For a moment he stared at her, and she was certain she had bested him. But in the next moment he threw back his head and let loose a laugh so long and loud it would surely draw the attention of every person in the place. Not to mention the furious heat it caused in Seraphina’s cheeks.
“Ah, lass,” he chortled, wiping at his eyes. “I truly needed that.”
She glowered at him. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was so bad,” he said with a patronizing smile, “that I am surprised Saint Andrew dinnae rise from the grave to smite you on the spot. Though maybe I should have your bird speak for you. His Scottish is a sight better than yours.”
The innkeeper approached then, a puzzled frown on his face. “Is something amiss, sir?”
“Nae a bit, my good man. My apologies for the delay. Lead on.”
In a matter of minutes, they were shown to their rooms. The innkeeper swung the door wide with a flourish, revealing a space filled with decadent furnishings and expensive fabrics. Seraphina took one look around and blanched. She may be exhausted, and stiff, and in desperate need of a bath and food, but there was no way she could stay here.
“Mayhap,” she ventured, holding Phineas’s cage in front of her like brass armor, “you have something a bit smaller. I do not require so much space, I assure you.”
“Nonsense,” Iain said in his booming voice before the innkeeper could react. “Nothing but the best for my wife. This room will do just fine.”
The innkeeper’s expression, which had begun to fall in dismay, brightened considerably. “Wonderful, wonderful. And your room is just through here, Mr. MacInnes.” So saying, he moved into the room, heading for a connecting door hidden in the dark wood paneling.
As Iain and the innkeeper talked in the other room, Seraphina reluctantly stepped over the threshold. She used to live in such opulence; as daughter to an earl, she had been constantly surrounded by richness and excess.
But it had not brought her happiness, she reflected morosely as she deposited Phineas’s cage on a table. In fact, it had done the opposite, stripping her of every freedom, making her feel as caged in as Phineas no doubt was. She opened the door to the cage then, and her pet stepped out onto her hand eagerly enough, stretching his wings, his low chittering telling her he was not happy, not at all.She stroked her fingers over his head and back, talking in a soft, soothing voice until his feathers unruffled—quite literally—and he busied himself with taking in his new surroundings. She had opened her own cage long ago, had escaped from her gilt prison. She clamped her teeth together hard. And she’d be damned if she was pulled back into that world of titles and self-importance and cruelty.
Iain came back into her room, looking entirely too smug for her liking. “Hot water for a bath and a tray of food will be sent up for you posthaste. It has been a long day, and I dinnae think you wished to eat in the dining room.”
But she was beyond being grateful for these small kindnesses. She scowled at him. “You should have consulted with me regarding our lodgings. I cannot afford such luxury.”
“You do nae have to afford such luxury,” he stated. “I am paying for it.”
“You?” When he nodded, she narrowed her eyes. “You have the means to throw money away on something of this sort? Come to think of it,” she continued, growing more incensed with each second that ticked by, “that was your own carriage, wasn’t it? Am I now to assume you have the means to afford such a lavish lifestyle?”
Any good humor still in his eyes was gone in an instant. “Aye,” he replied, his voice gruff and almost hostile. “I have nae been idle in the past thirteen years, lass.”
No doubt. Acid filled her mouth. Especially as his sudden bounty of funds had originated with her own father, and the fortune he had thrown at Iain to drive him away.
But it had never been about her father throwing money at him, was it? No, it had been all about Iain actually accepting that money.
Suddenly tired beyond bearing, feeling every mile of their journey so far, Seraphina closed her eyes. “If you don’t mind, I would like some time alone to rest.”
When he did not immediately move away, she opened her eyes to see him staring at her with an inscrutable look. Finally, after what seemed an age, he nodded once and, turning about, quietly slipped through the connecting door, closing it behind him.
Chapter 11
Iain had thought that, when Seraphina finally realized he was not the poor fool he had been, it would be a satisfying thing. God knew it had taken her long enough to come to that conclusion. Truly, she must have been incredibly distracted all that long, horrible day to overlook the fact that they had not been traveling in a post chaise, but in his own private carriage.
Finally, however, she had deduced that his financial standing was quite different from what she had known. And ithadbeen satisfying to see her reaction.
For all of a second.
But then the suspicion and outrage in her wide blue eyes had turned to a pain and hurt so deep it had shocked him. It was almost as if she had felt betrayed somehow. Why? It was not as if he had been the one to leave and throw what they had away.
Yet she had looked, quite honestly, as if he had broken faith with her—and broken her heart in the process.
Sighing deeply, he tore his gaze away from the thick wood panel that separated their rooms. He had struggled enough on the Isle of Synne when he had known she was just a short distance away. Then, with her back in the land of the living—and back in his life—it had felt as if his entire world had shifted. Sleep had not come easy, his mind as restless as his body.
Now, however, with only a single barrier between them, it was so much worse. Every noise had him unconsciously straining to hear more. Was she even now sitting and eating the fare he’d had sent up to her, or talking to that blasted bird with a softness she never showed toward him—or sinking into the bath he’d ordered for her? That last was the worst; such thoughts inevitably led to his imagination taking over—an imagination he had not even known he possessed, much less in such vivid abundance. Images of Seraphina swamped his mind then, of her submerged in warm water, her skin glistening wet, the soap sliding between the valley of her breasts as she washed herself, her hand dipping beneath the water…
He groaned and pressed his fists hard into his eyes, as if he could banish the rogue thoughts by sheer will. What the devil was wrong with him? Yes, he had loved her and wanted her desperately when they had been younger. Yes, his body had burned for her. Yes, that one time they had lain together as man and wife still seared his brain even now, thirteen years later.
