“You don’t understand.”
“How much effort does it take to give your wife’s hand a squeeze? To smile at her once, just one time a day to greet her and say hello? And how do you expect her to perform her wifely duties when you’re so cold to her?”
“I don’t,” he snapped. “I don’t expect her to. I don’t want her to.”
Henna drew back in surprise. “You—you won’t—”
“I’ll not take a child like her to my bed. She’s a girl, an innocent.
Another virgin who’ll cry and complain at the first taste of marital play.”
“She’s not a girl.” Henna huffed indignantly. “She’s a woman and she pines for you. She’s been made wife to a husband who pushes her away, and she’s rightfully confused about it. She looks for you and asks all day where you are, when you’ll see her again.”
“That will all change if I take her to my bed. Anyway, I have no desire to bury another wife.”
Henna paused, understanding dawning over her face. Her expression turned sympathetic.
“Oh, lad.
Is that what this is all about then?”
“No, it’s not. Henna, believe me, it’s much more complicated than you can comprehend. But I don’t have to explain my behavior to you, or to anyone, as far as it regards my wife. I’ll thank you to remember that.”
“You know it’s only because I love you, lad. I do. I love you like my own son.”
“I know. I love you too, but I’ll not support this meddling. If it continues, I’ll find Caitlyn another attendant and forbid you to see her. She’ll learn soon enough her proper place here. She’ll learn to live with things as they are if you don’t complicate matters.”
Henna bowed her head, wisely deciding to bite her tongue, but as she walked away she muttered under her breath, “It’s not me that’s complicating things, Duncan dear.”
* * * * *
Cait
lay awake in bed long past sunset, her eyes too sore from crying to sleep. She didn’t know why his rejection smarted so much. It’s not as if she wasn’t coming to expect it in recent days. She didn’t understand what it was about her that so offended him. Was she so repellent, that he couldn’t even stand her in his bed, in his room? He acted as if she profaned it with her mere presence. She wanted to beg him to tell her what was wrong with her, to tell her what she could change.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t, so she only cried until she was so sore and tired she couldn’t cry any more. Even then, she couldn’t sleep. She just kept replaying the wretched conversation over and over in her mind.
If I find you in this room again, you will be punished.
Severely punished.
His hands had made fists when he said that, and she knew he meant he would hurt her with his hands. He would beat her, just as all men beat women who weren’t obedient to their demands.
If you ever leave your guard without an idea of your whereabouts, you will rue the day you were born.
He was so big, so strong. It would hurt terribly if he rained blows on her in anger. Still, at least then he would be touching her. At least then he would take notice of her. She thought, somehow, it would be better than this grief.
Chapter Four
Oh, she was an imp. She really was. If she was testing him, she was about to reap the very real rewards of such folly. She’d eluded her guard again, but this time he’d seen the entire thing unfold from his vantage point on the upper practice field. He watched her hurry for the orchard, looking back over her shoulder.
“Ian, I’ll return in a while. I leave you in charge. When Desmond arrives to report my wife missing, relieve him of his duty for the day without prejudice.”
“Yes, sir,” Ian said, barely disguising his puzzlement.
Duncan mounted his horse and wheeled towards the orchard, knowing exactly which tree she’d crawled into. He’d promised her punishment the next time she evaded her guard. So be it. When he reached the tree he dismounted. He approached the leafy apple tree and looked up through the branches to find Caitlyn balancing on a bough near the top.
“Come down,” he said sharply. “If that branch breaks and you fall—”
“It won’t matter, will it? You don’t want me anyway. If you’re lucky I’ll break my neck.”
“Caitlyn.
Come down.
Right now.”
“No,” she yelled.
He stared up at her in surprise. Her chin jutted out and she pouted down at him. His little mouse was not so mousy after all.
“Caitlyn, either way you’ll be punished just as I promised you. If I have to drag you down, it will go worse, much worse.”
He watched her consider that. Fear and anxiety clouded her expression for a moment, and then she turned churlish again.
“Why do you care if I leave my guard, anyway?
If you value me so little?”
He sighed heavily. He’d like to climb up in the tree and shake some sense into the little twit, but the branches were barely strong enough to support her, much less his massive bulk.
“I value you as much as any man values his wife.”
“
Which is not at all.
”
“Whether I value you or not is not the issue here. You were told not to wander off alone. You were warned that you would be punished if you did. I know you don’t know me very well, but I’m a man of my word and I do what I say. You will be punished before we leave this orchard.”
“Punished how?” she asked, a slight tremor in her voice.
Good, she was listening.
“I’m going to bend you over my lap and spank your bottom until it hurts you to sit down. Hopefully that will teach you how important it is to obey my commands.”
“Well,” she said after a moment. “In that case, I’m never coming down.”
Duncan stifled a smile. It really wasn’t funny. He shouldn’t have been laughing, but the cowed expression on her face, the resolve in her voice... She truly believed if she just sat in the tree long enough that he’d give up and go away. He crossed his arms over his chest and schooled his face to a stern glare.
“I promise you I can wait here an awfully long time,
Cait
.
All night if I must.”
She didn’t answer. He peered up to find her biting into an apple and gazing down at him with a baleful expression.
He sucked in a breath. God, she plagued him. But he wanted her. He wanted her so badly he ached. He was actually enjoying having her trapped in the tree at his mercy. He might keep her there all night only to look up at her expressive blue eyes and her red pouting mouth. He watched her lick apple juice from her lips.
“Caitlyn,” he called up. “Throw me down an apple too, if you will.
And one for my horse.”
“Okay,” she said after a moment, wiping her mouth on her sleeve and her hands on her skirts. She looked around the fruit laden branches and selected a nice, ripe, shiny one. She tossed it down to him. He’d expected her to find the wormiest, most pocked one in the tree, but no, not Caitlyn. She threw down another for his horse and he caught it, strolling over to feed his stallion the treat. When he returned, he found her looking down for him anxiously. It touched him, how she sought him. She seemed to need him so desperately. Why? Why was his presence, his approval so important to her when he was only standing down here to dole out a punishment?
And what on earth was he going to do with the girl? It became more obvious with each passing moment that she was elementally attractive to him. He looked down at the ground, frowning, then up at her again. He still held the apple, perfect and red, cradled in his hand.
“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.
“No, I’m not hungry,
Cait
. I’m frustrated. I’m tired of waiting down here for you. I want you to come down before that branch breaks.”
“If I come down, will you still punish me?”
“Yes, I’m going to punish you. I’m growing more irritated by the moment, as a matter of fact.”
“That’s why I don’t want to come down.”
“Well, you should have considered the consequences before you tested me.”
“I wish you would just hold me instead.”
Her soft, wistfully spoken words took him aback. He bit into the apple, chewing slowly and thinking over what she’d just said.
“
Cait
—”
“I wish you wanted me,” she said. “Because I wish you would hold me. I would like that much better than...being punished.”
He sighed. He would have to put his hands on her sooner or later. He was only delaying the inevitable as it was.
“Listen, Caitlyn. If you’ll come down at once and submit to the punishment you earned, then afterward, I’ll hold you as you wish.”
She looked down at him, considering, the corners of her mouth drawn down in the most charming little frown.
“And I caution you, I’m not normally one to bargain, especially not in situations like this. However, your honesty and openness has moved me. You have thirty seconds to decide what to do. After that my offer to hold you is withdrawn.”
It was her turn to sigh. She looked down at him warily.
“How much will it hurt?”
“It’s a punishment,
Cait
. It’s not going to feel good.”
“How long will it last?”
“No more questions. Make your decision. Just remember, your punishment comes either way, so the best choice should be obvious. You have ten seconds left to decide.”
With another soft sigh, she threw down her apple core and began to ease herself from the crook of the branch.
“Be careful. Come slowly.” He instinctively positioned himself below her in case she should fall. When she was in arm’s reach of him, he took her waist in his hands and lifted her to the ground. Her arms came around his shoulders for balance and her face leaned close to his. He could smell the sweetness of apple on her lips, on her sticky hands.
Reluctantly she met his gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said, fighting back tears. “I’m not usually so bad.”
“Aren’t you,
Cait
?” he replied skeptically.
“Well,” she whispered, “I don’t want to be. I don’t want you to punish me.”
He watched her hands as they clasped and unclasped in front of her. She looked up at him mournfully.
“I just want you to...to like me. I don’t want you to be unhappy with me.” Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks and she stared at his hands while she sniffled under his gaze.
“It will make me happy if you obey me,
Cait
.
And if you submit gracefully to punishment when you don’t.
No more climbing up in trees to delay the inevitable.”
She stole another anxious glance into his eyes, to find them sympathetic and kind.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to be better.”
“I’m sure you will. Afterward all will be forgiven.” He reached for her wrist and grasped it. “And hopefully a lesson will be learned.”
“I’ve already learned my lesson. Believe me, I have.”
He shook his head. “That won’t work. It won’t ever work with me.”