The Knight's Temptress (Lairds of the Loch) (28 page)

“Come along now, ye two,” Andrew said. “ ’Tis only supper, but it will serve as a wedding feast. So take the central places of honor, and I’ll say the grace.”

The seating, thus ordered, placed Lina and Ian between her mother and father. So, when Andrew finished the
grace, Lina turned to Lady Aubrey and said quietly, “I ken fine that you must be dismayed, Mam. By my troth—”

“Your father explained everything,” Lady Aubrey interjected gently.

“Did he? I doubt that he was away from us long enough to do that.”

“He may have left out a few details,” her ladyship said. She added in no more than a whisper, “I needed to know no more than that Dougal had had the temerity not only to offer for you, my love, but to threaten you!”

Wincing, Lina said, “He made those threats before, to Lizzie
and
me. Moreover, he was going to take me away and leave Lizzie with James Mòr.”

Patting her hand, Lady Aubrey said, “You need not think about them again, dearling. I will admit that I’d not have objected had your father hanged Dougal for his insolence. But he cannot harm you now. You and Sir Ian will consummate your union. Then he will attend to his business for the King, and all will be well.”

A shiver slid up Lina’s spine as her mother said the last few words.

Lady Aubrey raised her eyebrows in query.

Having no idea what had caused the shiver and hoping to divert her mother from inquiring about it, Lina said, “Are we to consummate our marriage at once then, Mam? I thought we would wait for the priest to bless it first.”

“Nay, nor should you, Lina. Yes, I will have some lamb,” she added in a normal tone when a gillie offered a platter of sliced meats for her inspection. After he had served her and moved on, she said, “Annie and Tibby are preparing Mag and Andrena’s bedchamber for you. You
need not worry about prying ears at the door, either. I’ll keep Murie and Lizzie with me. Your father will see to the men.”

Lina bit her lip, because prying ears were just what she had been imagining.

She had recalled that after Mag and Andrena married, a group of drunken men had carried Mag upstairs and deposited him in their chamber naked. Lady Aubrey often seemed to know what her daughters were thinking, although her greatest gift was a rare, uncanny ability to see things before they occurred.

Lina chided herself then for reacting as she had to the chill she had felt before. Would her mother assure her that all would be well if it would not be?

To be sure, her ladyship could not predict the future at will. Certain events just appeared in her mind, unbidden, and usually well before their time. Not always, though. Her warning of treachery just before Pharlain and his men had seized Arrochar years ago had given Andrew and her ladyship just enough time to flee with their newborn Andrena to the safety of Tùr Meiloach.

“Eat your supper, love,” Lady Aubrey said. “I must not ignore Margaret, and you will be glad later to have had sustenance now.”

Unwilling yet to think about “later,” Lina turned her attention to her trencher. Somehow it had acquired food, although she had not selected any.

Realizing that the gillie who had served Lady Aubrey had not even offered any meat to her, Lina stared at the array on her trencher and then looked at Ian.

He smiled. “It did not get there by magic, lass,” he said. “Whilst you were enjoying your conversation with
her ladyship, I took the liberty of serving you myself. I believe a husband does have that right.”

She remembered that a husband had many rights, and heat suffused her cheeks. Wondering how anyone had ever thought she was the serene, unflappable member of her family, and hoping her voice would not reveal her nervousness, she said, “Mam just told me that we should consummate our union right after supper.”

To her surprise and unexpected delight, she saw his cheeks redden.

Ian knew that he must be fiery red and was fervently thankful that Rob sat on Andrew’s right, rather than on his own. Had Andrew not been between them, Rob would surely have overheard Lina’s comment and seen Ian’s reaction.

Had that happened, Ian knew he would never have heard the end of it.

He was also glad they were at the table, so that no one but he could detect the immediate and painful response of his lower body to Lina’s words.

Bad enough that he was blushing. Men, real men, and certainly warriors and knights of the realm, did
not
blush. Never. As in not
ever
. But the fire in his cheeks now was evidence that it could happen to even the most unlikely chap.

Perhaps females did not know that, though. In any event, it would be well to control it. Andrew
would
know, if he chanced to note the phenomenon. And Rob might choose that moment or the next to lean forward. With these thoughts uneasily in mind, Ian kept his attention on Lina and saw a twinkle dawn in her eyes.

The cheeky lass was pleased with herself for stirring his blushes.

With sweet retribution in mind, he said, “Your mother is right, lass. Eat up. You are going to need all the energy you can muster.”

To which, she replied without hesitation, “Everyone thinks you mean to leave me here when you return to Dunglass, sir. But I must certainly go with you. What would your parents think if I did not?”

Ian sobered instantly. His first thought was that he had been right to warn her that they would fratch. Not over her going with him, though, because he would put his foot down on that. She would be unhappy, but he would allow her no choice. She would be much safer at Tùr Meiloach, so here she would stay.

Nevertheless, he was not fool enough to make
that
declaration now.

Instead, he said, “We can talk about that later. Art finished eating?”

“Not yet,” she said, shooting him a speculative look.

Ignoring it, he signed to a gillie to pour them some wine and asked another to bring back the meat platter. Then he said, “Mayhap you will tell me more about your people as we eat. I have met your father’s steward, Malcolm Wylie, and a number of the others. But who is that red-headed chappie who whistled so well?”

Lina was happy enough to talk about Pluff and the Wylies.

Ian seemed fascinated to learn that Pluff watched the postern gate and helped tend the animals inside the wall, so she cheerfully answered his other questions. Still, and
despite having evidently drunk a goblet and a half of wine, she felt as if only minutes had passed when Andrew said abruptly, “Annie tells me that your chamber is ready, Ian. So ye should take your lady wife to bed.”

“Aye, sure, sir,” Ian said as he stood and extended a hand to Lina.

She began to rise but paused when Muriella said, “Prithee, Father, not yet!”

Murie got up so hastily then that she would have knocked over her stool had Lizzie not caught it. Heedless of Lizzie’s action, Murie said coaxingly to Andrew, “I am going to tell the tale of how Sir Ian rescued Lina and Lizzie. Liz told me all about it, and I know that everyone else will want to hear it, too.”

Lina stiffened, but Ian gave her hand a squeeze and drew her upright.

People began to cheer again, but they broke off abruptly when Andrew raised his hands, palms out. “We’ll have nae tales tonight,” he said. “This night belongs to the bridal pair, and I’ll allow nae hindrance. D’ye hear me, all of ye?”

Someone began to clap then. When others joined in and still others stomped their feet, Ian waved and bore Lina off to the service stairs.

“I trust this stairway will take us where we need to go,” he said, grinning at her. “I don’t trust those men enough to parade you across the hall to the other one.”

“We can go this way,” she said. “We’re to use Mag and Andrena’s room. It’s at the top of the stairs, above the solar and just under the ramparts.”

“Good,” he said. “I know I’ll fit with you in Mag’s bed. I was thinking I might have to sleep in one with my feet hanging over.”

The image his words created made her smile. But when he urged her to precede him up the narrow stairway, her nerves began to tingle and her heart to pound. Not only was she more aware than ever of his presence behind her but she also felt unsure of what lay ahead. She had heard people talk of coupling and had helped Andrena prepare for hers. She also had a vague idea of what happened when men and women coupled. But she had never seen the act performed.

Ian’s confidence assured her that he knew much more about it than she did. The thought gave her pause to wonder but did little to steady her nerves.

“Here is their room,” she said when they reached the landing below the door to the ramparts and outside the large bedchamber that had, at an earlier time, contained pallets for men-at-arms who now slept on pallets in the hall or in cottages outside the wall. When she opened the door, she half-expected to see Tibby rushing about, attending to last-minute details. But although the room was aglow with soft golden candlelight, it was empty. The bed, turned down, awaited them.

Hearing Ian bolt the service-stair door and watching him cross the room to bar the main door, she said, “I must fetch a fresh shift from my room for the morning, sir. Tibby forgot to leave one out for me here.”

“Never mind that,” he said. “You won’t need it tonight. Forbye, I feel safer with the doors locked. I’d not put it past those others or your father—”

“Nay,” she said. “You heard him. He will brook no hindrance, which means no intrusion. He said it as much for you and me as for the others. Faith, sir, if he
were
the sort of man to let them disturb our bedding, Mam would not permit it.”

“Even so,” he said, leaving the bar firmly in place, “whatever you need tomorrow, your Tibby can fetch then.”

She had not thought about Tibby entering their bedchamber. “Will your man, Hak, come in here, too?” she asked.

“Not until I send for him,” Ian said, looking around as if to memorize every detail. “Come to that, I don’t know where your steward put him.”

“Mag’s man sleeps in the wee room across the landing from this one. So Malcolm or Peter Wylie likely put Hak in there. Do you want him?”

“Not now,” he said. “I just want to be able to shout when I do.”

“Well, you can go and look, but I’ll wager he is there, because female guests sleep in the room that Lady Margaret has now, across from the one where Lizzie and Muriella are sleeping. And male guests usually sleep across from the solar, where Rob MacAulay is. But Tibby sleeps in a tiny room downstairs near the kitchen.”

“Then, if she hasn’t come up on her own when you need her, I’ll send Hak or Rob to fetch her,” he said, moving toward her.

The sudden intent look on his face made her more nervous than ever. But a lady did not allow such sensitivities to show. Doubtless, she thought, Lady Aubrey had gone to her wedding-night bed with nerves of steel.

“I haven’t kissed you properly yet,” Ian said, taking Lina by the shoulders and drawing her slowly nearer, tantalizing himself with lusty images as he did.

Someone had lit a cresset on a corner table and several
branches of candles, so he had light enough to see her eyes widen and her pupils enlarge.

Her dusky eyelashes fluttered lower.

The bed—invitingly large—stood behind her, its dark red curtains tied back to show that someone had turned down the covers for them.