“I’d say you did everything properly. I never imagined such pleasure as you’ve shown me just now. Is it wrong that I enjoy each way we couple? Should I not want to join with you as much as I do? Does that make me a whore?”
“Don’t say that,” Kieran hissed. “Don’t ever say that again. You aren’t a whore, and that’s precisely why I shouldn’t have treated you as one.”
“But who says, other than you, that you did? I didn’t feel like one until right now.”
“Maude.” The remorse and pain in his voice was real.
“Does anyone have to know? I mean, will anyone find out I enjoyed coupling with you like that?” Maude’s face flamed red at the notion of anyone other than Kieran being aware of how much she enjoyed the sins of the flesh.
“No,” Kieran was adamant. “No one will ever see or hear us together. What we do is our business, and no one has a say in it but us.”
“Then why are you so miserable? Why do you fear not living up to some husbandly code? Who’s going to judge you? It certainly won’t be me.”
“Maude, I will take more care with you next time.”
“Does that mean it can last longer?”
Kieran’s mouth twitched. He grumbled as he began to come around, thanks to his wife’s practical nature. Passion sparked between them once more, and Maude shifted to join her body with Kieran’s again.
* * *
Despite the delay, Maude and Kieran entered the Great Hall as people continued to trickle in for the morning meal. Maude looked around, and her stomach sank as varying degrees of suspicion and hostility marked the clan members’ faces. She wondered what Adeline and Abigail said after her abrupt departure the night before. She glanced at Kieran, but despite standing next to her, he was already in a deep conversation with Kyle. She refused to appear like she needed her husband’s protection in her own home, so she climbed the steps to the dais as Abigail and Adeline descended from the second floor. Maude was relieved she’d arrived before them as she slipped into the lady of the keep’s chair. She smiled at Agatha as the older woman approached with a bowl of porridge and a small jug of honey.
“I wasna certain if ye prefer honey or extra cream in yer bowl. I can fetch ye the milk if ye’d rather.”
“Nay. Honey is my favorite,” Maude offered a tentative smile. She sensed Agatha would be an ally, but it was too early to tell. She’d met more than one lady-in-waiting who appeared interested in being her friend, only to tell tales to the others when Maude turned her back.
“Ma lady, would ye care for a tour after ye break yer fast?”
“I would appreciate that a great deal, Agatha. Thank you.” Maude had no chance to say more as Adeline walked behind her chair and flung her ring of keys on the table beside Maude. The rattle made many glance their way. Adeline took a seat at the end of the table too far away for Maude to say thanks, so she offered the warmest smile she could muster only to have Adeline turn her head away from Maude. She turned her attention to Kieran, who took his seat beside her.
“I’ll be in the lists this morning, then in my solar after the nooning. I have correspondence to catch up on and grievances to review before I arbitrate them tomorrow morning,” Kieran explained as he served himself a rasher of bacon. He watched Maude from the corner of his eye, pleased to see Maude ate with a healthy appetite. “Would you care to join me in my solar this afternoon? Perhaps to review the accounts or to read.”
“I would like that very much. Agatha’s taking me for a tour, and now that your mother has relinquished her keys, I’d like to get familiar with the running of the keep.”
Kieran winced at the mention of the keys. He hadn’t seen his mother drop them beside Maude, but he’d heard them. Everyone near the dais had. His gaze slid to his mother, who glared at him before turning a loathing expression on Maude. He reminded himself that his family and clan would warm to Maude once they grew to know her. They finished their breakfast with small talk about various places around the keep that Maude might want Agatha to show her. He suggested that she meet with Adam after her tour, since he could explain the accounts before she joined Kieran in his solar. Maude watched the clan eat and mingle at the tables below the dais before one after another left to complete the day’s work. She prepared to rise and seek Agatha, when Abigail’s voice carried to her.
“She inhaled that bowl so fast I’m surprised we didn’t hear her scraping the bottom.”
“I’d expect two or three wouldn’t fill that girth she carries around,” Adeline responded, her eyes locking with Maude’s.
“I hear her dowry is as fat as she is,” Abigail continued. “That must be what Kieran sees in her. I mean, why else would he turn down Laurel? And didn’t you say you were considering Mary Mackenzie? I mean, I know she’s the laird’s cousin, but she is beautiful.”
Maude swallowed as she struggled to maintain her composure. She realized Kieran was once more talking to Kyle and suspected he hadn’t heard his mother and sister, but the others seated near them did. They looked aghast before passing assessing eyes over her. She feared she was a miserable failure when the women smirked. The men gazed at her bosom, but their smirk meant something entirely different from the women’s. She pushed back her chair and made to step around Kieran’s, but he grasped her hand and lifted it to his lips. She smiled down at him, but when it didn’t reach her eyes, she saw concern register in his. He stood and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. His gaze darted to his mother and sister before he tilted Maude’s chin up.
“Summon me if you need aught at all, buttercup. Never fear interrupting or bothering me.”
“I will keep that in mind, but I must go. I don’t want to monopolize all of Agatha’s morning. She’ll have duties beyond showing me around.”
Kieran was reluctant to release Maude, but nodded before dropping a kiss to her lips. Her cheeks heated at the public affection, but she wouldn’t deny she enjoyed any kiss she shared with Kieran.
“Until the nooning, turtledove,” she murmured. She left the dais and joined Agatha, who took her to the kitchens first. The morning passed in a haze of new faces and names as she met the women who staffed the kitchens, the laundresses, the cooper, the distiller, the man who managed the buttery, the blacksmith, and the fletcher. She received greetings of varying warmth. While no one displayed outward rudeness toward her, they were distant and untrusting. Maude wondered if that was their nature, guessing the Hebrideans were just as cautious of new people as Highlanders from the mainland, but she suspected word had already spread about her. She pledged she would work hard to earn their trust and respect.
She was hungry by the time the noon meal arrived, but as she sat next to Kieran, she nibbled at the chunk of bread he passed her, preferring to eat a few pieces of cheese and cold chicken before eating a handful of dried fruit. After her new family’s comments that morning, she was self-conscious about eating her fill. She would find an apple before joining Kieran in his solar. She wasn’t certain whether Kieran’s hold on her hand throughout the meal made things better or worse, since their clasped hands sat on the table as a display to everyone. At first, she assumed Kieran did it as a public statement of support for her, but as his thumb swept over the back of her hand in an absent-minded sporadic pattern, she realized he did it without thought. When the meal ended, Maude promised to meet Kieran in his solar after she collected the ledgers. She found her way to Adam’s office and nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned to leave and found Agatha in the doorway with a napkin in her hand.
“Ye didna eat enough to fill a sparrow, lass.” Agatha stated as an explanation when she handed the napkin to Maude, who opened it to find three pieces of dried beef and a bannock. “The laird canna keep his hands off ye, so I imagine ye work up an appetite. Dinna let Lady Adeline or Lady Abigail scare ye from eating a proper meal. Neither of them have a braw mon chasing them aboot the bedchamber.”
Maude’s cheeks heated, but she appreciated Agatha’s thoughtfulness and said as much. When the older woman left, Maude inhaled the food before winding her way to Kieran’s solar where they passed the afternoon with only two intermissions from their tasks.
