father surely knew.
    “Alec, your blessing was not stolen.” Her tone remained warm but firm. “It was rightfully claimed, no matter what Evan says. Leave such choices to the Almighty, dear husband, and we'll do what we can to help Jamie prepare for the future. I think it best he leave Glentrool at once. See a bit of Galloway before he setdes down. Find a bride worthy to bear you a grandson.”
    Jamie nearly swallowed his tongue.
A bride?
She hadn't said a word about marriage. When had that become part of their plan?
    His fathers brow creased with concern. “I have no taste for matchmaking, if that's what you re thinking.”
    “How well I know your dread of courting!” A sly smile decorated her features. “Didn't your father send a manservant to explore east Galloway and seek a wife on your behalf?”
    “Aye, and a fine one he found,” he admitted. “Though I wish I'd been the one to first clap