“Aye.”
She seemed to search his face and he wondered what she saw. The guarded man? The scarred man? The man who had dragged her into a marriage neither of them chose?
He didn’t have time to ask, even if he wanted to, for the children ran back, breaking the spell, and Davina shook her head, rushing them back into the house.
“I think it is time fer us all tae clean up!”
Baird listened, just like the children did, but he found himself aching for the moment when they would be alone again.
CHAPTER 11
Davina slipped into their chamber with a soft groan, feeling the mud crack at the hem of her gown. She had not expected laughter today, much less to be coated in half the garden. Baird came in after her, equally filthy, and shut the door with a sigh that sounded like half-exasperation and half-laughter.
Ailis appeared in the doorway just then, stopping short when she saw the state of them. “Saints preserve us… what happened tae ye both?”
“The garden,” Davina said at once.
“The bairns,” Baird corrected under his breath.
Ailis blinked but wisely did not ask further.
“Ailis,” Baird said, straightening slightly, “bring warm water fer washing, and have a bath drawn.”
The maid nodded and hurried off.
Davina stared at him, utterly stunned. “A bath?”
“Aye.” He began peeling dried mud from his sleeve. “We’re both covered in enough dirt tae sow fields with.”
“Inhere?” she demanded. “Ye expect me tae bathe here? With ye standing about as though it’s the most natural thing in the world?”
He looked genuinely puzzled. “This is our chamber.”
“That is precisely the issue!”
He raised a brow, slow and maddeningly calm. “Where else would ye clean yerself?”
“I dinnae ken,” she hissed. “Anywhere that isnae ten feet from ye.”
He crossed his arms, which unfortunately only made his shoulders seem broader. “Ye’re me wife.”
“Yes, by accident of catastrophe, nae because we planned it,” she snapped. “I’m nae about tae sit in a tub while ye… mill about.”
His mouth twitched. “Mill about?”
“Ye ken what I mean.”
“I dae,” he said, far too quietly for her comfort. “But ye’re the one assuming I intend tae stand and watch.”
Her cheeks burned. “Ye have given me every reason tae assume it!”
“Have I?”
“Aye!”
He stepped closer, with the faintest hint of a smile tugging his scarred cheek. “Tell me one reason of those many I have given ye.”
She opened her mouth. No reason came. There was only the memory of his hands steadying her in the garden, the way he had looked at her with that heat she pretended not to notice.
