Nessa felt more uncomfortable than ever around Pitt ever since the incident with Fife a few days ago. She had made certain to avoid him as much as possible, but it had been difficult since he was around more often than not. She had been grateful for his consoling embrace, but she also felt foolish for having been such a fool.
“She has been keeping close to the keep since the day she mistakenly found the secret passage. So, I do not believe she wandered off. She would stay close by.”
A servant entered with a tray of sweet cakes and followed behind Rhys as he went to speak with one of his warriors. “My lord,” he called out.
Rhys turned sharply and the young servant cringed and stumbled back away from him.
“What do you want?” Rhys snapped.
The servant kept his head bowed as he extended the tray out to him. “Lady Heather instructed me to see that you got a sweet cake or two.”
“Where is she?” Rhys snapped again.
“Lady Heather stepped outside the kitchen to see the new pups born a few weeks now to the kitchen dog.”
Rhys grabbed a sweet cake off the tray and said to Pitt as he passed, “Call the men back, I will get my wife.”
Pitt nodded and called out to the men and as he did, he reached out and stopped Nessa from leaving with a gentle touch to her shoulder. “How are you doing, Nessa?”
“I am well, sir.”
“Pitt. I have told you to call me Pitt.
She swallowed her pride and said, “Forgive me for not saying this sooner, but I am ever so grateful for your kindness to me the day?—”
“Fife made himself known for the deceitful man he was. It was good that his reign of lies ended, and it is due to you that in the end we knew who he was, or you and Lady Heather could have lost your lives.”
Nessa shook her head. “Me?”
“Aye, I saw wherever you went so did Fife, and it troubled me that he seemed so taken with you, but he never attempted to kiss you. There had to be something wrong that he did not at least try to steal a kiss from a beautiful woman like you.”
Nessa felt her cheeks heat.
“Perhaps later when all is quiet, we can enjoy some sweet cakes together and talk. I am sure there are things that still trouble you and I am a good listener.”
Nessa felt too vulnerable to trust another man, especially one as handsome as Pitt.
Pitt held up his hand. “We will only talk; I will not try to kiss you,” —he smiled— “not yet at least.”
Nessa did not think her cheeks could get any hotter, but they felt on fire and embarrassment had her nodding and hurrying off, thinking of ways she could avoid the handsome warrior.
* * *
Rhys stoodin the open doorway, finishing the sweet cake while he watched three little, black pups, except for one who had one white paw,scamper and climb all over his laughing wife. She sat on the ground by a small shed that the dog no doubt had claimed for her home with the pups. One pup was nipping at her fingers, another slept comfortably in her lap and the other slipped beneath the hem of her dress.
That did it for Rhys. That area was for him and him alone. He bent down, yanked the little pup out and dumped him on his bottom, ordering sharply, “Mine, stay out!”
The pup could not climb into Heather’s lap fast enough, stepping over the sleeping pup to plant himself as close to Heather as he could get. The other pup, the one with the white paw, sensing something was amiss, hurried to drop himself against her thigh and drop his head down so he would not be seen, or so he thought.
“A brave little batch you have there,” Rhys said and sat down beside his wife. “And what are you doing leaving the keep without telling me?”
“I am sorry. I was distracted when one of the pups wandered into the kitchen while I was getting the sweet cakes for you.”
It dawned on Rhys then that Heather had told him that she would go fetch sweet cakes for them, but he had been so busy speaking with Pitt that it had slipped his mind. Still, though, she had stepped outside the keep.
“Stay in sight of a guard at all times,” he said.
“I assumed a guard follows me at all times.”
