“We ate them after Mam died, for we longed for meat more than milk,” he admitted.
“That was because you were all too lazy to hunt,”
Adair responded. “I would remind you, my lord, that the cold larder is but half-filled. We need it full before the winter sets in, or you will go hungry. Elsbeth can do just so much.”
“She is right,” Duncan agreed. “We can hunt today, brothers.”
“Elsbeth will be very pleased,” Adair told them. Thenshe curtsied and hurried away. She had found a small room off the kitchens where it was obvious that once the lady of the keep had had an apothecary. There was even a small pot of camphor gum on a shelf, along with some other nondescript jars she had not yet inspected.
She had been gathering materials for the last few days to make salves, ointments, and elixirs. She planned to begin on that task today. “They’re going hunting,” she told Elsbeth as she returned from the hall. “I’m going to spend my day making the medicines. Flora, you clear the board, and Grizel will clean the hall today. Jack, fetch me a crock of goose fat from the pantry, and put it on my table in the apothecary.”
“Sit down and eat,” Elsbeth said. “You’ve had nothing yet.”
The sound of footsteps made them all turn as the laird entered the kitchen. “Elsbeth, give us some bread, meat, and cheese to take with us today. Adair, I would speak with you privily.” He took her arm and drew her into the pantry. “I don’t want a resistant woman in my bed,” he told her. “But I can be patient no longer.”
Adair blushed at his candid words, and then she realized her back was against a tall cabinet. She could not flee him now.
He wrapped her single thick braid about his hand, pulling her against him. He ran a finger from his other hand along her lips, the gentle pressure pushing those lips slightly apart. Adair tasted the finger, and, unable to help herself, her violet eyes closed as he rubbed the finger back and forth along her mouth. A little sigh escaped her unbidden. He smiled softly. “You want to be loved, my honey,” he murmured against the delicate curl of her ear. “Nay, you are not a whore, but you are a woman.” He drew the finger away, and his lips met hers in a gentle but fierce kiss. “You want to be loved,” he repeated. “Tell me that I lie, Adair. That you have no cu-riosity to know what it would be like to be loved by me, to lie naked in my arms and find pleasure.”
“You are cruel, my lord,” she whispered back to him.
“You torment me, my honey love,” he said low. “I need you in my bed.”
“Do you not have a cotter’s woman to serve your lusts?” Adair asked him.
“I want none but you.” He groaned, and his hand found the swell of her breast beneath her gown. Fingers kneaded the tender flesh.
Adair whimpered softly as a thrill of excitement shot through her. His hand was gentle on her breast, yet his touch aroused her in a way she had never before been stirred. She could not deny him, though her arms hung at her sides, unrestrained.
“Such a sweet little breast,” he murmured. “I would see it uncovered and as God fashioned it, my honey love.”
“Please,” she pleaded with him. “They are all in the kitchen, my lord.”
“Tonight you will sit in my lap by the fire, and I will kiss you, and I will caress you, Adair. And you will not be afraid of me, will you?” He released his hold on her breast and on her braid.
“You do not fool me, my lord,” Adair said. Her courage was returning now that he was not so close.
“You will take me to your bed tonight because you desire me, and you own my person. But before I let you have my person, there is something I would have of you, my lord. I will not lie with a dirty man. When you return from the hunt and have had your dinner, I will bathe you and wash your hair. And the bed we lie on will be fresh and smell as sweet as you will, for I will see to it today.”
“I had a bath two months ago,” he said. “In the stream at the foot of the keep.”
“Did you use soap?” she asked him, pushing him back from her.
“Soap? We were swimming,” he exclaimed.
“Then you were not bathing,” Adair said implacably.
“Tonight I will wash you in hot water, and we will use soap, my lord. And I will have a brush.”
“Conal, where are you?” Duncan Armstrong stuck his head into the pantry. “We’re ready to go.” He looked quizzically at his brother.
“Are we agreed, my lord?” Adair demanded to know, looking up into his face. He had gray eyes. Stormy gray eyes.
“Must we use soap?” he wanted to know.
She nodded. “Aye.”
He nodded. “I have never been a man to avoid a challenge, Adair,” he told her. And then, turning, he was gone with his brother.
