Emily sighed. “You always call me love. You really should not. Gives a girl hope, you know, that she might really be your love. I know I am not. I am just the girl you like to, like to, um, shag.” She nodded. “That is the word. Shag.”
Iain hurried back with the water and made her drink it, fighting to control his laughter, mostly brought on by surprise. “That is not all you are to me, Emily.” He hoped she could hear and understand him because he did not like her thinking that. “I have been wooing you. A man doesnae woo a lass when she is just convenient for lovemaking.”
“Oh, yes, the wooing.”
“Aye. I brought ye flowers and candy.”
“Mrs. O’Neal and the children really liked the candy.” The numbness was fading and Emily tried to hold on to it; she did not really want to remember what she had seen and heard.
“Ye gave them the candy?”
“Shared it. They were all sitting there with their big begging eyes. I do not know how they knew I had candy but suddenly they were all there. I feel odd, Iain.”
“Ye are in shock, love.”
“There. You did it again.”
“Emily, you are my love and if my wooing didnae make ye see that, I was doing a worse job than I thought I was.” He gently stroked her cheek. “Come back to me and we can talk sense and I ken ye will remember what I say then.”
“He was so insane, Iain. It was frightening to be in a room with someone so barking mad. He needed to be chained up. He killed his parents and he wanted to kill Neddy. Saw no wrong in it. He even planned to kill my grandfather. He did not kill Constance though, even though he thought she was stupid and talked of how, in the hour he spent with her, he envisioned shooting her in her never-closed mouth even though he was feeling very pleased with himself and kindly toward her at the time. Who thinks like that?”
Her voice rose on the last question and he held her close. “A lunatic. You probably will never know how many he killed. Dinnae fret over it. He is gone now and we dinnae need to worry about his mad plans.”
“But he was my relation. Blood relation. What if that sickness is in me?”
“Never. It doesnae run through families like red hair. There would be signs. There is nothing in ye or little Neddy to show it. And sometimes it is just the one. Just some twist that happened. Maybe in the womb. I have seen both. I am nay worried about it. Maybe it came from the side that is no blood relation to ye.”
“You mean it could have come from his mother’s side not the duke’s.”
“Aye.” He felt a wetness on his shirt that told him the tears had come. “The man is dead. Ye dinnae need to worry about him anymore.”
“You will tell me if you ever see a hint of it?”
“Aye, but I dinnae think I ever will.”
“Because I am your love,” she whispered.
“Exactly. The wooing was so ye would be of a mind to heed me when I spoke of it.”
“So ye want to continue to woo me.”
“Do I have to?”
“Not really.”
He tilted her face up to his and kissed her, then looked down at her and knew what he was about to say was as true and heartfelt as anything he had ever said in his life. “I do love ye, Lady Emily.”
“Oh.” She knew she was crying again. “I love you, too. And you do not need to call me ‘Lady.’ It is my grandfather who is the duke.”
“Which meant your father was the marquise. I think that makes ye a lady.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Used to be. Nay anymore. If nothing else, ye showed me there are good and bad. Ashamed that I ever compared ye to Lady Vera even once.”
“Lady Vera? Lady Vera Compton?”
He tensed. “Do ye ken the woman?”
