Never Seduce a Scot: The Montgomerys and Armstrongs (21 page)

“I do not regret our marriage either, Eveline.”

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t expected such an admission. She’d made her confession for no other reason than that she’d wanted him to know. She hadn’t done it so he would reciprocate. But she couldn’t help the intense relief or the warm glow that arose from within her at his statement. Maybe … maybe they
could
have a marriage more like her parents’.

“I don’t anticipate that our marriage will be easy. ’Tis obvious our families are in opposition. My views on your kin are unchanged and I do not say so to hurt you. I say it because I won’t lie to you.”

She swallowed, but held his gaze so she’d catch every word even if they did hurt.

“But I do not regret the union that was forced upon us.”

He touched her cheek in a gentle caress.

“I’ll protect you, Eveline. I’ll not let my kin do harm to you, nor will I allow them to disparage you in any way. We must decide now what we tell them. There is no reason for you to live in secrecy, hiding in the shadows any longer. Ian McHugh cannot hurt you here.”

The hand holding the goblet shook, and he carefully pried it from her hand, setting it on the floor beside the bed. Then he took both her hands in his and squeezed gently as if to offer her support.

“They’ll likely still think me daft,” she blurted. “ ’Tis true I do have a defect.”

Graeme scowled. “ ’Tis not of your doing. You suffered
an accident and subsequent illness. You can speak and make known your thoughts, your needs. You can understand what others say to you. You can do everything a normal lass can do. The only difference is that you cannot hear. That does not make you daft or any less intelligent, and anyone who says differently will have me to answer to.”

Her heart lightened and warmth traveled through her chest until she was smiling. Relief was overwhelming. After living so long with the fear of discovery, with guilt over her deception, she was seeing an end to it all.

He was offering her freedom of the sweetest kind. Freedom from the stigma of being less than a person, even though she’d brought it on herself. Freedom to have a normal life, one devoid of fear. Never would she have to worry over Ian McHugh again.

“If you wish to tell your clan the truth, I’ll not argue the point,” she said. “Perhaps then they’ll know that when I do not respond, it’s not because I’m slighting them. It’s because I have not heard their address.”

The cadence of Eveline’s speech was oddly mesmerizing. It was certainly different. But to Graeme it was pleasing. Others would still likely disparage her when she spoke just because she sounded different. She still struggled over some words and she hadn’t learned to monitor the loudness of her tone—how could she have when she hadn’t practiced?

It was a task he’d set Rorie to immediately. His sister had developed an affinity for Eveline from the first day. Rorie was a solid ally for Eveline, and Graeme didn’t have to worry that Rorie would be disloyal to her. Rorie could help her find the right volume so Eveline would better know how loudly she was speaking by the way the words felt coming out of her throat.

“I think it best they know the truth,” Graeme said. “I don’t want to give them any reason to continue with
their insults and disrespect. Not that you wouldn’t be due that respect if you were ‘touched.’ There’s no reason for others to levy such hatred toward that which they do not understand. But this way they’ll know what a capable, intelligent young lass you are, even more so because you have no hearing and yet you’ve managed to teach yourself the very difficult task of reading words from people’s mouths.”

Eveline’s eyes sparkled as she stared up at him in wonder. “ ’Tis no small thing for you to think this way. Many would have no such kindness to those weaker or less intelligent than themselves. Even in my own clan, there were many who thought the laird should rid himself of his daft daughter. Many would not only condone or sanction such ridicule but they would participate themselves.”

Graeme frowned, not liking the idea that anyone in her own clan would have acted so harshly toward her. “It does not make me more of a man to belittle those under me.”

She smiled. “I quite like you, husband.”

He blinked in surprise at her pronouncement. Then he laughed. “I like you, too, Eveline.”

Then he realized the one word she hadn’t said and he was suddenly filled with impatience, wanting to hear it from her lips.

“Say my name,” he said huskily. “Graeme. I want to hear you say my name.”

“Graaame,” she said slowly and with great care.

“A little louder,” he encouraged. “You spoke it so softly, I almost did not hear.”

“Graeme,” she said louder and with more confidence.

The sound delighted him. It sent an uncontrolled shiver up his spine. The ache in his gut intensified. He stared back at her, so close and yet with too much space between them.

It didn’t matter that he no longer had to fear taking advantage of a woman who wasn’t aware of the kind of intimate relationship that took place between a man and a woman. She was still innocent and he would have to take great care with her. He would have to advance slowly so as not to overwhelm or frighten her.

But his need was savage. Clawing relentlessly at him, growing more with every moment he spent in her presence. He’d experienced lust. He was well acquainted with matters of passion. But this was … different.

It transcended simple attraction, a need for a woman—any woman—to assuage his desires. She called to him on a completely different level. She spoke to the very heart of him. Inspired feelings of protectiveness and fierce possessiveness that he wasn’t even sure he liked.

Feeling this … strongly … for a woman was dangerous. It clouded a man’s judgment. Made him forget his duty. Made him forget everything else save … her.

“I like my name on your lips,” he murmured, his voice catching. He was suddenly grateful she couldn’t hear him, couldn’t tell the difference in his tone. It told too much. It told of his weakness when it came to her.

She smiled beautifully, her eyes lighting up, sparkling with pleasure. “I like my name on your lips as well,” she said shyly. “Even though I cannot hear it. I imagine what it would sound like. I feel the vibration in my ear and it’s … comforting.”

His expression sobered. “It must have been very difficult to adjust to hearing nothing, to wake up to a silent world.”

“It was,” she whispered. “I thought so many things. That it was my punishment for daring to defy my father and even Ian to a degree. But I couldn’t imagine God wanting me to marry a monster. He wouldn’t be that unmerciful, would he?”

“Nay,” Graeme said, touching her cheek. “Perhaps
God gave you to me to protect so that you’d never have to worry about Ian McHugh again.”

Her eyes widened. “I had not considered that.”

He smiled. “Then consider it now. Perhaps the king’s dictate was not such a terrible thing after all. I find the matter of our marriage not nearly as distasteful as I did in the beginning.”

Her cheeks blossomed with color, but he could see the warm delight in her eyes. She truly was a beautiful lass and he was falling more under her spell by the minute.

“I’ll pull my brothers to the side and gain their assistance in telling the members of our clan of your situation. I’ll not make a public announcement. I don’t want to discomfit you in any way.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

He tipped his finger underneath her chin and then leaned in to kiss her one more time. It was brief—it had to be lest he allow things to go too far this very moment—but it was no less sweet.

“I meant what I said earlier,” he said as he pulled away. “Kierstan and those who participated in the abuse you experienced will not work in the keep again. Furthermore, if you have any further issue with them, or anyone else, you’re to let me know the moment it happens. They will be dealt with harshly.”

Eveline swallowed, but nodded her agreement.

He reluctantly rose from the bed, putting more distance between them. Then he turned so she’d see his mouth as he spoke.

“I go now to speak with my brothers. It will be time to sup soon. Perhaps you should rest a moment and then join me in the hall.”

C
HAPTER
23

“A word, please,” Graeme said to Bowen and Teague as he approached them in the courtyard.

Bowen lowered his sword and backed away from Teague before sheathing it in the leather scabbard that hung from his side. Teague waved his hand to dismiss the group of men they’d been training with, and then the two brothers closed around Graeme.

“The clan is unhappy with your dictate,” Teague murmured. “Few are sympathetic to the ‘Armstrong bitch.’ ”

Graeme’s nostrils flared and he would have gone for his brother, but Bowen stepped in between them, putting his hands on Graeme’s chest.

“He did not call her such, Graeme. He was only repeating what many have said after you dismissed the women from the keep.”

“She is not to be spoken of in such a manner regardless of whether you’re repeating the words of others,” Graeme snapped.

Teague held up his hands. “I’m merely telling you that there is much discontent. They feel you’re being disloyal to your own kin by siding with the Armstrong lass.”

“She has a name,” Graeme growled. “And it is no longer Armstrong. She is a Montgomery.”

Bowen sighed. “Aye, we know it. We’re on your side. But you cannot ignore what’s being said around you because it offends you. You can’t make the clan accept Eveline, no matter how much you may wish it. You can tell them how they must act. You can tell them what they must say. But you can’t force them to accept your wife, because you can’t change what’s in their hearts. And what’s in their hearts is hatred.”

Graeme sighed. He knew what his brother said to be true, and it frustrated him.

“If I can accept her, then why can they not? Her kin is responsible for the death of my father. They are responsible for the loss of our clansmen’s lives, and yet I know that I cannot hold a lass responsible for the sins of her father any more than the Armstrongs could hold Rorie responsible for the Armstrong lives that have been forfeit to us.”

“Aye, but you’re assuming that they would afford the same courtesy to Rorie,” Teague said in a grim voice. “Everyone is not you, Graeme. Not everyone has your logic. You can look at the situation and say the lass is not to blame and we should not make her pay for the sins of her kin. But everyone else just sees the enemy and their thoughts turn to vengeance.”

“She’s not daft,” Graeme said, frustrated with the course of the conversation.

Bowen lifted his eyebrow. “Nay? I had my doubts. Why then does everyone in her clan assume so and why has she never corrected their opinions?”

“She’s deaf.”

Teague’s gaze sharpened. “Deaf? She cannot hear? How then does she know what it is we’re saying? She understood enough of the insults the women were slinging to go into a sword-wielding rage.”

Bowen grinned. “A fierce wee kitten swinging a sword. Now that was a sight to behold.”

“She reads the words that are formed on our lips,” Graeme explained. “ ’Tis extraordinary if you think about it. She lost her hearing as a result of her accident, but not her wits.”

“It still doesn’t explain why she perpetuated such a myth,” Teague said.

Graeme related the story that Eveline had told him, of how she sought to protect herself from marriage to Ian McHugh only to find herself forced into marriage with Graeme.

Bowen and Teague both wore frowns when Graeme finished. Then Teague shook his head. “It was quite clever of the lass even if a little extreme.”

“Not so extreme if it prevented her from falling into the hands of a man who’d sorely abuse her,” Bowen murmured. “Think on it. The lass went to her father with her fears and he discounted them. Mayhap he wanted the alliance too much to put any credence into what she said. Or mayhap he just thought she was overly fearful and that once accustomed to the idea she’d come around. But ’tis clear she thought she had no choice.”

Graeme nodded. “She didn’t want to continue the deception, but she was fearful of my reaction. She thought that I was kind to her because I thought she was daft and that I would no longer look at her as someone to be pitied and that I’d despise her because of her heritage.”

“And
were
you kind to her because you thought she was pitiable?” Bowen asked.

Graeme hesitated. “In the beginning, aye. I felt sympathy for her even as I felt frustration for being forced into marriage to a woman who could never be a wife to me. I was angry, but I also knew I could not be angry with her.”

“But not now,” Teague commented.

“Nay, not now. She’s … special. I cannot explain it, but I do not regret our marriage.”

Bowen blew out his breath. “You’ve a difficult path ahead, brother. It won’t be a simple thing for her to win favor with our clan.”

“Aye, I know it. But you and Teague will aid me in this, will you not?”

Teague and Bowen exchanged glances.

“Aye, we will,” Teague said. “If the lass is what you want and you are content with her, then we trust your judgment and will do all we can to ease her way.”