Before he could take her mouth and turn the kiss into something more than an affectionate act of gratitude.
―I thought aristocrats slept in separate beds from their wives, my lord.‖
His hair was not tied back and when he rose on his elbow above her it fell over his shoulders. ―Ye must be thinking of the English, m’eudail. In Scotland, we are not afraid of our women.‖
In the darkness, he could feel her eyes searching his face. He made a gentle pass over her collarbone with his thumb and around the curve of one breast. ―Are you afraid of me, Sassenach?‖
Her breath grazed his cheek. Hesitation? ―Nay, Ruark.‖
He‘d not shaven, and he was careful not to scratch her pale skin as he kissed her throat.
―Then you were not running away from me tonight.‖
―I am your wife.‖
―Aye,‖ he said against her neck.
His hand slid to her waist, turned her slowly and spread the front of her nightdress. ―You are mine.‖
But she had not told him she was not running away from him when she had tried to escape him in the garden. He dipped his head lower and suckled each nipple, willing her to stir. The darkness hindered all but a soft inviting mew as he curled his fingers in her nightdress, pushing the hem to her hips. Her breath quickened as his hand went between her legs and spread her for his exploration. He wanted her in a way he‘d not wanted anything before. He wanted more than her acquiescence or gratitude or obedience.
He wanted to be inside her body and her mind, he needed to taste her passion, to see himself in her eyes when he made love to her. In the darkness, he would settle for her desire as he dragged her hand to his erection. ―You can touch me, Rose,‖ he said huskily. ―I am not delicate.‖
Her fingers closed around him. His skin was warm and taut, the shape of him well defined by her palm. Her touch whet his pleasure beyond the quickening of his blood. Her breathing slightly ragged, she found the base of his shaft and, with her responding inhalation, he felt as if he had won a victory, slight as it was.
Her life was his and she was here because he willed it of her. He should feel guilty that he wanted this from her as well. But this time the sound he heard was his own.
―How do you say in Gaelic . ‗That pleases me, Ruark.‘ ‖
― Tha sin a’ cordadh rium,‖ he said on a breath and braced himself on his elbow as he moved between her thighs and let her guide him. A hot shiver shot through him as he buried himself inside her hot sweet passage until he no longer cared where she ended and he began.
― Tha sin a’ cordadh rium,‖ she whispered, wrapping her legs around his hips.
―This pleases me, too,‖ he said.
Then he unerringly found her mouth in the darkness and set about showing her just how much.
Chapter 18
Thumbing through a packet of correspondence on his desk, Ruark finished the last of his tea. He disliked tea immensely, but today he didn‘t notice. The glass doors behind him were open to the mid-morning breeze that billowed the curtains. Birdsong filled the air on one of those rare hot days when the sun had already burned away the garden mists before he‘d returned from his ride.
But early a riser that he was, Rose was even earlier. For the last two mornings, she had awakened before him, dressed and was gone by the time he stirred. Yesterday, she‘d found him in the stable after she‘d spent the day with Mary and his household staff. He‘d been with Angus talking over a late spring foal and he‘d not been able to share her day with her. Today she had invited him to see what she had done in the herbal, and again, he‘d found something else to keep him occupied. He sat forward with his elbows resting on his desk, the correspondence surrounding him all but forgotten as he twisted the silver ring on his finger, more an unconscious result of thought than a need to remove it. Besides, he had already attempted and it would not come off. No amount of greasing or soap would remove it.
Rose had asked him only yesterday if he had ever made a wish on it, and he had laughed at her foolishness, but later he began to think what one would wish for if that one had a restless soul and a heart he did not know.
The door swung open and Mary entered carrying a breakfast tray. He had told her he wasn‘t hungry, but as usual, the woman ignored him.
Her pale pink shell earrings bobbed with her movement as she set down the tray. Nearly all of the servants working and living at Stonehaven had been a part of the household for generations, but he was closest to Mary, which accounted for his tolerance of her boldness. He leaned back in the chair.
―What do you know of Arthurian relics?‖ he asked, the question more rhetorical than literal, and he did not expect an answer.
―Ah,‖ she said, her enthusiasm for the topic obvious. ―There was an archeological dig near Stonehaven some fourteen years ago. Naught of significance was found, as is usually the case.‖ Mary talked as she laid out the serviette, stating that she was still friends with the archaeologist‘s wife, who had conducted the dig. ―Mrs. Simpson continued her husband‘s work after he passed some years ago.‖
―Does she still live in Scotland?‖
―She lives outside Castleton, on the English side of the border. In fact, if ye suddenly have a hankering for artifacts, your new bride knows her. She sent Mrs. Simpson a letter during her first few days here. They are friends.‖
If this Mrs. Simpson person and Rose knew each other, then Ruark suspected Rose had believed the ring to be an authentic relic for a reason. She‘d received expert advice on the subject. It was such a silly trinket for him to give much thought, but it had been her trinket, and he had carelessly taken it from her. And his mind more and more was diverted to it.
As Mary poured coffee the conversation shifted. Mary told him that Rose had asked to see Jamie. ―I said she need no‘ ask my permission but his mam‘s.‖
Ruark looked up as she busied her hands on his tray. ―I see.‖ What Mary did not tell him, what she didn‘t have to tell him, was that Julia had already objected to Rose‘s visit to Jamie‘s room.
But his first instinct had been to protect his wife. ―Has someone else made a comment to you?‖
―Not yet. But Julia is awaiting Mr. McBain‘s return and your young bride has taken it upon herself to care for the lad until he arrives.‖
Ruark mentally groaned. Three days he had been back at Stonehaven, but McBain had yet to return. Yesterday one of the outriders accompanying the coach McBain and Anaya had been riding in from Jedburgh arrived with a message from Colum, explaining that the carriage axle had broken outside Hawick. This morning a message arrived saying the axle could not be repaired and that McBain would skewer the first man who attempted to get him on a horse. Colum said he would remain with McBain and Anaya until such time a new carriage would be delivered. Ruark had business with his solicitor in Hawick, and he needed to pick up Colum before traveling south to Workington to sort out the Black Dragon business with Hereford. But this he did not tell Mary.
―McBain is stranded outside Hawick until I can get another coach to them,‖ he told Mary.
―The family has three in service—and at least I can fetch McBain and Anaya back to Stonehaven.‖ He dropped a dollop of sweet butter into the porridge Mary had served him. ―I have to visit the Roxburghe Shipping office in Carlisle and on my way south I want to ride the southern section of this property.‖
Mary‘s hands froze. ―The southern edge? Ye would go alone?‖
Without looking up as he ate, Ruark told her he wanted to check on the planting. ―The crop was planted late due to the weather,‖ he said. ―I do not need an army behind me to speak to the tenants, Mary.‖
―We both know ye are not going down there to speak to the tenants about their crops. This has to do with what happened to yer father down there. Ye should take Duncan with ye.‖
Even if Ruark currently knew Duncan‘s whereabouts, he would not take his uncle with him. ―Aye,‖ he said, dabbing the serviette against his lips. ―My visit so
uth does have to do with my sire and I will speak to the tenants without Duncan present.‖
Ruark would piece together for himself what happened the night his father was killed, and in the process he had unfinished business with Hereford.
―Is it so important to ye that your father is dead? Duncan has already said that Hereford killed him. Perhaps ye should leave it at that.‖
Ruark tossed down the serviette. ―Why, Mary?‖
―Because your da was not a kind man. Whatever happened to him . ‖
He deserved. She did not say the words, but they lay there between them in the silence.
―Everything happens for a reason,‖ she said without looking at him.
―Aye? I could not agree with you more. But since when have you become so fatalistic, Mary? I am only going to speak to the tenants. I have to go anyway. I have not been there since my return from the sea, and, as I said, I have business to dispose of farther south.‖
Mary sniffed and lifted the tray. Ruark barely rescued his coffee she had just poured.
―Then ye best be talkin‘ to Julia first before ye leave Stonehaven,‖ she said. ―Assure her that yer new bride has no designs on the life of her son.‖ Mary then abandoned him to ponder that task.
With a quiet oath, Ruark downed the last of his coffee. He stood and made his way upstairs to Jamie‘s bedchamber. Then stopped. He leaned with his hands against the doorjamb. Ruark had never pretended to be any good around children, even older ones who could actually talk. As Rose had noted last night, he had not spent much time with Jamie since his return. But his reasons were complicated even to himself.
He found his brother asleep and Julia sitting in the high-back chair beside him. Upon his entrance, her expression changed from one of worry to one of relief. ―How is he?‖ he asked.
Clutching a woolen plaid shawl to her breast, she rose in a swish of wrinkled muslin and hushed him out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind her before facing him and saying in a low voice, ―She was here again this morning, Ruark. In my son‘s chambers.‖
He felt a burst of irritation at Julia. ―What happened?‖
―She came in while I was asleep and sat on the mattress beside him,‖ she whispered, shaking her head. ―I was asleep in the chair. She could have done anything, Ruark, and I would not have seen it. I will not allow that woman to give my son any more of her medicines. I want McBain or Mary up here.‖
Ruark understood the ramification of Julia‘s fear in a way that sent a chill over him. If something happened to Jamie while in Rose‘s care, he would never be able to protect her from his family‘s wrath.
―You have hardly slept since his return, Julia. You are exhausted. I will send Mary up. Go wash. Change your clothes. Sleep. I will talk to my wife. She will not go near the boy again unless you say so.‖
Julia touched his forearm, her long slim fingers feathering across the crisp white of his sleeve as if unsure. In the end, she withdrew her hand. ―Will ye not come inside and see Jamie?‖
―I have to go to Hawick and fetch McBain,‖ he said, inexplicably annoyed with both himself and her at the moment. ―Have you seen Duncan since our return?‖
She shook her head. ―Nay.‖
Julia‘s hands tightened in her shawl. She made no other move to touch him. She had kept her distance since his return, even taking her meals upstairs. She was avoiding him, almost as much as his own wife was avoiding him, and last night he had dined downstairs alone. ―Nay. I have not.‖
He started to turn, then stopped. His impatience gone, replaced by something less discernible.
―Did my father treat you well?‖ he asked, because he had not asked yet, and because for some reason he needed to know.
Her mouth softened as if she understood the turmoil her forced marriage to a man like his father had once caused within him.
The light from the diamond-paned window at the end of the hall captured her blue eyes.
―You did not fail me, Ruark. It is I who bears the shame for then and for now. I know what ye did for me and for this family now. And I will never forget it.‖ She moved toward the door.
―Julia.‖ He curled a hand over the doorknob to prevent her leaving.
Her shoulder brushed his, and she raised her chin without moving away. She was still as beautiful as she had been at seventeen. But he knew now he had never loved her. ―Rose is my wife.‖
―Mayhap, but she is not Jamie‘s physician. I have no idea what motive she would have for continuing her visits, as if we would want her near him.‖
He dropped his hand from the door knob. ―Maybe you should ask her, Julia.‖
An hour later, Ruark reined in Loki at the top of a barren rise broken only by a stretch of twisted rocks. Cattle grazed in the distance. He‘d ridden past the manicured parkland through the orchard above the northern field oft used as grazing pasture in summer. The hillside had been cleared of trees generations ago when reivers still roamed the countryside and warred on their unprotected neighbors. Thistle and tansy, with its strong-smelling foliage and flat-topped yellow flower heads, grew in abundance among the rocks. Loki stomped in impatience, snorting his displeasure as Ruark tightened his grip on the reins.
He‘d been to the surgery only to find Rose gone and had come this way after one of the groundskeepers saw her walking toward the fruit grove, carrying a large empty basket on her arm. The ground was still soft in places after last night‘s rain and a small print marked someone‘s recent passage. He followed the tracks down a path to the open field.
Summer days might be long in Scotland, but warm weather could oft be short-lived. Today the sun shone high in a flawless blue sky and a warm breeze caressed his face, bringing with it the faint scent of pine from the distant wood grove that led to the falls. He spotted her walking out of the woods, Jason beside her. The two were engaged in conversation as Jason helped her negotiate a creek. Ruark nudged Loki forward.
Rose‘s laughter died while Jason greeted Ruark‘s arrival with a wide grin. ―We have been to the falls. I was just telling her about the art of tickling trout.‖
Ruark shifted his gaze from the delicate hand resting on Jason‘s forearm to Rose‘s flushed face framed by her unbound hair.
She wore a dark blue apron over a brownish homespun dress that could have been a burlap sack for all he cared or noticed, when she was more beautiful to him than sunlight at dawn.
Ruark smiled, his tact considerable when he found himself perversely stirred and annoyed at the same time, first by her unsmiling response to his arrival and then by her proximity to Jason.
―I will see her safely returned,‖ he told Jason. The lad nodded, but before he‘d taken three steps, Ruark called to him. ―Thank you for seeing her safely about.‖
Jason seemed to recognize the inherent message in his words: She is never to leave Stonehaven’s walls without an escort.
To Ruark‘s surprise, Rose laughed. He‘d never heard a gladder sound than her laughter.
―Truly, Ruark,‖ she scoffed after Jason started jogging toward the house. ―I did not go far. Besides, this has been a most productive morning and I have taken full advantage of the bounty your lands offer. I found exactly what I sought.‖
Indeed, she looked as if she‘d been crawling on her knees in the dirt. The hem of her skirt showed evidence of mud from the stream.
She offered up the basket for his approval. Inside it laid assorted plants and roots. She tapped a pile of field fungi. ― Bolg losgain. Frog‘s pouch,‖ she said proudly. ―Used to stem bleeding, counter boils and abscesses.‖
She caressed a muddy root ball like a mam admiring her wee babe. ―Mallow root. ‘Tis for stomach ailments. And this?‖ she held up a handful of . something—―is for fever. This will help Jamie.‖
Lowering the basket, she held the handle with both hands and squinted in the sun as she peered up at him. ―What are you doing all the way out here this fine day? Are not lairds supposed to be occupied with their lands and se
rfs and not worried over their brides‘
whereabouts?‖
He leaned his elbow on his knee. ―I came to tell you I have business to attend to in Hawick and the shipping offices in Carlisle.‖
He didn‘t tell her he would be leaving her for a few weeks, and she didn‘t ask why he was going. He wouldn‘t have told her anyway. She would have tried to stop him.
―I see.‖ She turned on her heel and walked through a patch of meadowlark, leaving him to follow on Loki. ―I bid you have a good trip then. When you return, you must show me this
‗trout tickling‘ business of which Jason spoke.‖
He reined Loki in front of her and blocked her path. ―I will return you to the surgery.‖
―I prefer to walk, my lord.‖
Was she challenging him? Daring him to force her to do this as well? He breathed out a sigh and swung down from the horse. One battle lost was a small concession. He took the basket from her, and he was surprised she let him. He carried it as they walked side by side like a young courting couple. Despite himself he grinned at the image.
Claimed By a Scottish Lord Page 26
