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"Go away," Kade growled when he saw Will standing in the hall. He started to close the door, but Will put his foot out to stop him.
"I just wanted to know--Oh. Were you sleeping?" he asked, surprise replacing the determination on his face as he peered into the room beyond him.
Kade glanced over his shoulder, eyebrows rising when he saw that the room was in darkness. Averill had taken the one lit candle in his room and fled.
"How did she manage that?" he muttered. The light in the room had been wavering but still there as he'd reached for the door handle. The only thing he could think was that she must have closed the tunnel door just as he opened this one.
"Ah-ha!" Will said, drawing his head back around. "So she was still here."
"Aye." He scowled at his friend. "And ye interrupted a verra important talk we were havin'."
"Oh?" He arched an eyebrow, looking amused rather than apologetic. Snatching the torch from the sconce beside the door in the hall, he pushed past him into the room. "Tell me all about it."
Kade shifted on his feet, considering tossing his friend out on his rear and going in search of Averill, but then decided this might be for the best. The way things had been going, they were like to anticipate their wedding night were he to be alone with her again.
"Here, put this back."
Kade took the torch Will had used to light another candle and leaned out into the hall to replace it in its sconce. He then pulled the door closed and followed Will to the chairs by the fire. When the other man settled in the very chair he and Averill had been occupying just moments ago, Kade was recalled to what his arrival had interrupted. It made him scowl irritably at his friend as he settled in the opposite seat.
"So?" Will prompted when he didn't speak up at once. "What happened?"
Sighing, Kade relaxed back in his chair and shrugged. "She came to warn me o' her faults."
"Which ones?" Will asked curiously.
"Her hair, her birthmark, her stammering, her bosoms, and her temper," he muttered.
"I have told Averill her hair is not all that ugly," Will said with a frown, and Kade rolled his eyes. He was not exactly flowery with words, but even he didn't count "not all that ugly" as reassuring. 'Twas no wonder the girl had no confidence.
"And her birthmark is not--Just a minute, did you say bosoms?" he interrupted himself, as his brain absorbed what had been said.
Kade nodded, amusement plucking at his lips as he noted Will's horror. His tone was dry, however, when he explained, "It seems Lord Seawell thought them too small."
"Oh, for God's--" Will paused, took a breath, and shook his head. "The fool. I have never really noticed, but I am sure Averill's breasts are perfectly fine."
"Aye, they are," Kade assured him, a smile claiming his lips as he recalled the look and feel of them he'd enjoyed just moments ago. Lord Seawell might have a preference for melon-sized breasts, but Kade preferred apples, and Averill's were perfect.
"How the devil would you know?" Will snapped.
Kade grimaced at his outrage and reminded himself that this was Averill's brother. Unwilling to tell him that she had pressed his hand to her breast, or that he'd then done much more, he just shrugged. "I have eyes."
"Hmm." Will scowled at him, then sighed, and said, "I hope you reassured her."
"Aye," Kade said simply.
"What did you say?" he asked curiously.
"I told her I like her hair and...everything," he finished lamely.
"Hmmm." Will sat back in his seat to consider that, and asked, "Is she going to marry you?"
"Aye." Kade scowled at the very suggestion that she might not. Now that he'd had a taste of her passion, he wanted more. If the woman refused to marry him, he'd just have to do a little creeping through the tunnels of his own, remind her of the passion they shared, and ensure he was caught doing so. She'd have to marry him then. Kade was an honorable man, and wouldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do...except marry him. She'd be happier with him than any of the English oafs her father kept dragging in to see her anyway, he assured himself.
"Did you tell her you can see now?" Will asked suddenly.
Kade nodded solemnly.
"Was she angry?"
"Nay. At least she didna seem to be," he said, but frowned as he considered that she'd been a bit distracted at the time. He hoped she wouldn't be angry once her brain was no longer fogged with passion.
"Good. Then I shall take myself off to bed."
Kade nodded, but remained where he was as the other man stood and moved to the door. He was vaguely aware of Will's leaving, but his thoughts were now on Averill and what he might expect from her on the morrow.
Would she be angry about the trick they'd played on her about his being able to see? Would she still protest their marriage? Would he be able to keep his hands off her? The only question he could answer with any certainty was the last. He was definitely going to have trouble keeping his hands off her. The woman had been molten fire in his hands, gasping, panting, moaning, and writhing under his touch even as she dug her nails into him in a silent demand for more. Kade was already having to fight a desire to slip from his room to hers and awaken her passion again. Part of him was arguing that they were going to marry anyway, so there would be no harm in doing so, but another part was reminding him that she was the sister of his friend, as well as the daughter of the man who had taken him in and given him a place to mend from his injury. He couldn't repay such a kindness by deflowering Averill under their own roof before they were married.
He would just have to insist they marry soon, Kade thought. Say in a week even. He should be able to control himself and resist Averill for a week...Probably...He hoped.
Perhaps he'd best just avoid her until the wedding day, Kade decided.
Chapter Seven
"Here we are, lovey. Time to wake up and greet the morning. 'Tis your wedding day."
Averill groaned at that cheerful chirping from Bess. She rolled over in bed and pulled the furs up to block out the sudden glare of sunlight in the room as the woman opened her shutters.
"What's all this?" The maid's voice drew nearer, then the furs were tugged away, leaving Averill blinking owlishly in her bed in nothing but her chemise. "You should be eager and happy, not a layabout on this day of all days."
"I did not sleep well last night," Averill muttered unhappily, but gave in and sat up. Her gaze immediately fell on a pair of maids pouring pails of water into a tub.
"Ah. Too excited to sleep, were you?" Bess asked with a grin.
Averill scowled in response. "Too worried, more like."
Bess's eyebrows flew upward, then understanding creased her face. "Aye, well. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Lord Stewart strikes me as a man who knows his way around a bedchamber. I'm sure 'twill all go well enough."
Averill raised stricken eyes to the woman. That was the one worry she hadn't considered during her fretting last night. She'd been more concerned about the way Kade had been acting since that night in his room. After an extremely restless night reliving every moment in his arms, Averill had left her room the next morning to find Kade pacing the hall. He'd grunted a good morning when he saw her and asked if she was willing to go through with the marriage. When she'd shyly stammered, "A-aye," he'd grunted again, then took her arm and led her below. He'd deposited her at the table without another word, then had led her father away to discuss the marital contracts...and that had been the last she'd seen of him since.
