“We didnae hire her. She showed up with her children after her husband was killed. She wanted to live behind our walls with her bairns. So we came to an agreement. She sees what she does as paying for the wee house we built for her and the children. It works out weel for all of us. She also raises pigs for her money. Built them a good pen near the barn.”
“That is a good arrangement for all of you. She is a very lucky woman.”
“Oh, nay, we are lucky. We were thinking of hiring a woman but now dinnae have to.”
“No, I mean lucky in that it sounds very much as if she has become a part of your family, her and her children.”
“She is, but I think I see what ye mean. Maybe that was what she was really looking for although she does admire our walls and we have seen the good use of them a few times.”
“This is a rough country.”
“Ye would have something in common with Emily. She also lost her whole family to men who attacked and burned the cabin they were in.”
“Marauders?”
“Men hired by her kinsmen to be sure her nephew wouldnae grow up to return to England and claim his inheritance.”
“Oh. They came all the way here to do that?”
“Aye. Hard to understand that kind of greed.”
“If it is a lot that can push people to do all sorts of evil things to try and get a hold of it.”
“Weel, these fools didnae count on Emily. She got her nephew out of there, through the woods and into a hiding place her brother-in-law had dug out. When my brother found it and peeked in he met a knife.”
“She stabbed him?”
“Nay, just held it at his throat and her with a bullet wound in her leg and a bullet burn on her arm. Looks like a bonnie little doll but has a spine of steel. Good wife for Iain.”
The way his fingers stroked the back of her neck made Abigail lean against him. “Sounds it. Especially in these hills. Life is not easy. Even before this war life was often a continuous struggle.”
He grunted his agreement, his eyes on the land around them. They were well hidden in this place, the trees, now getting greener every day, provided good cover for them, and his last time spent spying on where the Rebs had been camped had revealed nothing. The whole lot of them appeared to have marched away.
Deciding they were safe enough where they were, he glanced down at Abigail and shook his head. She had gone to sleep. He only briefly thought of waking her up to satisfy his hunger for her. Caring for Julia was sapping her strength. He hoped the girl regained her full senses soon. As carefully as he could he lay down and held her against his side. He watched a squirrel leaping around in the branches of a tree and decided he could do with a bit of rest himself.
* * *
When he woke up the sun was beginning to set and he rubbed one hand over his face. He then looked over at Abigail who was using his arm as her pillow and smiled. At least he knew now that she did not snore, he thought, and chuckled to himself. Knowing the rest of the ladies might start wondering where they were, he gently shook her to wake her up.
Abigail swatted at the hands shaking her awake and heard a soft, deep laugh. Why was Matthew in her bedroom? As she lifted her head to tell him to get out, she realized she was sleeping in a meadow. Groaning softly, she turned onto her back and stared up at Matthew. As her mind cleared she recalled why she was there. She suspected watching over a sleeping woman was not what he had in mind for the afternoon.
“Oh!” She sat up. “I forgot all about Julia.”
“I am sure she is fine or Mrs. Beaton would have sent out people to find us. And, ye havenae been asleep all that long.” He reached out a hand and helped her stand up. “I dinnae see why ye are the only one who needs to keep a watch over her.”
“She learned Robert had died, was right there when he did, and she is with child. A shock such as she has had could easily start her labor.”
“The shock was a few days ago now.”
“True, but the effect of it may well take some time to reveal itself.”
They had had a nice time away from it all but the passionate moments he had contemplated would not come now. Their time away was very clearly over. He took her hand and they started back. She said nothing that showed she knew what he had planned by bringing her out here and took that as a good sign. He had still been ready for some reaction over what they had shared before being interrupted yet again in the house he had used, but no guilt and no hint of shame. That had him wondering when he could arrange another time and place away from all the others. It was far past time that he started thinking about what exactly he wanted from Abigail Jenson.
Then he thought about Julia, a young woman who carried a child but no longer had a husband because the man who had wed her had been killed. His time would come, too. A man could not keep riding into battle as he did and not face his death. When he thought of Abigail and how she might fare if left alone with his child, he knew it was definitely past time for him to think beyond his own needs and wants and consider the future.
Before they were in sight of the town, he tugged her into his arms and kissed her. Her tense surprise melted away quickly and she became soft and willing in his arms. His body responded until he was so hard he almost groaned with the need to take her. When he leaned back, breaking the kiss, he thought she had never looked more beautiful. She stared up at him, her cheeks lightly flushed and her lips slightly parted.
“Someone might see us,” she said in a soft, husky voice that fired his blood.
