‘Are you real, or am I in a dream,’ he had said in his smooth, English tones, utterly smitten. And just like that, Cecily had fallen in love too.
Edmund spotted her and waved, and she could not take her eyes off him. Their secret meetings over these last weeks were a sin in the eyes of God, as were the liberties she had let him take – kisses, gentle caresses, her firm hand on his arm to stop him when his fingers strayed where they should not. But if you loved a man, how could it be a sin to let him steal a kiss or stroke your hair? Soon, she would share his bed and be a wife, and she knew nothing of such things, but Edmund was sure to be a gentle and patient teacher. Her heart leapt at the thought, for Edmund was so manly and perfect. What if she disappointed him?
His smile was like sunshine as she ran into his arms. He hugged her tightly. ‘I thought you would never come, my love. I have been waiting for an age.’
‘It was hard to slip away. We had a visitor today, a horrible brute called Jasper Glendenning, and my father threw me at him like a bone to a dog.’
‘Glendenning?’ he growled, grabbing her by the forearm, fingers digging in.
‘Edmund, you are hurting me.’
‘A thousand pardons,’ he murmured, kissing her briefly. ‘I have heard rumours about this man, and none are good. It vexes me that he was anywhere near you. What did he want, this Jasper Glendenning?’ There was a twist of jealousy in his expression, steel in his words. He was so protective.
‘He came to call in a debt and threaten my brother over some slight or other,’ said Cecily. ‘Father tried to distract the oaf by parading Rowenna and me before him.’
‘And did he take the bait?’ he said, narrowing his eyes.
‘Aye. That awful man stared at me in such an angry, covetous way that I could scarcely look at him.’
Edmund’s jaw worked, and Cecily tried to deflect his anger. Perhaps she should not have mentioned Glendenning, because now, her lover’s handsome face was clouded with suspicion. ‘I did not like him at all, Edmund. He was most ill-favoured. And I thank God for our plan to run away together. Otherwise, I would be at the mercy of villains like him.’
‘Yes. And on that matter, come here and let me kiss the life out of you, Cecily MacCreadie.’
He pulled her in and sank his lips to hers, taking greedy possession of her mouth. His tongue invaded as his hands slid downwards to cup her bottom.
‘Edmund, stop,’ she cried. ‘We are not wed. I cannot.’
‘Soon, you will be mine, and there will be no stopping me from claiming all your beauty, my love, my life,’ he murmured, his mouth sliding to her throat and onwards to the cleft of her breasts. His hand followed, and Cecily pushed him off.
‘I long for you, Edmund, but let us go to the priest before they come looking for me. Once we are married, I will give myself to you.’
‘But I need to know that you really love me,’ he said, and there was a hard look in his eye. ‘I’ve been patient, more than any man could be, given how you look.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I want us to be one, sweetling. There is an inn near here where we can be comfortable and out of the cold.’
‘What inn?’
‘Rascals something or other,’ he said. ‘We can find a warm bed where I will make a woman of you. Looking as you do, you will take to it like a duck to water, Cecily. I will make your body sing.’
Did he mean Rascal’s Inn? Had not Rowenna mentioned the place this very day as a whorehouse frequented by their brother? Surely, Edmund could not mean them to spend their wedding night in such a dirty place.
‘But the priest, Edmund?’ said Cecily.
‘I could not find one. We will marry tomorrow, but let us go now in case they come looking for you.’
He mounted his horse and held out his hand to her. Cecily’s heart raced. This was not how she had imagined their elopement – sloping off to a house of ill-repute and sacrificing her virginity before marriage.
She hesitated. ‘I cannot lie with you outside of marriage, Edmund. It is wrong.’
‘Who is to tell us what is right or wrong when we are in love?’ He winked and flicked his fingers, beckoning her like a dog.
Strangely, it sparked her temper, and Cecily stepped back from him. She felt a little sick, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. ‘I cannot, and you would not ask this of me if you loved me, Edmund.’
He sighed and looked out over Crichton Moor. The wind had picked up and howled over the land, ruffling his black hair. She had never seen such an achingly handsome man.
‘There is no choice, Cecily. If you do not leave with me today, your family might lock you up and feed you to that old goat, Carruthers, or that animal Glendenning.’
