There was no denying it. He knew she had seen him.
She rushed to her bed and crawled beneath the woolen covers. He would come to accuse her, and she needed to feign ignorance. He had only caught her if she admitted to it.
She tried to count the distance between their rooms. If his pace were as brusque as she anticipated, she had only a few seconds to affect a drowsy look.
She waited and waited, her eyes squeezed shut, and prayed he could not hear the pounding of her heart. It felt like an eternity had passed before she finally opened her eyes.
He never came.
That evening, Emily still couldn’t get the kiss out of her head.
She lay in bed, staring at the shadows on the ceiling, her eyes wide and her mind awake.
To say the kiss had been magnificent was an understatement.
She went down for breakfast feeling as though she were walking on a bed of clouds. She could finally relate to the feeling the girls from the orphanage had described—she felt like she wasfloating.
She glided through a corridor that seemed alight with a thousand flames, then down a set of stairs sandpapered straight, then down another covered with velvet golden carpets.
It was ironic that a passionate, lustful kiss could unlock such whimsy.
She pressed her hands over her eyes again, reveling in it. She had to do something, for her mind was turning on her. Adair should be suffering as she was.
She splayed her fingers over the one eye she popped open. Since that morning, he had hidden himself away.
Curious, she rose to her feet. She could not be caught again, so she hiked up her skirt and tiptoed to the window. She pressed her back against the wall and pulled the drapes over her face so the light from the hearth would not expose her, then pressed her nose into that little square panel.
She frowned. His curtains were closed.
They remained closed the next morning.
As her lady’s maid pinned up her hair and inserted a pin in the knot, a suspicion niggled at her mind.
“Has the Laird left the castle?” she asked Mrs. Donnelly, who was laying out a new dress on her bed.
All of a sudden, having a maid did not bother her. She got used to it the first time she was forced to let her maid scrub her back.
With a nod, Mrs. Donnelly dismissed the maid to the dressing room. “Nay, me Lady.”
What Emily had difficulty getting used to, however, was people bowing to her. They exited her room in reverence, leaving her with a mind full of thoughts and a heavy heart.
How long could she go without the man she had lived her entire life without? It sounded so ironic, but probably just a day. If he did not find her, she would go to him first.
She hiked up her skirts and dropped to her knees beside her bed. She fished out a key from beneath her mattress and used it to unlock the small chest beside it. The comb rested atop a cushion on the upper shelf. She tucked it into her hair, replaced the key, and then made for his room.
They met in the hall linking their corridors.
Her heart swelled when she saw him approach quickly. He picked up his pace as soon as he noticed her. Her feet felt light as excitement took her.
“I was on me way to ye,” he said.
She was struck by the thought that he wanted to discuss a ‘very’ important matter. That matter being the kiss, of course. Why else would he look so anxious? He did not want a soul overhearing them, of course.
Her grin made her words hasty. “We can speak in yer chambers.”
His jaw ticked. “I believe it would be best if we didnae talk in a closed space.”
She sensed his reason without him needing to say it. Her cheeks reddened.
