“I cannot, my chieftain,” Mrs. Aberfeldy said, her face an emotionless blank. Before Alexander could demand why not, she continued, “Orlie hanged himself in his room on the night Calum died.”
So the one who had betrayed them was already dead. But there was still Mrs. Aberfeldy. Alexander felt she’d betrayed them, too, and would do so again. The woman had admitted she couldna keep the slightest confidence. She was a danger, a threat they didna need.
Before he could speak his thoughts and reason out a solution, Catriona pushed herself up from her chair. He held his tongue and waited, wondering what his wife was about to do.
“Ye canna stay here, Mrs. Aberfeldy.” Catriona gave a sharp shake of her head and motioned toward the door. “Pack your things and go.”
Mrs. Aberfeldy looked as though she’d aged a hundred years. She gave Catriona a trembling nod as she twisted her hands together in front of her. “I understand,” she said, then shuffled off toward the archway leading to the wing of the keep that held the servants’ rooms.
“What a poisoned mess the evil in my sire caused,” Catriona whispered as she watched Mrs. Aberfeldy leave the room. She turned to Alexander. “She lost my trust and understanding the moment she defended Calum and his evil ways.”
Alexander stood and held out his hand. “Come. We’ll walk a bit and visit the stable to clear our heads of this darkness. Sawny said your prize mare gifted us with a fine healthy colt this morning.” Surely, seeing the sweet unblemished life would help raise Catriona’s spirits. Whilst he understood her emotional distress, especially since discovering the depth of her father and brother’s debauchery, Alexander hoped she’d find comfort knowing they had settled the problem of a traitor in the keep.
Catriona took his hand without speaking but graced him with a weak smile. They exited the keep and walked along in companionable silence for a long while. They strolled through the winding paths of the kitchen gardens where tiny bits of green were beginning to peep up through the clumps of black broken soil as though checking to ensure that winter had in fact gone before emerging any farther.
A gentle breeze lifted the loose tendrils of Catriona’s auburn hair and fluttered them about her face. With an impatient flick of her hand, she brushed them aside and tucked them behind her ears. The sunshine set her hair afire, highlighting it with streaks of gold and shimmering copper. Her fair skin glowed in the fresh air of the sunny day. A creamier white than any ivory and seasoned with the faintest strip of cinnamon freckles across her nose and cheeks. She was a braw, fierce, lovely woman, and she was all his.
“I love ye, Catriona.” The words left his mouth of their own volition and he was glad of it, rewarded by her pleased look and shy smile.
“I love ye as well, Alexander.”
He pulled her into his arms and poured all he felt for her into a long, slow kiss. Her hands traveled up his chest. She held him tight and returned his fervor. Soft curves pressed against hardness. Heartbeat pounded against heartbeat. Growing breathless with need, Alexander raised his head and looked down at this woman who owned him heart and soul.
Fair skin flushed and lips parted, Catriona gazed up at him with half-closed eyes. “Ye’ve turned me into a wanton, husband. I canna get enough of ye.” As if she feared he wouldn’t believe her, she snugged her body harder against him.
Her words inflamed him and her actions made him ache with the need to take her. Alexander stole a glance around the enclosed garden, secluded in its position at the side of the kitchens but set well away from the area where meat roasted on spits or the great cauldrons rendered meat fat down into lye soap.
“I must have ye,” he rasped against the softness of her jawline as he nuzzled at her throat. “Here. Now. Pray allow me, I beg ye.”
“Never feel as though ye must beg, dear husband.” Catriona leaned back against the stone wall surrounding the garden. With a slow deliberate move, she lifted her skirts and bared one leg.
Alexander charged forward like a bull released from its pen. He lifted her up against the wall, whipped aside his kilt and the mass of her skirts, then shoved in deep with a claiming growl. He kept her in place with one hand as he ground deeper then set to rocking, sliding in and out of the wondrous hot wetness as she held tight and clamped her legs around him.
Her nails raking down his back, Catriona shuddered and cried out as bliss took over, making her clench around him with searing wet spasms that pulled him in deep and hard, coaxing him to embrace his own release and spill himself.
Sagging into her, sandwiching her between his body and the wall, Alexander gasped for breath between tastes of Catriona’s sweet mouth. “I love ye fierce, my wanton wife.”
Catriona crossed her ankles at the small of his back and hugged him with both arms and legs as she gave him another kiss. “I’m glad of it and I love ye just as fierce.” Then she gave him a wicked grin. “But if ye’ve torn the back of me dress on these stones, ye shall buy fabric for another.”
“Well worth the price,” he said as he squeezed the fine full cheeks of her arse, then withdrew with a deep regretful sigh, and lowered her to the ground. He stole another quick kiss of her sweet lips and winked. “Give me a son and I’ll buy ye enough fabric and lace for two.”
With a coy look in her eyes, she covered her mouth and gave a light cough as though struggling to hold back a smile.
“What?” He braced himself. What was the vixen up to now? Then a delightful thought hit him. “Are ye with child already?”
“'Tis too soon to tell,” she said as she shook her skirts down in place. “Entirely too soon. But according to Elena, I’ll know for certain within a sennight or so.”
Alexander grabbed her up and spun her around, unable to contain the joy she’d just triggered.
“We mustn’t celebrate too soon.” She patted his shoulders and gave him the sternest look she could manage under the circumstances. “'Tis ill luck to celebrate before knowing for certain.”
In his heart, Alexander knew she carried his child. A son for sure. “What shall we name him?”
Rolling her eyes in disbelief, she shook a finger at him. “Did ye no' hear what I just said?”
“Aye.” Alexander couldn’t suppress a proud smile. Excitement and joy grew within him, filling him to fair bursting. “But what shall we name him?”
Catriona folded her arms and lifted her chin to a challenging tilt. “William Anthony Carmichael McBride MacCoinnich.”
“What?”
“I promised Father William,” she said with a shrug. “Ye must admit, he’s done much for us.”
“And if it’s a girl?” He couldna wait to hear what Father William had said about that.
“Willa Antonia Catherine McBride MacCoinnich,” Catriona said. She gave him a wicked grin and added, “Has a certain ring to it, dinna ye think so?”
Alexander grabbed her up and held her close. “All Ithinkis that I never knew I could love someone the way I love ye.”
“Nor I,” Catriona whispered as she brushed her lips across his. “Nor I.”
