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Orla stamped her foot like an outraged toddler. ‘Your father is taking advantage of my servant.’
‘It did not look like it from where I was standing. I mean, she was on top. And I say, good luck to the old man. I am gratified to see he still has his lust for life.’
‘Oh, you are insufferable, Wolfric. It is not seemly what they are doing.’
‘What you did to me last night, and again in the wee small hours, wasn’t seemly,’ he said, planting a deep kiss on her mouth to silence her.
‘But we are wed, and they are not.’
‘Oh, don’t fash. I will ask my father to be a little more discreet, and besides, Sykes is too long in the tooth to get with child. Leave them to their sport, for piety does not suit you, lass.’ He gave Orla a peck on the cheek. ‘I was going to force you into my bed all day, but after witnessing that, I fear I have lost my appetite. So I am for Inverness. I’ve business there, and I will return by nightfall. Try and stay out of trouble, minx, until I get back. Then, you can get in as much trouble as you like if the fancy takes you.’
Orla glowered at him. ‘Are you sure you would not prefer the alehouses and fleshpots of Inverness to my bed?’
‘I’ve greater temptations here, as you well know.’
‘Wolfric, are you really going to leave me with those two?’
Wolfric winked and was off, feeling inordinately pleased with life and not the least bit guilty about his cowardice in not facing his father later.
A fast gallop with the sun on his back brought Wolfric to Narrow’s Lane. He tethered his horse and mounted the stairs to his rooms with a spring in his step. He no longer had to hide Elva’s plight and sneak about like an adulterer. It did not matter what others thought of him, but Orla’s good opinion had come to mean the world to him, and now she was on his side. For the first time in his life, he had someone who might truly care for him, was loyal and perhaps might even come to love him.
He entered with a smile to find Elva at the window seat with tears running down her sweet, plump face.
‘Oh, I thought you would never come. I have pains in my stomach and thought the bairn was coming on.’ She flung herself at him and sobbed into his chest.
Wolfric felt her bulging belly press into his. ‘Surely it is too soon?’ he said. ‘Is there not at least a month or two to go yet? Winter, you said.’
‘Aye, but bairns come early sometimes, hurried on by strife and heartache. I feared I might spill mine onto the floor without anyone to tend me.’
Wolfric took her by the shoulders with the lightest of touches and eased her away. He smiled into her teary eyes. ‘Fear not. I will engage a midwife to tend to you. I have heard of such a woman who goes by the name of Aileen Sharps. She lives just yonder in Slow Lane, a mere shout away. I will send for her when the time comes, and you will be alright.’
‘A…a midwife, you say. Has she experience of birthing?’
‘Aye, many years, and she has brought hundreds of bairns safely into this world.’
Elva looked terrified, and Wolfric struggled for words to comfort her. ‘Fear not. All will be well. Orla insisted I get the best I could find to tend you.’
‘Orla?’
‘Aye, she knows everything.’
‘Everything?’ squeaked Elva. ‘My shame, all of it.’
‘There is no shame in what befell you. The shame lies with that redcoat who assaulted you.’
Elva recoiled from him with a frown. ‘But why did you confide in her? Why should she know our business? Orla does not care for you, nor you, her.’
‘I think that I do,’ he replied evenly.
‘That cannot be so. ‘Tis a marriage of convenience, nothing more.’
‘Enough, Elva,’ said Wolfric, stalking over to the window and staring out. His temper was rising, and he had to calm it. But Elva would not be silent.
‘You cannot love her? You only married her for the land at Wildwood Glen. Everyone knows that.’
‘Do they now? What do you know of my heart, Elva?’
‘Enough to know it is a fine, stout heart full of kindness and gentleness. She cannot see that, but I do. And I will defend you, Wolfric, for you have been so good to me. You have rescued me from being spurned, cast into the gutter and destitute.’
