“Beast!” She snatched her hands away. “I could learn to cook if I wanted to learn to cook,” she told him.
James Leslie laughed. “Jasmine, my darling Jasmine, you have absolutely no talent for the culinary arts, but where the amatory arts are concerned, now there you are most facile.” He pulled her down into his lap, kissing her mouth and enjoying the breathless flush he brought to her cheeks. Pulling open the ties on her shirt, he slid his hand beneath the silk and fondled a deliciously plump breast.
“I didn’t know you peeled carrots,” she murmured, nuzzling his neck, then licking it.
He slid his tongue into her mouth, his thumb and his forefinger twiddling with her nipple. “Ummmmm,” he replied, his mouth working feverishly against hers.
The door to the lodge sprang open, and the earl of Glenkirk almost dumped his wife most unceremoniously onto the floor as Red Hugh, grinning from ear to ear, stomped in with a brace of rabbits.
“Dinner,” he said, swallowing his chortles. “Maybe I should skin ‘em out back, my lord.” He moved through into the kitchen.
Jasmine, however, couldn’t control her fit of giggles as she laced up her shirt again. “Maybe living here forever isn’t such a good idea, Jemmie,” she said. “We don’t have much privacy, do we?”
“Nay, we don’t,” he grumbled. Dammit, he was hot for her! A-Cuil would be nice for a few days’ respite if they were alone, but he really wanted to be home at Glenkirk. His in-laws would have already departed for England and Queen’s Malvern; butthey would be forced to run from here to there all summer long just because of that damned fool, Piers St.Denis.
“Why don’t we go home?” Jasmine said suddenly, as if reading his thoughts.
“To Glenkirk? We can’t,” he said.
“Why not?” Jasmine responded. “St. Denis has already been there, and is now off on a fool’s chase about the countryside. We are having him watched, and will know when he comes our way again, Jemmie. But I don’t want to bring the children home. Not until this matter has been settled. It is easy enough, however, for you and me to flee again if the marquis of Hartsfield comes in our direction once more.”
He considered it and thought that she was right. “We’ll spend one more night here, madame,” he told her, “but I shall send Fergus More and Red Hugh back to Glenkirk to advise Adali of our change of plans.”
“Not until after supper,” she chuckled, and he laughed, agreeing.
And when they had had their supper of broiled rabbit, oatcakes, cheese, and cider, they sent Fergus and Red Hugh back to Glenkirk with a message for Adali. Then they sat together on the edge of the hillside, watching the sun set in the west.
Jasmine sighed happily within her husband’s embrace. “The sunsets are so different here than in India,” she said. “In India the colors are lush and exotic, but not so vibrant and rich as here in Scotland. I love our Scots sunsets, Jemmie. I love Scotland. I have seen it at its best, and at its worst, and I love it!It is home!It is home as no place has been since I left India.”
“And yet so different,” he replied.
“Aye,” she said, but did not elaborate further. There was no need for her to do so.
They remained lying in the grass, listening to the small night creatures chirping and singing as the light from the sunsetfaded, and the skies above them were filled with a plethora of stars. They watched the moon rise.
“‘Tis a border moon,” Jemmie said softly.
“Aborder moon?”Jasmine was puzzled. “What does that mean?”
“It’s large and full, and ‘tis what the border Scots call it. They always went raiding with a border moon to light their way. My stepfather was a borderer. He took my mother raiding with him once.”
“Did she enjoy it?” Jasmine asked.
“Aye,” he admitted.
“I think I would, too,” Jasmine told her husband.
A wildcat, hunting its dinner, shrieked in the forest behind them, and the earl of Glenkirk rose, drawing his wife up with him. “Come,” he said, “let us go to bed, darling Jasmine.”
Together they made certain that the stable door was secure so that the horses would be safe from the marauding beast. They laid the heavy oaken bar across the front door of the lodge and, banking the fires in the parlor and the kitchen, climbed the narrow staircase to their bedchamber. The room was flooded with moonlight. James Leslie threw another log on the fire in the small fireplace near the doorway.
To the left of the doorway was a bank of casement windows. Jasmine opened them a crack. To the right of the door was a small single round window, beneath which was a little table. On the bit of wall space by the fireplace was a mirror, and a chair was set next the hearth. The curtained bed and the clothes chest were the only serious pieces of furniture within the bedchamber. They pulled off their clothing and slipped beneath the coverlet, their bodies immediately intertwined.
He cradled her, his big hand stroking her face. “Have you any idea how much I love you?” he asked her softly.
“At least as much as I love you,” she replied, slipping her arms about him.
He began to kiss her face. Slowly, tenderly. His lips grazed lightly across her cheekbones, brushed her eyelids, skimmed over her forehead, and finally found her lips. The sweet pleasure between their two mouths increased as their passions rose and soared. Her breasts flattened as he pulled her hard against his furred chest.
