Page 78 of Highland Sky

“Well, then I choose to live here,” said Kellina, handing her kitten to her brother. “I will no’ leave Caitlin and Jamie.”

“No’ even for yer husband?” asked Nash, feeling aggravated with Kellina.

“My husband can live here with us,” said Kellina, being stubborn.

“Mayhap we can talk about this later,” Nash mumbled.

“I dinna see what there is to discuss,” she answered. “I have decided that we will stay here and there is nothin’ more to say.”

“I’ll drink to that,” cheered Tomas, lifting up his cup. “To my new right hand, Nash MacKeefe.”

The clansmembers cheered, but Nash and his brother and friends did not.

“Is that really what ye’re goin’ to do?” asked North from one side of him.

“Tell her the way it’s goin’ to be,” said Cam from his other side.

Nash looked over to Gavin who just shrugged.

“Nay,” announced Nash, pushing up from the table. “I never agreed to live with the MacKenzies. I actually never agreed to the marriage or the alliance at all.”

“Nash?” Kellina looked concerned. “What are ye sayin’?”

“I’m sayin’ that I have been told what to do since before I got here. I didna have a choice in the matter when I was told to thatch roofs or plow fields, and had no choice in whom I was to marry. I will make my own decisions from now on, and no one will tell me what to do.”

“Then go,” said Kellina, pushing up from the table, and stepping away. “Go back to the MacKeefes if that is what ye want, but in doin’ so, ye will have to leave me behind because I am stayin’ right here.”

“Kellina, stop bein’ so stubborn.” Nash felt a muscle in his clenched jaw tick.

“Me, stubborn? Hah! It is ye who is too proud to agree that stayin’ here is the best idea.”

“Why? Why is the best idea to stay here when everyone back home wants me to return?” asked Nash.

“Because this clan needs ye, Nash MacKeefe. I need ye,” said Kellina with tears in her eyes. “Then again, I dinna suppose that matters to ye, since ye are the mighty Nash MacKeefe who doesna need a soul.”

Kellina ran from the table, and Caitlin took off after her. Jamie picked up the kitten and glared at Nash. The whole MacKenzie Clan scowled at him now. The celebration for finishing repairing the roofs came to an abrupt halt. Suddenly, the whole alliance seemed like a farce. These people weren’t his friends and neither were they his family. He was starting to feel like an outcast again, and being an outcast to two clans was just more than he could take.

“I’ll be leavin’ in the mornin’, with or without my wife,” announced Nash. “I’ll sleep in the stable and leave at first light.”

“Aye. Me, too,” said North, following him.

“That goes for all the MacKeefes,” said Cam, grabbing another bowl of stew and heading off to the stable with Gavin. Nash looked back at his friends following him, feeling their loyalty, but not being happy about putting them in this situation. Hell, he didn’t like being in this predicament either. He never wanted to leave Kellina, but she hadn’t given him much choice. She had spoken for the two of them, never discussing this in private first like married people should do.

He didn’t feel married. Not really. He felt like a fool for more than one reason, and that didn’t sit well with him at all.

“Nash, are ye all right?” asked North once they got to the stable. Gavin and Cam went to take care of the horses.

Nash looked out at the night sky and all the thatched roofs they’d helped build, feeling as if he were going to miss all this. Tomas wouldn’t let him live in both camps, and Kellina had made it more than clear that she wasn’t leaving here.

“Aye, I’m fine. Why shouldna I be?” asked Nash, staring up at all the stars in the dark, night sky.

“Because ye’re about to leave here without yer wife, ye fool,” spat North. “Nash, just stay here if it’s what Kellina wants. It’s no’ important to come back to the MacKeefes. Just make her happy.”

“It is important to me,” Nash told his brother. “Kellina might be happy stayin’ here, but I willna. No’ since I ken the truth about what happened to our parents. Every time I go into the chieftain’s hut, I’ll think of what he did.”

“He’s dead!” spat North. “Let it go, Brathair. Isna that what ye keep tellin’ Kellina?”

“I dinna ken,” said Nash, flopping down into the hay on his back, covering his face with his arm. “I just want to sleep and no’ talk about this anymore, Brathair.”

“Sleepin’ willna solve yer problem, Nash. Ye are goin’ to have to decide by mornin’, one way or another. And mark my words, if ye leave here without Kellina, ye’ll regret it. It will break the alliance and the MacKeefes and the MacKenzies will be enemies once again.”

Nash didn’t answer. He knew his brother was right, but his pride was getting in his way of being able to make his own decisions. He loved Kellina, but was he willing to leave the MacKeefes and everything in his life to live with the MacKenzies? Would he be happy here? Or would it be too hard to look at the grave of the man who was responsible for the deaths of his parents? True, he’d told Kellina to leave the past behind and get on with the future. He hadn’t thought at first that it bothered him as much as it did. However, when he was told he could never go back and live with the MacKeefes, it was just more than he could accept.

“Did ye hear me, Nash?” asked North, but Nash laid still and didn’t answer.

Tomorrow, he would make the biggest decision of his life, and whatever he did would affect not only him but also his brother, his friends, and the future of both the clans.

Nay, Nash would get no sleep tonight, who was he fooling?