Maude nodded against his chest. “Especially since I suspect we wouldn’t spend those few stolen moments in conversation.” She giggled when Kieran pinched her bottom.
“Cheeky lass.” He palmed her backside and squeezed, ensuring she understood his double entendre.
“Only for you,” Maude purred. The sultriness of her own voice surprised her. Kieran growled low in his throat and tilted her chin back to kiss her. His hand trailed down her neck to her breast. She still wore her nightgown and robe, so her nipple pebbled beneath his ministrations.
“You tempt me far too much. Your father will find us with my hand up your nightgown and your breast bared if you continue with that voice. It goes straight to my cock.”
“And does what?” Maude shifted to make her hip graze along his rod. She noticed it harden when she sat on his lap, and it had grown the longer she remained pressed against him.
“What have I unleashed?” Kieran’s hand kneaded her breast.
“Only time shall tell.”
“And it’s time for him to retire,” came a voice from the other side of the door.
Maude and Kieran looked at each other and struggled to smother their laughter. Kieran eased Maude from his lap and walked with her to the door of her chamber. He looked back at the solar, reassured that the angle of the doorways would keep Hamish from seeing him enter Maude’s chamber.
“Be quick, buttercup, and I shall tuck you in.”
Maude’s eyes grew wide, but she nodded. She hurried across the room to the bed. She kicked off her slippers and tossed the robe on the foot of the bed before diving under the covers. She pulled them up to her chin and kept darting nervous glances at the door.
“Even if he follows us in here, all he will see is me giving you a chaste kiss goodnight. It’s all I can manage when we’re so close to a bed.” Kieran brushed the loose hair from her cheek. He had noticed the thick braid that hung down her back, but he hadn’t commented on it. He wondered what she would look like with her hair unbound, it spread over her pillow and his chest. He groaned before dropping a kiss on her forehead.
“Are you all right?” Maude whispered.
“Aye, just picturing you in a manner I shouldn’t until you’re my wife, yet my mind keeps returning to.”
“Is it any consolation that my mind does the same thing?”
Kieran choked as he looked at Maude, who looked virginal in her white nightgown against white sheets pulled to her chin. Yet her words proved she had a wildness that reminded him of why he’d started calling her buttercup.
“Nay. It doesn’t help a whit. It only makes me want to climb in beside you, but if we’re to marry and have a family, I’ll need your father not to geld me. Goodnight, my bonnie lass. Sleep well.”
“Sleep well, my braw protector.” Kieran pulled away before their kiss grew more heated. Showing restraint was one of the greatest feats of his life when his mind and his body screamed for him to stay. He crossed the room and paused at the door. Maude had rolled to her side and watched him. When he returned her smile, her eyes drifted closed, and he shut the door behind him.
Kieran’s head jerked up as his heart sank when Hamish’s voice greeted him.
“Ye may have spoken quietly, but with nay other noise in the suite, yer voices carry. Did ye ken that I kenned that?”
Kieran followed Hamish, who waved him over to the whisky decanter. Hamish poured them both a dram and gestured toward the table with several chairs around it. Kieran realized it was where their family would dine when they were in residence and chose not to go to the Great Hall.
“Ye’re good for her. She’s like a spring bloom that’s had too much heavy rain dropped on it. She will blossom, but she needs a reprieve from what weighs her down. Michael wrote that he shared a bit aboot Maude’s childhood, or rather the time when she became a young woman. She’d played alongside her brother since she could chase after him. Blair did too, but she hasnae loved being outside like ma Maude. She ran, swam, climbed trees, and rode along with her brother. While some women turn lean from so much activity, Maude did the opposite. I would still wager on her to win any horse race even if she wasna riding Trioblaid. She can still best most of ma archers, and I caught her climbing an apple tree the last time she was home since they’d already picked all the low hanging fruit. She learned to do all these things to keep up with Lachlan. Blair preferred to be inside, but Maude has a wild streak to her, but ye’d nae guess it from how shy she’s grown. Without Blair to play with, it was difficult for the laird’s daughter to play with other children her age. That’s why she worked hard to keep up with Lachlan. Lachlan grew tired of being teased aboot his wee sister always trailing behind her. Rather than speaking to her, he did what a lad of four-and-ten is wont to do. He passed along the teasing because it embarrassed him. He and Michael began the taunting, but the other lads grew far meaner. Michael’s ma mother’s sister’s grandson. He grew up in a croft within the walls, and until he left to become a monk, he was Lachlan’s closest friend.”
“He seems very close to Maude now. I didn’t realize they were related until the end of our visit, after I made an arse of myself in front of Michael and my jealousy nearly drove Maude away.
“Ye remind me a great deal of maself when I met ma wife, but that is a story for another day. It wasna until after the fact that Lady Sutherland and I learned of what the lads were saying to Maude. They told her she looked more like a mon than a woman because of her strength. They teased her aboot being built differently than the lanky lasses her age. They kenned she was strong, but they didna ken that that’s why she wasna light as a feather. When she developed, the boys began making crude comments aboot how they wished the wenches at the tavern had her attributes. All the while, they teased her aboot being the plain one. They would ask why Blair got all the looks, and she got all the girth.”
Hamish paused to collect himself, and Kieran realized retelling this story pained Hamish. The older man blinked several times before he continued. Kieran sat in silence, refusing to risk Hamish ending the conversation.
“She began starving herself and refused to go outside. Her mother and I thought she was taking more of an interest in learning to be chatelaine because she understood she was approaching a marriageable age. We didna realize she was hiding, retreating into herself. Blair tried to tell us, but Lachlan laughed it away, and since she’d spent more time with him than with Blair, their mother and I listened to Lachlan. It wasna until Lachlan sought Lady Sutherland and me to say he noticed Maude was acting strangely that we truly paid attention. The four of us noticed Maude arrived after meals began, offered to get aught or do aught that would take her away from the table, took the smallest servings, even slipping food under the table to the dogs, and excusing herself as soon as she could.”
Hamish looked at the door to Maude’s chamber and wished the same thing he had wished for years: that he had the power to go back and rescue his little girl before insecurity and self-doubt took hold. He’d understood that trying to get slimmer was only a partial reason for Maude’s disinterest in eating. He recognized that she believed she possessed little control over her life and her appearance other than what she ate. He’d seen his brothers do the same, except they’d used an excess of alcohol where Maude fasted. His brothers felt powerless in the face of their belittling and belligerent father, and Maude felt powerless to the unrelenting teasing.
“One afternoon, Lachlan tried to coax Maude to go for a ride with him or to go down to the loch, but she declined, saying she needed to finish her sewing. She was retreating to her chamber as she did most days, but Lachlan refused to give up. Thank the blessed angels and saints that he didna. She collapsed on the stairs and pitched backwards. Lachlan grabbed her and stopped her from rolling more than two or three steps. He bellowed for me and their ma while he carried Maude to her chamber. He was as white as a sheet when ma wife and I arrived. Lachlan shook as he told us how one moment she was refusing to go outside, and the next he looked back to see her tumble backwards. It took the healer all of five minutes to determine what was wrong with Maude. She’d passed out from hunger. When Lady Sutherland stepped out to speak to me in the passageway, she was inconsolable. Maude’s kirtles hid the wrong things. While she looked to have a wide-set build, her ribs were practically poking through her skin and her hip bones stuck out so far from her stomach being so flat, that the healer pinched them.”
“Is she—is she still that way?” It embarrassed Kieran to ask her father such a question, but he feared for Maude’s health. He wanted to bundle her up in his plaid and run far away from anyone who might hurt her.
“Nay, lad. She isnae. But even after months of coaxing and encouragement to eat again, she never came out of her shell. It devastated Lachlan when he learned what was wrong. He shouldered the entire guilt even though we were all to blame for nae noticing and speaking up sooner. He developed a reputation for being a hothead, but it was only when it came to comments aboot Maude. A few of the lads realized that they had the power to goad him in the lists by continuing to make fun of Maude. He and Michael ended up in a brawl against the other young warriors who had once been my son’s and cousin’s friends. I’d been aboot to step in and cease the crude taunting, but before anyone realized I’d entered the lists, Lachlan and Michael launched themselves at the ringleaders. I hated seeing my son take so many fists to the face and ribs, but I recognized he believed he needed to prove and redeem himself. The fight didna last long, as he and Michael partnered throughout the years and complimented each other’s fighting style.”
