Chapter Twelve
“They request ameeting.”
Teague looked up from his desk. “I thought we decided to forgo any meetings for a while?”
“We did,” Calder said. “But Laird Bellingham insists there are several matters yet to settle. Especially with Walpole and his spies still combing the Highlands.”
“Bellingham.” Teague snorted. “The man is a fool. Bored with his wife, his mistresses, and running his estate. He as much as admitted that the only reason he joined the Cause was for the excitement.”
“’Tis men like him that give Jacobites a bad name.” Calder turned toward the door but didn’t move to leave. “Shall I send back that we refuse?”
Teague rolled the ink-stained quill between his fingers. If he refused, it might raise questions about where his loyalties lay. “I will meet nowhere near Stirling. I promised Mila, and I willna break my word.”
“But this is August,” Calder said. “Did she not foretell November as the month of doom?”
“Keep yer voice down, man.” Teague aimed a pointed glance at the double doors to the garden that were thrown open wide. “She is just outside,” he whispered. “Picking bugs off roses or some such thing she swore needed doing.” He stretched to one side and glimpsed her skirts just beyond the bench. Upon returning his attention to Calder, he slowly shook his head. “I willna split hairs when it comes to my precious dove. I promised her I wouldna go near Stirling the rest of this year. ’Tis final, ye ken?”
Besides, if he ever hoped to convince her to stop using that tansy oil concoction and give him a bairn, she had to be able to trust him. She didn’t know he knew about her precautions to keep from getting with child. And he hadn’t known until Vivyanne mentioned her seeking such advice. Vivyanne couldn’t keep quiet about anything. Mila should never have confided in the old harlot, no matter what promise of secrecy Vivyanne gave her. He had to show his lady love that if he said he would do something, he did it.
Then the solution came to him. “Tell Bellingham to meet us here. We will send a guide to lead them in. Next month. At the full of the moon. Tell him I have a new wife I dinna wish to leave.” He couldn’t resist an indulgent smile, because it was true. He enjoyed every precious moment in her presence.
“Aye, ye’ve got it bad, then, have ye?” Calder grinned. “Never thought I would see the day.”
“Ye have no idea.”
Even at this very moment, Teague could hardly wait until Calder left so he could join Mila in the garden. They had yet to try the bench along the wall. She could either sit astraddle him, or he would happily bend her over it. The choice was hers.
He shifted to give his rising the room it needed. “Next month. Full of the moon. Here, ye ken?”
“As ye wish it.”
As soon as Calder left, Teague exited the library in search of his dear one. Perhaps a surprise seduction in the garden would keep her from her protections long enough for a bairn to take seed.
He eased up behind her, admiring the view of her fine backside as she took her wee pruning knife to a tangle of roses.
“Such loveliness in the garden,” he commented, not wishing to startle her.
She straightened and wiped the sweat from her brow while smiling at the bush loaded with crimson blooms. “It is beautiful. Deep red roses have always been my favorite.”
He took the knife out of her hand and tossed it down into her basket. “I was referring to yerself, m’love. Roses canna compare.”
“Ye are up to something,” she said, eyeing him with suspicion. “Out with it.”
Catching her close, he cupped her fine arse in both hands and ground his hardness against her. “Feel what ye have done to me, woman. Now do ye believe I find ye an irresistible beauty?”
With her hands resting on his shoulders, she hooked a leg around him. “Ye know I am all sweaty and covered in dirt.”
He licked her neck and caught her earlobe between his teeth. “I am rather fond of sweaty and dirty, ye ken?”
Her breathing shifted to that gasping shudder that assured him he had aroused her. “Ye dinna fear someone might come upon us?” She guided his mouth lower to the salty sweetness of her collarbone.
“I dinna give a damn if the entire clan watches us from the gate.” He grazed his mouth across her flesh while breathing in her delicious scent of rose oil and yearning. He worked a hand up under her skirts and slipped a finger inside her hot wetness. “It doesna feel as if ye care that we are watched either, my dove.”
She tightened her grip on his shoulders and swayed with a breathy moan. “How can I care when ye make me—” She cut herself off and caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Aye, m’love?” He nuzzled his way inside her neckline and teased the tip of her nipple with his tongue. “Ye were saying?”
She bucked as he ground the heel of his hand against the nubbin of her sex and slipped another finger in with the first. As he pumped them faster, she ran her hands up into his hair and held on tight. A long, low groan escaped her. “Take. Me. Now,” she ordered him with another wee growl.
