by Mara
What if I did? What if he just refused to feel guilt over his deeds and stopped dwelling on all he’d done? The temptation to do so was great.
Another mile passed in silence. At length, she murmured, “Hugh, when you called me your wife like that…” She trailed off.
He briefly closed his eyes. “I know. It will no’ happen again.”
“Th-that’s not what I was going to say.” She was trembling against his chest, her wee hands tightening their grip on his arm.
“Then what?”
Her next words made him sweat for the first time that day. “When you called me your wife, I found I really…like it.”
If Jane had been curious about Hugh’s life before the attack yesterday, now she was desperate to know more.
Though they’d finally slowed their pace to ascend a slippery embankment, she wouldn’t question him now. She glanced over at him riding beside her in the morning sun, and her heart ached at how exhausted he appeared. He’d been ever wary, so vigilant to protect her—and they’d ridden hard.
The attack had demonstrated yet again how stalwart a guardian Hugh was. When she’d had the knife at her throat, she hadn’t believed she was going to die—not then—but she had comprehended how her life would end if it came down to Grey.
Jane wouldn’t take another minute with Hugh for granted.
“We’re almost there, lass,” he said then, with an encouraging nod. “I ken how hard this has been for you.”
“For me? What about for you?” He and his horse looked much like they had that night in London.
He shrugged. “I’m accustomed to days like this.”
“Of course,” she said absently as she tilted her head to study him.
Hugh was a powerful protector, ready to unleash a chilling violence; yet, with her, he was tender and passionate. He had secrets, but she knew he’d be a faithful husband. He’d always desired her happiness above his own.
Just then, a breeze blew a lock of his thick black hair over one of his dark eyes….
She swallowed hard. Recognition took hold.
The Scotsman is…mine. As she gazed at him, she realized he was still her Hugh. Jane wanted him, always had, but now she felt an abiding respect for him—a deeper, more mature…love. Oh, lord, she didn’t love Hugh as much as she had before.
She loved him much, much more.
Yet she’d barely survived his leaving before —now what would happen to her if she lost him again?
She had decided he would be her first lover. Now she knew that this quiet, wonderful man had to be her last. How can I get him to stay wed to me? she thought, feeling panic rush through her at the thought of being forced to part from him. No! Calm down. Think!
“Jane, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“N-nothing.” She eked out a smile for him as a plan evolved in her mind.
No teasing. Only seduction. And only for keeps.
He frowned in return, and once they’d reach the rise, he increased their pace again. She was glad of the time to think.
Obviously, she needed him alone to prove that living with her wouldn’t be a “wee bit like hell.” So, she was pleased anew they weren’t going to Carrickliffe.
Unfortunately, the only thing more undermining than a clan of strangers would be Courtland MacCarrick —who’d always hated her.
Hugh had said he didn’t expect Court to be at his secluded home.Perfect. And barring Court’s presence, nothing could keep them from staying there.
Thirty-three
A bit of work, my arse. Hugh stifled another curse.
Upon reaching the border lands of Beinn a’Chaorainn, Court’s property in the wilds of Scotland, Hugh had had his first sense of unease. The long, winding drive was overrun with fallen trees, strewn across it at irregular intervals. They were rotting, meaning no one had been here in ages, not even a caretaker with a work cart.
By the time the house came into view, rain clouds had gathered, casting the manor in an ominous light. At the sight of it, Jane seemed to wilt in her saddle. The estate where Hugh had planned to hide Jane for possibly the entire fall…left a lot to be desired.
With a sinking feeling, he surveyed the tangled, stunted gardens, the front door hanging askew from one rusted hinge, the windows either broken out or matted with dirt and dead ivy.
At that moment, something wide-eyed and furry careened out of the front doorway.
He glanced at Jane. Her lips were parted, her breaths little puffs in the cold air. Dark circles were stark against her pale face. Their pace had been furious, but Hugh had reasoned that they could rest and recuperate at Beinn a’Chaorainn. Yet even under the strain of their travels, she’d been trying to cheer him up, keeping her mood buoyant for him, sweetly scolding him for brooding.
Now, Jane’s expression was guarded as Hugh dismounted and helped her from her horse. Without a word, he strode inside with his shoulders back, as if taking her here hadn’t been a colossal error. The next viable alternative was to go to the clan, and he’d wanted to avoid that at all costs.
Hugh crossed the threshold, took one good look around. And so the clan it will be.
Feathers and nests from grouse and pigeons littered the hall. It appeared that red squirrels, maybe badgers or even foxes denned here, and Hugh could hear teeming in the chimney. As if standing in sentinel, a pine marten was poised upright in the entry hallway, front legs bowed aggressively.
“Look, Hugh!” Jane cried, showing genuine energy for the first time today. “It’s a ferret. Or part cat? I can’t tell.” She eased past Hugh, cooing, “It’s the most adorable wittle thing.”
Hugh reached for her arm. “No, Jane, doona—”
It hissed at her and scuttled away—back inside. Jane looked crushed, mumbling something about never liking “ferret cats” anyway.
She followed him further inside, batting at the cobwebs that drifted in his wake, spitting frantically against one that brushed her lips. Freed of it, she gazed around the great room, her eyes wide with dawning horror.
His face flushing, his tone defensive, he said, “This is the last place anyone will look for us.” He reckoned the manor had been broken into, and once the front door was lost, nature had moved in. Still, Beinn a’Chaorainn had never, by any stretch of the imagination, been habitable in recent memory.
There wasn’t a stick of furniture to be seen, apart from three damp, pitted mattresses slumped against a wall. When Hugh’s further exploration found the kitchen empty of pots and dishes, Jane said, “It appears that I’ll be forgoing a bath.” Her tone was strained.
He opened yet another cabinet—nothing. “I saw a loch out back.” He might even have spotted steam from a hot spring, adjacent to the rocky banks—hot water ready for the taking. “If I could just find one sodding bucket, a pot to bring water up—”
He broke off when some unseen creature upstairs thundered into a run, crashed into a wall, then darted back the same way. Jane turned away, covering her face with her hands.
Crossing to her, he muttered, “Ach, Jane, I dinna know.” He tentatively laid his hand on her shoulder, frowning as he pulled free a few feathers that had settled in her hair.
He’d done it—he’d finally pushed her past her limit. As they’d neared the property, he’d again warned her it would be far from luxurious. She’d replied that as long as there was a bath, she would be fine. In fact, she’d dreamed aloud about soaking for hours—and that was before they’d been covered with dust, feathers, and spiderwebs.
She was exhausted, she’d been attacked, and not only was there no bath, there was no bed and no fire, and the areas where there were precious stretches of intact windows seemed to be precisely where birds had nested.
Hugh couldn’t believe he’d brought his lass to a place like this. How could she not cry?
She bent over, and when her shoulders began to shake, Hugh vowed silently that he was going to beat Courtland to within an inch of his life.
“Jane, I never would h
ave brought you here if I’d known. And we will no’ stay.” He turned her toward him and gently drew her hands from her face.
Jane was…laughing.
“I’m sorry,” she said, biting back a snicker, holding up her palm. “Our situation is not funny.” With an expression of concentration, she tapped her temple and said, “Dire, Jane, that’s what it is. Not amusing.”
She was likely delirious—Hugh’s expression indicated that he certainly suspected so. He was peering at her as if she’d just been released from Bedlam and would be returning forthwith. But then the accommodations would be sublime compared to this. Many fewer grouse.
And she lost it again.
Of course, this was where Courtland MacCarrick lived. She didn’t know which was worse: Court owning a place like this—or the fact that her determination to stay here was still unfaltering.
“Jane?” he said slowly. Poor Hugh. He’d been so discomfited when they’d entered—his broad shoulders had been jammed back—and now his worry was evident. “Lass, what’re you laughing about?”
When another feather wafted down to stick jauntily out of Hugh’s hair, she snickered some more. Wiping her eyes, she said, “It’s just that this is so much better than what I’d expected Court’s home to be like.”
“And how’s that?”
“It’s above ground.”
Hugh’s eyes briefly widened, then he half-frowned, half-grinned.
Jane inhaled, forcing herself to continue in a dry tone, “And I had no idea Courtland was such an animal lover. Look at all these beloved pets.”
“Aye,” Hugh agreed, his tone as dry as hers, “since he was a lad—never could keep enough of the wee beasties. Names them, every one.”
She gave a burst of laughter, surprised and delighted with Hugh, but reined it in to observe, “And Court’s quite clever with his menagerie. I never would have conceived of utilizing the chimney and the mattresses as pens for them.”
Hugh nodded solemnly. “Makes it easier to feed them their steady diet of dirt and cotton. Look how they thrive.”
Wrestling with laughter, Jane observed, “And the décor is quite fetching.” She tapped her chin. “Early hovel, if I’m not mistaken. Only the most studious and dedicated neglect could achieve this.”
“Aye, this level of hovel is rarely seen. He’s been hard at it for years .”
She did laugh then, having more fun bantering with Hugh in this awful place than she could remember. “Hugh, I think you’re enjoying yourself with me.”
He looked at the wall to her right as he said, “When you can refrain from teasing me, I like being around you.” When he glanced back at her disbelieving expression, he added in a gruff voice, “Always enjoyed your company.”
There was something in his expression, the smallest hint of vulnerability, as if he expected—or only wanted—her to make the same admission. “I enjoyed being with you as well,” she murmured.
“And by enjoy , you mean that you liked having someone at your beck and call to retrieve anything you could no’ reach and to bait hooks.” Had the tight lines around his eyes relaxed somewhat? “Admit it—you never lifted a paddle to row around the lake when I was near.”
“And you liked having me run my nails down your back, and filch for you whatever pie was cooling on the kitchen windowsill, and give you peeks of a transparent linen shift when we swam.”
His eyes went half-lidded. “Christ, I did like you in nothing but wet linen.”
Her toes curled in her boots, as much from his admission as from his sudden hungry expression. But then he seemed to grow bewildered by what he’d just said, and strode outside toward the lake. She was right behind him.
At the edge of the water, they turned back to face the manor. Sidling next to him, she butted his arm with her head until he grumbled but lifted his arm to put it around her shoulders.
“I truly dinna know, Jane,” he said, his tone weary. “I welcome your humor, but it does no’ erase the fault. This has added at least two days’ riding to get to Carrickliffe.”
Even if she weren’t bent on staying here, the idea of more riding made her feel ill. “This was a fine property once,” she offered, planting the seeds for a later request to stay here. If she came out and asked now, he would think she’d completely lost her mind. But, in truth, the place had probably been incredible at one time. Nicely situated on a hill overlooking the crystal-clear lake, the manor consisted of two wings. But the wings weren’t connected at a right angle—they flared out so that all the rooms in each had a view of the lake and the glens unfolding behind it for miles.
“Aye. Once.”
“Just pulling down the dead vines covering the brick would make a big difference in the façade.” A hovel it might currently be, but the manor house had been designed in the much-lauded baronial style. The massive stones at the foot and the ancient beams inside shouldering the ceilings in that great room were all the rage in England.
Most important, Jane could be alone with Hugh here. In her eyes, that meant it was perfect.
Except for one thing, she thought, running her hand over the back of her neck and gazing around. She’d just gotten the eerie feeling that they were being watched.
“Perhaps so,” Hugh said. “But that does no’ help us for tonight.”
“Cheer up, Hugh,” she said absently. “Things can’t get worse—”
Rain thundered down, like a loosed bucket of freezing water.
Thirty-four
“Well, the good news is that I got my bath,” Jane murmured in a drowsy tone. She lay on her side, her head resting comfortably in his lap as he sat back against the wall.
Where her fortitude sprang from, Hugh had no idea.
This afternoon, after they’d run for the manor in pounding rain, he’d settled their horses under a portico for the night, and then they’d investigated most of the interior.
Dodging streaming leaks from the ceilings, they had finally stumbled upon a tiny bedroom off the kitchen, likely a servant’s quarters. It had only one window, and the panels, though cracked, were intact. The room was free of feathers, and no scrabbling sounded from its undersized fireplace. The chimney was only partially obstructed—the smoke from their small fire crept in flagging tendrils, but always up.
After eating a dinner of biscuits from a tin, tea steeped in heated rainwater, and apples liberated that morning from some farmer’s orchard, they’d settled down for the night.
“Hugh, why did Court let this place get so run-down?” she asked.
“Now that I’ve seen it, I think it was probably neglected before Court even bought it.” After that, his brother had had no time to improve it. Court had been on the Continent with his gang, working to pay off this place, which he’d bought for pennies on the pound.
Though the land was rich, and there was an astonishing amount of it, the manor was occupied by its own demolition crew. Hugh was amazed that Court had considered bringing Annalía, a rich and cultured lass, here to live. Annalía was a brave girl, but Hugh thought even she would have swooned at the state of Court’s home.
Yet, hadn’t Hugh done the same? He’d brought a rich and cultured woman here.
Lightning flashed outside, and when thunder rattled the structure, the creatures outside the room began to mew and tussle with renewed vigor. Hugh pinched the bridge of his nose, but Jane only chuckled.
“I’ll take you to an inn tomorrow,” he said quickly. “There’s a village a few miles north of here, and they might have a place for us to stay. You can have a proper bath.”
“Hugh, you’re brooding so hard, I can hear my money piling up. And you already owe me five thousand pounds, at least.” She sounded lazily comfortable and amused.
“Five thousand, is it?” He stroked her damp hair, and they settled into companionable silence. But as ever, worry for Ethan weighed on his thoughts. Hugh was cut off from communication with London and daren’t leave Jane anywhere while he went to search for Ethan or hunted for
Grey.
Hugh had to assume that Grey was still loose, which meant Hugh and Jane could be together indefinitely as they waited for the bastard to be captured or killed.
Indefinitely? Hugh gave himself ten days before he was in bed with her—and that would be drawing on every reserve of discipline he possessed…
“Hugh, tell me something about your life, something exciting you’ve done since I saw you last.”
