Highland Chieftain (Book 5)

Chapter 30

AN - so sorry that real life has caught up with me but here is a little something to keep you all going. Thanks for being so patient.

Chapter 30

Kendrick looked up as the noise from the hallway. A pained grunt followed by the sound of a body hitting the wall just outside within the hall. A small smile lit his face, humour surfacing within him for the first time in so very long. Who would have thought just a month ago that Robert, of all the people in the world, would become such a friend? The man was still weeks from being healed but he was damned if he was to be stuck in one place. Hence the loud thump in the hallway, followed by the angry pained mutterings. With the aid of a man and a large walking stick, Robert was hobbling about as much as possible. And Kendrick used the hilarity of it as the reason he had not yet kicked Robert out of his house. That and the surprising help that Robert had been. No one he knew would say Robert was a man who was needed in a crisis. Yet Kendrick would never have been able to say the dry sense of humour the male had was a riot to be around either.

Watching with a straight a face as possible, Robert suddenly filled the doorway with his man at one side doing his best to keep him upright. Trying his best to stay impassive he let Robert hobble his way to his chair, waiting until the other male left before he let the smile start to creep across his face. Robert just glared in his direction. "If I cannot move freely I cannot be at the marriage of the year." This time it was Kendrick's turn to scowl. Each time the wedding came up in conversation Kendrick's mood took a nosedive. "Your humour is not appreciated."

"Yet, you are allowed to mock my physical state?"

"Aye, as you are in my home, under my protection, unless you have forgotten?" An eyebrow raised in condescension.

"I may change my mind about helping you, I may need your protection now, but my men are out there right now working for you at my command."

Kendrick wiped a hand down his tired face. "Aye, I appreciate the help you have given me, but I had to speak to the blushing bride's father this morn." Robert's face spoke volumes as to what he expected to have been said. "I take it he was not happy?"

A harsh laugh escaped him before he could withhold it. "Unhappy is one word for it. He is rather unenthused about the delay in the marriage. I have convinced him to wait another month, but that is all I can convince him off. But his patience is wearing thin." He laid weary eyes upon Robert. "Are you sure you wish to help me with this? For I can see no way through without you anymore and yet I find I am guilty over the help I expect from you." Robert sighed as he leaned back.

Robert was a little taken aback by the confession, but he also knew that Kendrick was an honourable man and bringing Robert into this mess is not what he wished to do. But Robert knew this was probably the only way he could ever repay the kindness he had received. His clan was struggling, even with the deals he had managed this winter, he knew that as a friend now Kendrick will help him through tough times, if this was the only time he could pay him back in his life, then he had to take it and gladly. "That guilt may come in handy with some help for my clan." He tried to lighten the mood with his humour, but Kendrick still had that serious look upon his face. "Fine, I will speak freely, I may not like the help I have to give, but I am very sure that I will see this through to the end. I am the Laird of a diminished clan, only just climbing back out from the depths our last Laird through us into. I will need help, I am well not happy, but accepting of the fact I need to ask that. You Kendrick, I never would have thought I would ask it of you, but with the help and time you have already given me, I was hoping I could take more of your time in the future. At present this is the only help I can give you for a long time to come, therefore I will play my part as needed."

Kendrick had to make sure one last time. "Do you do this completely freely, no matter what the consequences may be?" Robert looked directly into his eyes. "Aye, Kendrick, I do."

Larena sat in silence as she listened to the serious conversation happening only a little ways down the table, the content of the whispered conversation had pricked her attention. And the words she heard withered the small growth of hope which had begun to take root within her heart. Each word a stab of shattered pain, yet she realised it was not something yet fixed, there was a possibility the actions they spoke of had not yet occurred, and all she could do was hope along with the males at the high table that Kendrick could find a way out of the predicament he found himself within. For she had not known her feelings had turned once more towards him until she found she may have lost him forever.