“I’m still hungry!” she said desperately.
“Then the servants shall bring up a tray for you.”
Angus allowed the servants to finish lighting the candles in the bedchamber afore turning to Octavia. He waited for the door to close soundly behind the last of them. “Dinna gainsay me again in front of my men, wife.” He was furious with her and permitted her to see so. “I canna have that.”
“Do you expect me to feel contrition?”
“Aye. Aye, I do!”
“You’ll be waiting forever for it then.”
He ran a hand over his jawline. “What is this aboot, Octavia? I have apologized. I have made a vow to you never to mislead you again.”
“You mislead me in your damn apology about not misleading me!”
“Nay, I dinna. I vowed to never lie to you again and I willna.”
Her green eyes narrowed. “You know good and damn well I thought you were promising not to hunt without me again. Then what happens this morning? I overhear that traitor James talking to you about an upcoming hunt I know nothing about.”
“I wouldst have told you had you given me but a chance!”
“Really?”
“Aye.”
“Andwouldst,” she mimicked, “I have been invited to participate?”
His growl was apparently the only answer she needed to form her own conclusion. Not that ‘twas the wrong one for ‘twas very right. “I told you last eve that I canna take a chance with your life. Only a weak mon wouldst let his wife fight his battles. I am not weak and you willna make a widower of me.”
She rolled her eyes. “This was always my battle; it was never yours.”
“When we wed your battles became mine.”
She sighed, this time coming straight to the point. “I’m a better fighter than all your men put together. I never wanted to be forced into a situation where I had to utter those words, but I have been and there it is.”
“How can you know that?”
“I just can! I can do things even you don’t know about.” A look of frustration crossed her face as she held up her hands and, on a heavy expulsion of air, whipped her hands about and broke his heaviest chest into two equal pieces. He blinked. “Shall I destroy more?”
“Uh… nay.”
Great! Now he carried the lack-witted conversation skills of Colban.
“I am a trained assassin, Angus. I was honest about that fact with you.”
He walked closer to where she stood and sighed. “I dinna doubt you, wife. I never did. But canna you ken I fear losing you to this bedamned Xenocann?”
“But that’s just it, Angus. I fear losing you too! You don’t want me making a widower out of you? Well, I don’t want you to make a widow out of me either!”
He feared he was losing this conversation. He didn’t like it in the least, yet neither did he like anger between him and Octavia. “’Tis your desire do we hunt together?”
“My true desire is for you to let me hunt the feeder alone.” At his appalled expression, she quickly added, “but together is good enough for me.” She shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t believe she felt. “I’ll be much better at having your back than James will. He’s good, but I’m great.”
Angus grunted. “The situation with Sir James well and truly bothers you, does it not?”
She frowned. “His loyalty laid with me until you married me. Now his loyalty lies with you. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
“A what?”
