As for herself, she slipped back into the shadows, bending down and hiding in the bushes beside the path.
“Ian?” the girl called again and came into Lyssa’s view. She was dark-haired and had nubile features—why did everyone have breasts bigger than Lyssa’s—and had been chasing Ian shamelessly all night.
A second later, the girl stumbled on Ian and the Widow Potter. “What are you two doing down here?” she asked, amazed. Obviously they’d righted their clothing or she would have known what was going on!
“I was showing Mr. Campion the millstream,” the widow said.
“At night?”
Lyssa was so proud of the girl she almost stood up and rooted aloud.
“Of course, at night,” Ian answered with smooth Irish charm. “Especially in the moonlight. How better to see two beautiful women?”
Lyssa had to cover her mouth to keep from making her opinion of such blarney known.
But the women giggled and the next thing she knew, it sounded as if he was kissing them both.
She couldn’t stay in hiding but had to stand up to see for herself. Her ears were not lying. Ian had his arm around the waist of each and nuzzled first one, and then the other.
And they let him!
To think she’d begun to admire him. Had even started to grace him with all sorts of splendid heroic qualities. And now he was making love to two women!
Lyssa jumped out of her hiding spot and charged up the path toward the millhouse, crashing through the bushes without a care to any sound she might make.
Behind her, she could hear one of the women ask, “Who was that?” but she didn’t wait for the answer to tell if she’d been seen or not.
Rushing back into the party, she quickly found Maggie, who had two sleepy heads resting in her lap. “Are you ready to go?”
“Past time,” her hostess admitted tiredly.
“Come, I’ll help you with the children.” Lyssa lifted one in her arms. She didn’t know how Maggie would carry the youngest, as far along in pregnancy as she was, but she did.
Jean had started to doze in a chair. Maggie shook her shoulder. “Come, Auntie, it’s time to go home.”
“What about the others? Is Angus coming?” Jean asked.
“You know Angus is always the last to leave,” Maggie said. “And some of the others have already left. Come.”
They’d gone no more than a few steps when Ian appeared back in the ring of light, alone. The moment he saw Maggie and Lyssa, he crossed over to them.
“Here, Maggie, let me hold the boy.”
Maggie happily relinquished her son to his arms. “Thank you. He’s getting too heavy for his mother to carry.”
“I’ll walk you home,” Ian said.
“You can stay as long as you like,” Lyssa said coolly.
“I’m ready to go home,” Ian answered. She could feel him stare at her although she refused to even glance at him.
No one wanted them to leave. The women all called for Ian to stay and the men begged Lyssa to stay. Mr. Anderson shouted that another dance was forming and no one should leave now, but the time had come. Lyssa was exhausted and needed her rest for the next day.
They took off in the dark, she and Ian holding the children and Maggie and Jean supporting each other.
Ian fell into step beside her. “You’re angry.”
“Over what?” Lyssa asked breezily while inside she seethed.
