“Aye, you are,” Adair responded. “And the prince says he’ll be visiting you when he is next in the vicinity.”
Agnes Carr groaned again. “Never have I been
fucked so much in one night by one man,” she said.
“The laddie has a thirst that is unquenchable, and en-ergy that never flags.” She rolled over and, seeing it was Adair, Agnes gasped and grabbed at the coverlet in an attempt at modesty. “My lady!” She struggled to get to her feet, fell back onto the bed, and then Agnes Carr blushed for what was probably the first time in her life.
“The prince’s reputation precedes him,” Adair said with a small grin. “And ’tis said there isn’t a lass he’s fucked who ever had cause for complaint.”
Agnes managed to retain a sitting position now. “I can attest to that, my lady.”
“You have done my husband and me a goodly service by keeping young Jamie Stewart amused last night.
Come to the hall when you are ready and have something to eat. Conal will send you home in the cart.”
“Praise Jesu for that,” Agnes replied. “I do not think I can walk more than a few steps. And I haven’t been this sore since I was a virgin newly sprung.”
Adair laughed. “When you are ready,” she told the woman, and left her to recover herself. Adair returned to the hall. There she found her guests preparing to leave Cleit. The Hepburn’s clansmen had already gone to the stables to see to the horses. “My lords,” Adair said, “I thank you for coming, and wish you a safe journey.”
“You will probably see us sooner than later,” Patrick Hepburn told her, and he took her hand and kissed it.
“Are we forgiven then, madam?”
“In time, my lord,” Adair said, “but until I am able to forgive Conal I cannot forgive his companions in this deception.”
“Fair enough,” the Hepburn replied with a smile. He was a big, tall man with russet hair and warm brown eyes.
The young prince now stepped forward. “I did not kiss the bride, did I?” he said, and mischievously kissed her lips, leaving Adair a little breathless with her surprise and the knowledge that his lips had been deliciously warm and ardent. “Your hospitality equals that of far larger homes, madam,” James Stewart said. Then he pressed a coin into her hand. “For Agnes,” he said.
“She is more than deserving.”
Then, escorted by Conal Bruce and his brothers, the Hepburn and the prince went into the courtyard of the keep to join their men. When they had gone Adair spied Agnes Carr in the shadows. The woman steppedforward.
“I couldn’t face the men quite yet,” she said.
Adair nodded. “Come and have something to eat,”she invited.
“If I might go to the kitchens . . .” Agnes Carr said.
“Of course,” Adair replied, realizing that Agnes actually felt a bit embarrassed by her situation. It was one thing to give comfort to the local lads, but she had just spent several very active hours in a prince’s bed. A prince who would one day be Scotland’s king. She led Agnes to the kitchens, telling Elsbeth to feed her.
“When you are ready just go into the courtyard and the cart will be awaiting you,” Adair told Agnes. She pressed the coin in Agnes’s hand. “Fromhim.” Then, as she walked slowly up the stairs to the hall, she heard the women in the kitchens begin to question the exhausted Agnes.
“What was he like?”
“Is he as passionate as they say?”
“Is his manhood as large as is rumored?”
Adair giggled and reentered the hall to find her husband had returned.
“What makes you laugh?” Conal asked her.
“The women are querying poor Agnes on the prince,”she told him.
Conal Bruce smiled himself. “Agnes Carr will be famous now, having had the prince for her lover. And he will visit her again when he comes.”
“When?” What did he mean by when? Adair wondered.
