“Not this one,” she said, then took his hand. “Kinfairlie.”
“Kinfairlie,” he agreed, lifting her hand to his lips as his eyes glowed. “Though I would willingly enter even Inverfyre to take your hand in mine.”
“Perhaps you will not be able to evade as much,” she said with a laugh.
But Ramsay sobered. “I love you, Evangeline,” he murmured for her ears alone and drew her into his embrace again. “I knew it that day at Inverfyre.”
“And I love you,” she confessed. “Though I did not suspect as much until that day in the forest. I knew when Rufus struck you down that I had found no suitor of interest because you did not come to Inverfyre.”
“Perhaps a visit there is inevitable now,” he said, apparently rueful, but Evangeline saw his teasing smile. She silenced him with a triumphant kiss.
* * *
All had comearight in Ramsay’s view when someone cleared his throat in close proximity.
“Inverfyre?” Lady Haynesdale echoed, taking a place beside Ramsay, her question indicating that she had been listening. She smiled at him, as pert as a sparrow and nigh as unrepentant.
“If not Normandy,” Evangeline said.
The lady shook her head. “You need not journey so far.”
“Indeed, my lady, you might make a claim for Dunhaven as the betrothed of Rufus,” Lord Haynesdale said, seating himself beside Evangeline.
Ramsay fair held his breath, for he could not wait to abandon this holding but the choice was Evangeline’s to make.
She shook her head with vigor and he felt her shiver. “I could never abide here. There must be a cousin or a nephew to take the holding to hand.” She leaned against Ramsay. “Our future will be in Normandy.”
“Indeed. A return to the lists?” Lord Haynesdale asked.
“Nay,” Evangeline and Ramsay said in unison. He looked at her.
“I could not bear to watch you risk your life thus, over and over again,” she confided.
“You need not do as much,” he assured her. “I have sufficient coin that we might acquire a holding. My aunt Eudaline may provide some counsel in that matter.”
“Oh, and you will visit Château de Joie!” Lady Haynesdale declared. “You will adore Eudaline, my dear, for she holds Ramsay in great affection…” Her comments were cut short by a triumphant bellow and the sound of arriving horses.
“There!” a familiar male voice boomed. “There is the champion of whom we heard tell on the road. I trained Ramsay MacLaren, to be sure!”
Ramsay laughed aloud at his mentor’s pride. There was a bustle of activity and greetings all around as the party from Kinfairlie arrived, led by Ahearn O’Donnell and another man of authority, with Talbot and a jubilant Otto in their company.
Otto seized Ramsay and hugged him tightly, stepping back to survey him. “And?” he invited.
“Your advice in the use of the flail was invaluable.”
“Ha!” Otto punched Ramsay’s bruised shoulder amiably, prompting him to wince and Talbot to laugh. The two knights embraced heartily.
“And I missed it,” Talbot said ruefully, dropping his voice low. “He is dead?”
Ramsay nodded and his companions nodded approval in their turn. He gestured to Evangeline beside him, that coronet of daisies in her hair. “And my lady has accepted me.”
“I knew she had her wits about her,” Talbot teased with a wink and they laughed together.
“Cousin Alexander!” Evangeline introduced the Laird of Kinfairlie to Ramsay, and Ramsay met the gaze of Ahearn, who stood behind that man. There was assessment in the older man’s eyes.
“We are to wed,” Evangeline informed him, clearly undaunted by his expression. “You need not look so disapproving, for Ramsay is both a knight and a man of fortune. Once wed, we shall sail for Normandy.”
Ahearn looked between the two of them, inscrutable.
