With a smothered oath Conal Bruce stamped back up the stairs.
When she was certain he had gone, Elsbeth set Adair back from her embrace. “Aha, you baggage!” she said.
“And what was that all about? As much as it grieves me to say it, sooner or later you must go to his bed.”
“I know,” Adair answered. “But not tonight. I am not ready yet. Let his desire for me burn hotter and brighter.”
“What is this talk?” Elsbeth said, not just a little shocked. “You sound like . . . like . . . I do not know what you sound like, but I do not like it. What mischief are you planning? And do not gainsay me, for I know you too well to be lied to, Adair Radcliffe. You are up to something.”
“I am going to make him lust so strongly for me that when I do yield myself to him, he will let me have whatever I want,” Adair said.
“And what is it you want?” Elsbeth demanded to know.
“A horse, for when I have one I shall ride back to Stanton,” Adair responded.
“Without me,” Elsbeth said firmly. “Stanton is gone, child. It is not there anymore for you, or for anyone else.
We need a good home, and we have one here at Cleit.
Tease the laird. Make him fall in love with you, and then make him wed you. A lady needs a husband, Adair, and the laird has no wife. With the death of our good duke, Richard, and with King Henry’s displeasure toward Stanton, England is a closed door for you. You must face that you have no title. No home. No lands any longer.”
“I do have Stanton!” Adair declared stubbornly.
“There is no Stanton,” Elsbeth replied wearily. “You have nothing anymore but a single gown and a bed space in the kitchens of a border keep. There is no shame in starting again, my chick. Get this fine young border lord to wed you, and be happy. Really happy for the first time in your life,” Elsbeth advised.
“You do not understand,” Adair said sadly.
“Nay,” Elsbeth said, “ ’tis you, my chick, who refuses to accept what has happened. Even if you managed to return to where Stanton once was, you would have no house, no cattle, no people. And sooner than later King Henry will give that land to someone he wishes to bind to him. You never heard from Lady Margaret after you returned from court; nor has your sister, the queen, written to you. You know a lady must have influential friends, and you have none, Adair. The life you once lived is over and done with, my child. You must make the best of this new life.”
“I am tired,” Adair replied. “I want to go to bed.” She disappeared into the little chamber with the two bed spaces.
Elsbeth shook her gray head despairingly. She had never thought she would betray Adair, but she was going to warn the laird of Cleit about her mistress’s foolish and futile desire to return to where Stanton oncestood. Not immediately, because her mistress could suddenly face their situation and change her mind. But if she saw that Adair was going to do something foolish, then she would go to the laird. She had sworn to John and Jane Radcliffe long ago that she would protect their daughter, and she would. She would protect Adair even from herself. Slowly she climbed into her own bed space. Adair was pretending to sleep, although Elsbeth knew very well that she wasn’t. She slipped beneath her coverlet, pulling it up over her shoulders, eventually sleeping herself.
But later Adair seemed to have quieted, and Elsbeth considered that she was facing the painful reality of their situation. It was a great relief to believe it, but Elsbeth knew she would have to watch Adair closely, for it was not often she gave up when she had made a decision to do something.
Upstairs in the hall, Conal Bruce sat by his fire with a dram cup of his own potent whiskey in his hand. He was alone, for he had threatened his two brothers with serious injury if they remained. He was not of a mind to be teased further. His male member ached with its need, but he would be damned if he would go and visit Agnes Carr’s cottage. He didn’t want Agnes’s warm and blowsy charms tonight. He wanted Adair. He wanted her mouth, soft and willing. He wanted her body, eager and yielding. Each time she came near he smelled the elusive fragrance of woodbine, and his senses reeled.
She had been in his keep for a month now. The days were growing shorter. The nights longer. And he was suddenly lonely.
What the hell was the matter with him? She was his slave. She belonged to him. He had paid Willie Douglas a silver penny for Adair. Not one of King Jamie’s black pennies minted from cheap copper, but a real silver penny, full weight. He could order her to his bed. Heshouldorder her to his bed. She was his! And then he heard Adair’s voice in his head:I am not a whore.No, she wasn’t a whore. She was a lady, and a man needed to woo a lady. Even if she had fallen on hard times and was now his servant. But, of course, the problem with wooing Adair was that his desire for her was already great.
And each time she came near his lust rose sharply, pricking him like a spur. He groaned and swallowed the whiskey. They could not go on playing this game.
In the morning Adair brought the small individual trenchers of oat stirabout to the high board. “Elsbeth has put chopped apples and grated some cinnamon into your oats,” she told the three brothers. “She says she hopes you like it.”
“ ’Tis good having a woman back in the kitchens,”
Duncan Armstrong said, smiling. “And a clean shirt when I want one,” he added.
Adair smiled back at him. “A well-ordered household is best,” she agreed.
“We’ve rebuilt the henhouse in the courtyard for Elsbeth,” Murdoc said to her.
“I saw when I went to gather eggs this morning,”
Adair replied. “ ’Tis a fine job too, Murdoc.” She turned to Conal Bruce. “Do you think, my lord, we might have a milk cow or two? ’Twould be less costly, and if we get a heavy snow it will be difficult to send to the village for our dairy supplies.”
“We used to have several milk cows,” the laird said.
