A Minx for the MacKenzie [Highlanders Love #2]

Chapter 9

Even the night they had ran off from the Kincaid clan did not make Amhuinn's hands shake as they did now as she ascended the stairwell after their meal. Sounds of people moving around the Keep, as well as those going out could be heard echoing, but the roar in Amhuinn's ears drowned everything else out. Would one usually be so nervous meeting one's own child? As Hammond threw a look over his shoulder at her, he could not see a trace of the defiant minx he had thought she was, and instead saw only a nervous woman who was at a loss of what to do. While the pale yellow dress Gillian had borrowed her fit well on her willowy figure, it was hunched inwards as if Amhuinn was trying to protect herself from an unseen force.

In a way, Hammond could feel what she felt. Through their years of growing up, Hammond had never been particularly close to Gillian. His sister had a brilliant mind that his parents acknowledged, and as much as Hammond would've been loathe to admit, he had been jealous of Gillian's brilliance and how much their father sought her counsel. It took up till he was twenty-five before he began communicating with the then eighteen Gillian, and when their parents passed on three years later, he had felt at a loss of how to father the twenty-one year old young lady, just on the crux of adulthood. Their relationship had been tenuous at best, but they had grown much closer in the recent years since the deaths of their parents.

"Dinna fash yerself, Amhuinn. He's quiet now, and if there had been any issue, Tristan would've came looking fer me." he tried to console. Amhuinn shook her head.

"Isna his wellbeing I am afraid of." she started, still looking blankly at her fingers whilst they stood on the second floor. "I havena seen him since he was a few months old. He wouldna believe I am his mither."

"Then tis time fer the lad ter learn. He canna live his life the way he behaves, or he'll be a horrendous grown up." Hammond reminded.

It was the harsh reality, but it was the truth that Amhuinn had to accept. If she had continued letting Adair remain in Kincaid Castle till he grew up, there would be no hope for her to ever be reunited with her son. Even after four years under the sole care of Dougal MacCallan had turned him into a feisty, mean-spirited kid from what the morning's display had shown Amhuinn. She did not want her son to turn into a reincarnation of Dougal MacCallan. "Nae son of mine would be a mean-spirited bastard." she suddenly bit out.

Hammond was surprised, but pleasantly so. For the first time since they had returned Adair and Tamhas to MacKenzie Keep, he saw a whisper of the headstrong minx he had first met in the woods, and a smile came to his face. "Aye, that's the way lassie. C'mon, lets go and meet yer son."

Steeling her resolve and determination, Amhuinn followed behind Hammond pushing open the door, followed by Tristan into the room. The warrior shut the door behind them, and Amhuinn moved to stand next to Hammond as her blue eyes scanned the room. She had initially expected the small but strong body of her son to fly at them once again as it did this morning struggling for release. She was surprised however, to find one four-year old sitting with a mutinous look on the plain bed, legs crossed underneath him. The large white tunic he wore flared over the short legs like a tent. The dirty blond hair fell in messy waves down his head, but Adair spoke no word as they entered, and merely glared at them until Hammond made the first move.

"Have ye finished yer tantrum now, lad?" he asked.

"Bring me back ter my fither and the Kincaid lands, or my fither would nae let ye go." the boy said with a stubborn turn of his mouth, glaring at Hammond as he crossed his arms. "The Kincaid's hold great power."

"And why do ye wish ter return, Adair?" the elder male asked.

"Tis me fither. He has promised me riches, and the Kincaid land as mine once I grow up. I am ter rule them all." he proudly and arrogantly announced.