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When it was over, Orla resolved that in future, she would be very bad indeed, so that Wolfric would have to punish her again and again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Light snow fell during the night, carpeting the glens in white. Wolfric longed to laze the day away, basking in the sweetness of Orla’s newfound trust in him and her enthusiasm for the marriage bed. But they could not truly be one unless she knew his darkest secret. So he took Orla riding, to a far-flung corner of Munro territory, where a patch of woodland clung to windswept, barren hills.
Wolfric found little to say on the journey and contented himself with glancing at Orla. He congratulated himself on his good fortune. Their exertions overnight, together with the cold air, had brought a pink glow to her cheeks and a light to her green eyes. Orla looked very well indeed, with the creamy fur edging of her cloak framing her heart-shaped face. Her hair was still as tangled as a horse’s tail, bits of it escaping her cap and straggling across her face, but it gave her a wild beauty that drew the eye.
‘To think I almost refused to enter that race to win your hand,’ he said when they stopped at the edge of the woods. ‘When my father urged me to do it, I told him that he could go to hell, and I would not wed you, no matter how beautiful the land at Wildwood.’
‘And now?’ she said, laughing.
‘Now, I think your beauty far eclipses that of the land. I am a lucky man, Orla.’
‘Lucky to have a woman no one else wanted?’
‘No, lucky to have a woman no one else really saw, for if they knew you, lass, your foolhardy courage, your lust for life….’
‘And my lust for you,’ she said, with a wicked glint in her eye.
‘Aye, your lust for me, too, surly brute that I am. That is a boon that I did not expect. I thought I would be, at best, tolerated.’
‘And yet now, I long for you, Wolfric. God help me, I do.’
There was such softness on her face when she looked at him that, for a moment, he was loath to wipe it away. Wolfric smiled back at her, his heart in turmoil.
Orla gazed at the pines swaying in the wind howling down from the mountains around them. ‘Goodness, we have ridden a long way today. I suppose this place has a kind of eerie beauty, but these woods are awfully dark and thick.’ She shivered into her fur. ‘This place makes me uneasy, Wolfric.’
‘With good reason. I had to bring you here, Orla, for you should know the truth about the man who is your husband.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Look. See that grassy mound over there and how it rises a little out of the ground.’
She frowned and nodded.
‘Tis a grave, lass, of two English soldiers. They were put there by me and another.’
‘You killed redcoats?’ Orla’s mouth fell open, and Wolfric’s heart hammered against his ribs. Would she think him a monster? Would she be afraid of him now?
‘Aye, I killed them, Orla, though that was not my intention. I sought to bring them to justice, but there was a fight, and it got out of hand.’
‘Why Wolfric?’
‘They were rapers, Orla. They were roaming about attacking women on my land and on another’s. One poor lass was out gathering firewood when they took advantage, Orla. Now, she barely leaves her father’s house and still cowers and shakes whenever she sees the scarlet and white.’
‘So you took vengeance.’
‘I would have stayed out of it had there been any kind of justice in the hearts of the English. But it is well known that if you go to the English at Fort George asking for justice, you will leave empty-handed.’
‘I see.’
‘Aye, when I heard of her plight, I went to my father, but he would do nothing to raise their ire at the Fort. He always puts his own comfort and safety before that of his people. So I acted and dispensed my own kind of justice. I stalked those two redcoats until I caught them out here. I wanted to drag them back to Inverness, denounce them before all in the market square, and force Major Sutherland to punish them. But they put up a fight, and it went badly for them. So now you know a secret about me that could have me hanged for murder. I am trusting you with this because you are trusting me, Orla.’
Orla swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the mound. She bit her lip, and Wolfric held his breath.
‘You said another.’
‘What?’
