“My Laird, we are simply trying to make certain that the girl is not… using her wiles to lead you astray,” piped up Colin, one of the eldest amongst the gathered guests. He was Laird of the neighboring county, and it was his canny bargaining with Euan that had allowed him to continue his claim on the land that his family had owned for generations. Instead of handing over control of it to another family, he paid a monthly tithe in food and grain; a sure and steady supply of nourishment that kept the Keep well-fed and stocked.
Kiernan snorted.
“Her wiles? Do you think so little of me that you would believe a woman like her could outwit me?”
He was trusting in their belief that no woman could possibly stand up to him, let alone an English woman, though, deepdown, a part of him twisted with the question of whether or not she might have been concealing hidden depths. He supposed he would find out, one way or another. Whatever her reasons for agreeing to marry him, she would not be able to conceal them from him for long.
He left that question to hang in the air, daring any one of them to argue with him, but none did. He was sure there would be much more by way of discussion the moment he left, but that was of little consequence to him. They could gripe and moan all they pleased, but he was the one, at the end of the day, who chose how this place would be run.
And if he wanted to run it with her at his side, then so be it.
He moved towards the door, leaving an explosion of conversation and argument behind him. Before he could slip out into the night and make his way to her bedchamber, though, he felt a hand on his arm. Glancing around, he found Archibald, one of his father’s oldest allies, standing before him. He had, until this moment, been silent on the matter of Kiernan’s new bride, but he clearly had something to say before Kiernan left.
What is it, Archie?” Kiernan asked the older man, his voice dropping slightly. A furrow of concern creased Archibald’s brow, and he shook his head.
“Be careful.”
He tightened his grip on Kiernan’s arm for a moment, as though driving home the point, his familiar brown eyes full of sincerity. But Kiernan drew his arm from Archie’s grasp and moved to the door. Did the old man really think he could not manage a girl like Mary? She was an innocent little thing, who’d barely seen anything of the world. He doubted greatly that there would be anything she could say or do that would surprise him.
He left his advisors and allies fighting behind him and made his way to the stairs that would lead him up to her bedchamber.As he went, he felt something stirring inside of him, a deep want that he had been trying to contain until that moment.
But now, he had her exactly where he wanted her. Waiting for him, in his bedchamber, his wife, his bride.
And he intended to make the very most of their first night together. In any way he could.
10
Mary took the brush to her damp golden hair, working it through the length slowly and methodically. Though her new ladies-in-waiting had offered to help her with her hair after her bath, she had insisted that she was capable of managing it by herself, and they had retreated, allowing her to do as she pleased.
She knew it would take her a while to get used to the thought of having people fussing over her so. It had just been her and her sisters growing up, and, even when she had been staying with Amelia and Arran, she had not been offered much help. She had never needed it. But here, she was being treated as though she could scarcely stand on her own two feet without tumbling to the ground, and she supposed that was how everyone would view her.
Her bedchambers were simple but well-appointed; a large wall hanging covered the wall next to the window, showing a wolf tracking a rabbit out of its hole. It seemed almost imposing, but she tried not to think about what it might mean, to have such an image looming over her bed.
She was perched on the edge of it now, a four-poster affair with an ornately-carved chair beside i. On the chair, knots and snakes tangled in the wood, reaching up over the arms and the back. She could still smell the lightly-perfumed water that had emanated from the bath she’d taken, her ladies-in-waiting sprinkling rose petals upon it so that her skin would smell of the flower. Sure enough, the scent clung to her now. She had always thought of roses as a sweet flower, but now, as the smell of them wafted from her skin, she found that there was something decidedly more adult and sultry about them.
She heard footsteps outside the door, and tensed at once. Was it him? It had to be. She supposed he would come to her eventually, whatever business he had to attend to first. This was, after all, the night of their wedding, and she would have to… give herself to him in a way she had never given herself to anyone before.
A few moments later, the door swung open, and, as she had predicted, there he stood, on the other side. His eyes seemed to blaze an even more piercing shade of blue in the candlelight, and her hand stilled for a moment, body frozen in reaction to him. Excitement twisted with fear in her stomach. She knew not what to expect, but her undying curiosity was threatening to get the better of her.
He paused for a moment, simply looking at her, and then made his way towards her. She was wearing a nightdress, which came down to her ankles, but she was suddenly distinctly aware of how thin the fabric was. One touch, and he would have been able to feel every inch of her body, every part of her at once.
Perhaps she wanted him to.
He moved towards her, and then sank to the edge of the bed next to her. His closeness was intoxicating, the smell of him bringing her back to the night they had met at the ceilidh. Shelonged, for a moment, to lean towards him and bury her face in his neck, but she managed to restrain herself.
He turned to her, his eyes scanning hers, as though searching for something there he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“Did they take good care of you?” he asked her softly, and she nodded at once.
“Oh, yes, they were wonderful,” she replied. “I’ve never… I’ve never had anyone run around after me like that, though. I suppose it will take some getting used to.”
He eyed her for a moment, clearly surprised.
“You’ve no’?”
She shook her head.
“No, never.”
