Page 43 of The Finest Scottish Fate

Glancing back at him, she started chewing on her bottom lip again, then her brow wrinkled with a faint frown. “I was just wondering about the marriage stuff, and it’s been a really long, eventful day.”

It had at that, but now they had the night to restore themselves and become even stronger. “When we reach our suite, we shall have some food and rest, aye? The servants know to bring it. Dinna fash yerself.” He stretched and brushed a chaste kiss to her cheek. “We have the rest of our lives together.”

The way her jaw tightened told him everything he needed to know.

“I will never force ye to do anything ye dinna wish to do, Evie.” Although he prayed she wouldn’t choose to keep him at arm’s length for very long. He stroked the silk of her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I treasure ye, my own. I would never dishonor ye.”

Smiling a smile that made him feel a great deal easier, she ducked her head. “I know you’d never force me to do anything I don’t want to do. Yet another reason I’m glad you were the one to find me.” Wrinkling her nose, she lifted her head, then leaned toward him and whispered, “It’s just that I’ve never been with a man before. At least, not all the way…if you know what I’m trying to say.”

He hardened to the point where he didn’t know if he’d be able to walk the rest of the way to their chambers. Had she never known a man’s touch? At her age? “I am honored.”

She tipped her head to one side, appearing a bit dubious. “In concept, I suppose it’s a good thing to be a virgin on my wedding night, but that also means I don’t know what to do and what not to do. I also don’t know anything about birth control in this century.”

“Birth control?” Was she saying she wanted to plan out when she had their bairns? Was it not a mite soon for that? They’d not even consummated their union. “I dinna understand.”

“Birth control.” She stared at him for a long moment as if willing him to read her thoughts and know of what she spoke. “You know—the things you do to keep from having babies?”

That pushed him back a step and made him prop both hands on either side of the winding staircase’s walls. “Ye dinna want bairns?”

She frowned. “Well, not right away. Don’t you think we need to go slow? We barely know each other, and this isn’t exactly a conventional situation. You said yourself that it was irregular.”

He felt somewhat better regarding her outlook, but still didn’t like the entire gist of it. Folks had bairns whenever God willed it to be so. “Bairns are a blessing.”

“So is a union where two people really love each other because they’ve taken the time to get to know one another.”

“What is to know? We are fated mates.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m getting so sick of those two words.” She snapped her mouth shut, and her face flashed red. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that you and Morganna throw the fated mates term around pretty freely and use it as an excuse for everything.”

“Those words are everything, lass. Ye are the other half of my soul. Now that I’ve found ye, I am complete. We both are. Not everyone is so blessed.” He motioned up the stairwell. “Come. To our private chambers, aye? We can speak of it more freely there.”

She stared down at the steps, then growled something under her breath that he couldn’t quite make out. Gathering her skirts well above her knees, she climbed the staircase with the agility of a Highland goat, leaving him standing there staring. When she reached the top, she turned and looked back at him with her lovely legs still revealed. “What?”

“Dinna ever do that with anyone but me, ye ken?” He didn’t mean to sound stern, but no one but himself deserved the right to see the temptation of her bare legs.

She wrinkled her nose and let her skirts drop back into place. “Sorry. It was just easier to manage the steps that way.” She shouldered open the door and eased into the hallway, glancing all around as if fearing what might lurk in the shadows.

While he was glad she was cautious, he hated it. This century already terrified her, and the warning from her ring and the unexpected arrival of unwelcome guests had made things even worse. He moved to her side and pulled her close. “It will be all right, lass. I promise.”

The look she gave him called him a liar.

“Shall I double the guard, m’lord?” Griogair asked when they reached the entrance to their private rooms. “Mistress Martha told me of the happenings below.”

Perhaps a bit more caution would not be amiss. “Aye, Griogair. Double the guard, and if for some reason I am not at my wife’s side whenever she leaves our suite, see that a pair of our best guards, or even yerself, stays with her, ye ken?”

The man nodded and thumped his fist to his chest. “Aye, m’lord—and congratulations and blessings to the two of ye. I wish ye every happiness.”

“Thank ye, Griogair.” Drummond rested a hand over Evie’s, where she held tightly to his arm. She squeezed it as if hanging on for dear life.

The loyal guard opened the door, then once they were inside, he closed it securely behind them. As soon as the latch clicked, Evie tore free of Drummond, hurried across the solar to her bedchamber, and disappeared inside.

He halted at the closed door, then lightly knocked. “Evie? May I enter?”

“It’s not locked,” she called out, sounding as though she wasn’t anywhere near the door.

Stepping inside, he found her back at the window beside the table. She’d pushed it open and stood there with her hand held out to catch the rain.

“It’s sleeting,” she said as if the icy rain mesmerized her.