And yet, he’d woken early to travel to the nearest town market and back because he wanted to see the smile on her face when he handed her a new dress and some shoes to keep her warm for the rest of the journey. He wanted to kiss her again, to touch her again. He’d bedded women before, but last night he felt like it was something entirely new.
“For yer wife, sir?” the stall-keeper had asked him. She was a young woman, heavily pregnant and smiling. “Ye must be a fine husband to have come all this way so early in the morning just to get her a pretty dress.”
Wife. I like the sound of that more than I’d like to admit.
“Something like that,” he’d replied evasively. “I’ll be honest, I dinnae ken anything much about dress-making or what ladies like. Er, can ye help me?”
The young woman had laughed. “Och, yer lucky I have the morning shift and nae me sister. She’d tease ye rotten. Ye men, honestly. What’s yer name?”
“Ivor,” he replied, then cursed – he should have given another name. Still, it didn’t matter too much. For once, he wasn’t the one in danger.
“Well, Ivor, me name is Aggie. Tell me about this woman. What does she look like?”
“She’s fair bonny,” he’d replied instantly. He saw the amusement in the stall keeper's eyes and hastily went on. “She’s tall for a lass, about here on me—” he indicated with his hands “—with fair skin and freckles all over. She’s got this…waterfall of dark hair, so black it looks nearly blue, and her eyes are like gems that contain the sea.”
Aggie had started to laugh, placing her hand on her belly. “Oh, dear. Newlyweds, is it? That’s the only way ye’d be waxing poetic as ye are. She sounds like a lovely woman.”
Ivor had chuckled, a little embarrassed. “She is,” he said. “One of the finest women I’ve met in me life.”
“Well, then,” Aggie had said, walking around the stall to stand next to him. “Let’s find her a nice dress. I’d suggest blue…”
And blue he’d gotten. Now, nearly back at the inn, what Aggie had said to him kept spinning around in his head. He’d known Eithne for but a few days, and yet…
God Almighty above, I think I might care for her already.
Ivor knew that it couldn’t last, but yet neither could he stop the smile on his face or the music spilling from his lips. Back in the present, he re-entered the inn, excited to see how she reacted to her gift. It was still early, though the sun was lighting the whole building now, and the main room was relatively empty. He hoped that Eithne still slept.
He headed upstairs and was horrified to hear sobbing on the other side of the thin door to their rented room. Ivor opened the door, panic surging through him. “Eithne? Are ye hurt? What’s happening?”
She was sitting on the bed, covered by the blanket, looking small and frail and so, so sad. Eithne glanced up when he came in, her crystalline eyes wide with astonishment as she said, “Ivor?”
He placed his pack on the ground and hurried to her side. Sitting down next to her on the bed, he put his arm around her and said, “Why do ye weep, lass? Are ye ill?”
To his surprise, she suddenly looked embarrassed. “I…I thought ye’d abandoned me,” she admitted in a near-whisper. “I thought, now that ye had what ye wanted…” She stopped, embarrassed.
He started to get offended at her implication but held himself in check. What was the point? Why make her feel worse?
“I thought I’d lost ye as well.”
“Nay, nay, never think that,” Ivor said, gently holding her shoulders and making her look at him. “I promised that I’d get ye home, and I will. And what happened last night…I enjoyed every second of it, Eithne. Ye’re a special woman. But it doesnae need to happen again if ye dinnae want it to.”
She sniffed, taking a calming breath, then said, “Doyewant it to?”
“Very much,” he admitted before his mind could catch up with his mouth. “But—”
She moved quickly, and the rest of his words were lost in her lips.
* * *
It took them a while before they managed to leave each other alone long enough to head downstairs to break their fast. Eithne’s heart fluttered like she was still half a girl whenever she saw the secretive smile on his face.
How is it that he makes me feel so good? Why is it that his presence makes me so happy?
She wished that Killian had introduced them before all of this, but she now began to suspect why he had not. She and Killian had always been best friends, but he was protective of his baby sister. Had he imagined that Ivor would have this effect on her? Had he known the impact she would have on Ivor?
Her thoughts were interrupted as the barmaid dropped two plates in front of them filled to the brim with steaming hot food – lamb sausages, eggs, blood pudding – enough to feed a family on each plate.
Eithne couldn’t help it; she laughed. “I cannae possibly eat all of this.”
