Standing up, he sought out his brother at the other end of the hall with several men-at-arms. Drawing him away, he said, “Annabella has spoken to me of her plans to bring two of the village bairns to the castle. I have approved it, and will speak with the smith and the laundress myself so they understand the honor bestowed on their bairns.”
“Better yer wife be raising her own bairns than another’s,” Matthew muttered.
“Why are ye being so hard about this?” Angus demanded of his younger sibling.
“It is not usual for ye to take so long to impregnate a wench,” Matthew replied. “She should be wi’ bairn by now, yet she ripens not. Perhaps she is infertile as well as plain. Ye might have had a beauty, an heiress.”
Angus Ferguson swallowed back his anger. Matthew was just anxious for Duin’s future. Having been recognized both personally and legally by their father, he was extremely loyal to his family. From his youth he had worshiped his elder brother. “Annabella will be enceinte soon,” Angus promised Matthew. “Her mother was fertile, and she will be as well. She traveled across Scotland to be my wife. It’s been only two months. She needs time to acclimate herself to Duin, to me. I am happy wi’ her.”
“Silis delivered ye a lad this morning,” Matthew said.
“And ye’re just now bringing me word of it?” the earl said, irritated.
“The messenger arrived during the evening meal. I didn’t think yer wife would want to know that yer former mistress delivered ye a firstborn son this day,” Matthew said. “What gift will ye bring the laddie tomorrow when ye go to see her?”
“Silis has been well taken care of, Matthew, and ye know it. I gave her a large cottage on the moor, for she didn’t want one near her family’s in the village. I furnished the cottage, gave her a servant to help her and a generous yearly stipend. I will visit my son when I have the time. If I go tomorrow, she will take it as an indication that I wish to resume our former relationship. Send the messenger back with a small silver cup. ’Twas what I gave the mothers of my daughters. Silis is aware of that, and can read nothing more into that.
“She’ll take a lover soon enough, for she’s a lass who cannot live wi’out a manly cock to entertain her. I’m actually not sure that this bairn is mine at all. I caught the blacksmith’s middle son sneaking out of her da’s cottage one day when I went to see her unexpectedly. I told her that same day that I was bored wi’ her, and would no longer be coming to visit her. And she told me she was expecting a bairn, swearing ’twas mine, but I have never been entirely satisfied that was the truth. Silis is a whore at heart. I learned that the blacksmith’s lad visited her at least twice a week last winter.”
Matthew flushed. “I knew,” he admitted, “but once ye told us that she was to have a bairn, I dared say naught to ye.”
Angus laughed ruefully. “The bairn could be mine,” he replied.
“When ye see him, look for the mark,” Matthew said. He referred to a tiny round birthmark that all their father’s male children bore on their testicles.
Angus laughed. “When I go to see the bairn, I will look,” he replied. “Say nothing to Jean or Annabella.”
Matthew nodded. “I’ll say nothing,” he promised his brother. “But they are bound to hear of the bairn sooner than later.”
“Jean, mayhap,” Angus agreed, “but ’tis unlikely Annabella will go into the village now that she is to have Callum and Una here wi’ her. Silis and her bairn should be of no concern to my wife. ’Tis past.”
“As long as Silis understands yer wishes,” Matthew said. “Perhaps I should deliver the silver cup to her.”
“Nay, yer presence would have her believing that I still care. Send the cup with the messenger,” the earl told his brother. He would, of course, have to go and see the bairn sooner or later. It would be expected of him. His former mistress was the daughter of a fisherman, who had lived in the village with her aunt, for she could not abide the smell of fish. She had flirted with him boldly, and finally he had indulged his curiosity. She had given herself to him freely, and for a time she had amused him with her beauty and her greed for any bauble he gave her. Finally bored with her and concerned by the faint rumors of her faithlessness, he had ended the relationship. Her news, however, led him to act honorably. He had not seen or heard of her again until this evening.
He considered whether he should tell Annabella of Silis and her bairn, but decided against it. It was hardly the kind of conversation a man wanted to have with his bride before deflowering her and spending the night in her bed. Tonight of all nights, their thoughts and emotions should be only for each other. “Good night, Matthew,” he said, and, leaving the hall, hurried up the stairs to his own apartment.
Within he found that his body servant, Tormod, had prepared a hot bath for him in the bathing chamber. He bathed quickly, saying little, yet he could not help but wonder how Tormod had known he wanted to bathe this night, for he had sent no order to him. The servant wrapped a towel warmed by the fire about his master when he emerged from the stone tub. He knelt to pare the earl’s toenails, and then with a smaller towel dried his short-cropped dark hair. Back in his bedchamber, Angus dismissed the servant. “I will not need you again until the morning,” he said.
Tormod bowed. “Aye, my lord,” he said. Then he was gone from the chamber.
Had there been the hint of a smile upon the man’s lips, or had he imagined it? Angus wondered to himself. He was ready to join Annabella, but now he became assailed with doubts. What if her lack of beauty caused his lust to lie dormant? What a disaster that would prove to be. Still, her bedchamber would be lit only by firelight. She was not ugly, nor deformed, and she was a sweet lass who might be shy but was more than willing to do her duty. Of course he would perform properly. It could not be otherwise.
He decided against wearing a nightshirt or house robe. It was always awkward removing such a garment in the heat of passion, and there would be passion. How could it be otherwise when a man held a tender, warm body in his arms? Angus Ferguson walked across his bedchamber and, opening the door in the paneled wall, ducked his head to avoid the top of the doorjamb as he stepped into Annabella’s bedchamber.
She turned as he came into the room, gasping with surprise at his nudity. The dimness of the chamber showed little more than his shadow, the firelight touching his skin here and there. “My lord,” she murmured.
He could smell the intoxicating fragrance that surrounded her. She was wearing a silk-and-lace garment that, rather than concealing her figure, revealed her entire body to his sight. And to his great surprise, it was an absolutely beautiful body. He felt a tightening in his groin. Her limbs were long and shapely. Her charming little breasts almost made his mouth water with anticipation at the thought of the thorough licking and sucking he would visit upon them very shortly. Her belly had just the faint hint of rounding, and below it was her smooth plump mons. He walked slowly about her to discover that her buttocks were delightfully curvaceous. His hands itched to grasp those charming mounds.
If God had denied Annabella Baird the face of a goddess, he had certainly given her the body of one. The dancing flames of the firelight offered him a most perfect view of it. His cock tingled at the thought of possessing that body. She was his! His alone! No one but him would ever know the secret that her clothing hid. He almost laughed aloud at this wonderful discovery. Then he greeted her. “Good evening, madam,” he said.
She did not demur. “Will we couple tonight?” she asked him.
“Aye,” he told her.
“Then, as we are about to become intimate,” Annabella said softly, “perhaps ye will call me by my given name, my lord. Since ye’re about to shortly take my virginity from me—yours by right, my lord—I should like to hear ye speak my name, and not address me quite so formally asmadam.”
“Take off yer garment,Annabella,” he replied to her.
