“My lord, it is good to see you again.” Her musical voice did not waver, and she produced just the right note of cordiality.
Niall turned. The silvery eyes were still bold and clear and bright, but now there were tiny wrinkles around them. His fair skin was clear and he stood as tall and straight as ever. But there was a maturity, an alluring quiet strength about him now, growth marked by time and molded by suffering. His dark hair was accented by a bit of gray near the temples. Gone was the rash young man she remembered and in that young man’s place stood a mature and, yes, a most attractive, self-assured man.
“You’ve become even more beautiful—if that is possible. Motherhood becomes you, Skye.”
“Thank you, my lord.” She moved to the table. “Will you take wine?” How formal she sounded! Was he laughing at her?
“Are you uncomfortable with me, Skye?”
“It is … awkward, Niall. Until six weeks ago I remembered nothing beyond four years ago—in Algiers.”
“Sit down with me, Skye. Sit down and tell me what happened. I almost lost my mind when I lost you.”
She sat across from him in a brown velvet chair and calmly began. “I was transferred from the ship that took me to another that same day. That part is hazy. They did not harm me, for the Moslems believe the mad to have been touched by God’s hand. Believing you dead, I had temporarily lost my mind. When I became aware again I was in the house of Khalid el Bey. He cared for me. He loved me. Eventually we were married.” She told her story simply, finishing with, “I was pregnant with Khalid’s child when I fled Algiers. Willow is his daughter. The rest you know.” Her eyes never left Niall’s during the recitation.
“Did you love the infidel?”
Skye felt a cold anger surge through her. How dare he speak to her that way? “Khalid el Bey was a great gentleman,” she said, slowly and deliberately. “I loved him deeply. He was kind and good, and beloved of all who knew him. How dare you refer to him that way?”
“Skye, forgive me. My own troubles have colored my feelings toward all women lately. Thank God for Khalid el Bey. Had he not rescued you, God only knows what would have happened to you.”
“Why have you come, Niall?”
“I am returning home to Ireland, Skye. I thought I might carry some messages for you, and tell your family when you will return.”
“I do not know when I’ll return,” she said. “I am told that Uncle Seamus has taken excellent care of the business. My life is here now. All I want are my sons. I would like them sent here to me.”
“But you’re the O’Malley of Innisfana, Skye.”
“I am also the Countess of Lynmouth, Niall. But tell me, have you found your poor wife?”
“I found her. She is not well. She’ll be better off in Ireland.”
He was so bitter, she realized. Fate had not dealt kindly with him. “I am sorry, Niall,” she said. “So very sorry.”
“I neither need nor want your pity, Skye,” he snapped. The words he did not say hung between them:I want your love!He rushed on. “Constanza nursed me back to health. They all said you were dead, that a lady couldn’t possibly have lived through such anexperience. At first I wouldn’t listen, but even the Dey of Algiers couldn’t find you. Finally I had to listen. I was lonely, and Constanza was pretty and … so innocent. I had to marry for the MacWilliam’s sake, for the Burke name. I had forgotten the difference between just a lady and a certain Irish lady.” He sighed so sadly that she came close to weeping.
“Whatever your fate, Niall, mine would not have changed. I should still be married to Geoffrey now.”
“Would you?” His tone challenged her.
For the first time since she had entered the room Skye looked straight at Niall. Her sapphire-blue eyes with their hint of green snapped, “Yes, I would. Had my memory remained whole I would have moved Heaven and Hell to return to you, Niall Burke, but the thought that you were dead all but destroyed me. In my heart and mind I must have believed myself responsible for your death and I could not face what I thought I’d done. My mind went blank. Now my memory has returned and I thank God for it, for it allows me to be reunited with my sons and my family. But understand this, Niall. I cannot change what has happened during the last four years, and I am not sure I would want to change it. How many women have known the love I have known?”
“Love?” he shouted at her. “More likely you mean lovemaking! That’s all you damn women think about! I would have thought Dom O’Flaherty had cured you of lust!”
“And if he had,” she shouted back, “would you have been so hot to bed me? No! You wouldn’t have wanted me.” Then her heart went out to him. “Niall, oh my poor dear, how badly you’ve been hurt! Once my lord Khalid told me of women like your Constanza. It’s a sickness with her, Niall. She cannot help what she does.”
But he was infuriated by her pity. “And what is your excuse, madam. That lusty boy who howls in your nursery was no seven-month babe.”
“What a cold, self-righteous bastard you’ve become,” she said softly.
He snarled and, catching her by surprise, yanked her roughly toward him. She found she could not move and his big hands tangled in her hair as his mouth crushed down on hers. With brutal deliberateness he kissed her slowly over and over until she could not avoid responding. His mouth seared hers. He kissed her purple-shadowed eyelids, her temples, and again her mouth.
Thrill after thrill slammed through Skye. Oh dear God! His mouth forced back the memories she had so long denied. The girlshe had been cried out soundlessly to him. Then, as suddenly as he had grasped her, he thrust her from him. “Yes,” he spat. “You are all alike, you women! Ready to lift your tail for any man who rouses you!”
She slapped him as hard as she could. “No wonder your wife seeks other men,” she said, and rejoiced to see his face crumble. He had hurt her and she wanted to hurt him. He turned on his heel and slammed from the room.
Alone, her hand tingling, she wept. What had happened to him in the past four years to change him so? Was it not she who had suffered the most? She could understand his bitterness over Constanza, but why did he direct his hostility toward her? The afternoon shadows lengthened, a servant came to light the fire, and still she sat with the tears running unchecked down her face.
