“How can ye do it? How can ye leave again so easily?” she snapped.
“Easily?” Edan echoed, coming towards her, his face darkening. “Ye think I want to go? I’ve only just got home, woman! I havenae even bedded me wife yet!”
“Then all the more reason for ye to stay put!”
“’Tis nae that easy. There are things ye dinnae ken.”
“What things?” she demanded.
“Never mind. All ye need to ken is that none of this is easy for me, but ’tis me duty to protect me clan and me people.”
“Well, surely, the best way to do that is by stayin’ close to them,” she pointed out, not even understanding why she was so desperate for him not to leave.
He visibly tried to calm himself. “Look, ’tis nice to ken ye dinnae want me to leave, especially after what ye said the other day when we were arguin’.”
Olivia could not help blushing when she recalled her harsh words, when she had told him to go away again because he was a better husband when he was absent.
“I was angry then.”
“Anyway, there’s nothin’ for ye to worry about. I’ll be victorious, and then I’ll come straight home to ye—never fear.”
“Nay!” she cried, stomping her foot. “I dinnae want ye to go!”
“For God’s sake, woman! Why do ye have to be so stubborn and difficult about everythin’?”
Olivia finally let out the truth she had hardly known herself. “Why is it so hard for ye to believe that I dinnae want ye to die?!”
A shocked silence ensued, during which she avoided looking at him.
Edan approached her, and when he was close, he cupped her chin and turned her head so she had to look him in the eye. “Ye should have more faith in me, Olivia. I’m nae so easily killed.”
Olivia was about to retort when his lips suddenly came down on hers with a passionate force that swept her away. He forced her lips apart, plundering her mouth, entwining his tongue with hers until she was dizzy. And she was shocked at how she responded with equal passion, losing herself in the kiss, forgetting everything else.
When their lips finally parted, he looked into her eyes and murmured, “All right. I’ll nae leave. I’ll stay, as ye wish.”
Olivia clung to him, shaken to her core by the kiss. She opened her mouth to thank him, to kiss him again—she did not know which…
Suddenly, he released her and went back to the washstand, turning his back on her, his demeanor cold and businesslike again. “We have four more dates, after all,” he said gruffly.
Olivia stared at him, speechless. Her lips were still tingling from their kiss. In fact, her whole body felt on fire. Yet, as she looked at his reflection in the mirror, she could find no trace of the passion they had shared but a few moments ago, and it broke her heart.
Not knowing what else to do, holding back the tears pricking the back of her eyes, she turned and hurried out of the chamber. Grateful to find Megan had gone, she threw herself on the bed and let the tears flow.
9
Over the following two days, Olivia went through the motions of everyday life, trying to appear calm and cheerful to those around her. But in truth, she felt confused, rejected, and extremely vulnerable after the cold way Edan had treated her following their kiss.
On top of that, she was shocked by her own response to it. She had never kissed a man before. How could anything have prepared her for the sheer, passionate force of his mouth plundering hers, or the answering fire it had ignited within her? She felt irrevocably changed.
Despite secretly brooding over what had happened, she was still glad he was not leaving, at least for Greta’s sake. However, the thought of facing him again was daunting. But by the end of the second day, she decided he was probably avoiding her, seemingly immersed in clan matters. One part of her was grateful, feeling unprepared to deal with him in her current state of emotional upheaval.
But another part of her was bitterly disappointed, believing that under the circumstances, he would not be in a hurry to come and find her to take her on their second outing, if at all.
With things as they stood, she dared not approach Edan about her idea of hosting a celebration for The Turning of the Light. Instead, seeking both comfort and distraction from her troubles, she took refuge in the gentle company of Greta and the maids and threw herself into planning the preparations for the St. Patrick’s Day festival that was due to take place that year on the seventeenth of March.
On the afternoon of the third day after the kiss, she was sitting in the solar with them, going over the shopping list they had been slowly compiling. She intended to take it to the market with her that day, to purchase the supplies they needed to make the necessary decorations. She thought a walk alone in the fresh, wintry air might help to clear her head and settle her thoughts.
“So, we shall need colored paper, several reels of orange, yellow and green ribbon for the decorations, some strong sewing thread, string, six or seven yards of broadcloth for the floats for the procession. Och, and I’ll try to get some gold and silver thread if they have it. Can ye think of anything else I’ve forgotten?”
