“What?”
“While we kissed…”
“He kissed ye?”
Helen felt her cheeks blush. “Twas more than a mere kiss.”
“Alex wouldna approve. And I am not sure…”
“Nay,” Helen said. “I wanted him to kiss me.”
“Ye did?”
“I am one-and-twenty, Keely. I have never been alone with a man, never been permitted to speak with one as I have Master Jamie, and I surely have never had the benefit of a man’s romantic attention.”
“Only because yer father wished the best for ye.”
Helen couldna help laughing. “The best for him, Keely. He guarded my virtue so he could marry me off to a powerful laird, not because he really cares.”
“I doona believe that. Somewhere underneath all his blustering, he is still yer father. Remember my own sire is set in his ways.”
“I want to believe it. But after my mother died, he changed. He tried to forget about her, took a mistress a week after. To this day, the servants whisper about it, especially when he shows interest in a new woman. I doona wish to marry a man like that.”
“I promise ye one thing,” Keely said. “Jamie isna that kind of man. And if ye stirred his emotions as much as ye have said, then I wouldna worry. Hewillreturn.”
“Even if he is different, it willna change anything, especially who I am. Perhaps it is time for me to send my father a missive, sparing Laird Alex the task. I am the one who ran away. It’s my responsibility to tell him why.”
Keely walked around the trestle table and stood in front of Helen. “I am proud of ye. The woman I met seven years ago wouldna have had the courage to say it.”
“Nay?”
“Nay,” Keely assured her.
“I wish to speak with Laird Alex.”
“Before I take ye to him, remember the feast to honor my children is in five days. I hope ye still wish to be my son and daughter’s godmother.”
Nothing could dissuade Helen from accepting that honor. Those two sweet babes were the one thing that made it worth leaving Dunrobin. Any time spent with Keely and her family would become part of Helen’s favorite memories, even if she had to marry Baran Munroe.
“Aye,” she said with enthusiasm. “I have verra special plans for John and Rebecca.” She smiled.
“I am so pleased.” Keely embraced her. “Now let us see about Alex. I am sure he willna keep ye from writing to yer sire.”
They found Alex in his solar with Petro.
“Come in,” Alex stood and bowed. “What brings ye belowstairs at this time of day, dear wife?”
“A special favor,” she answered, going directly to her husband and accepting a kiss on the cheek.
“Ask anything of me.”
Helen adored the way Alex and Keely spoke to and gazed at each other with such love and admiration. She could feel the heat between them, and it almost stole her breath.
“After I spoke with Lady Helen, she determined it would be best ifshepenned the missive to the Earl of Sutherland, not ye.”
Alex sat down again, almost as if he’d been forced to. “Ye caught me off guard, sweet wife.”
“I dinna mean to, Alex.”
