Her gaze softened as soon as the words came out of his mouth. It was a far cry from the way he had treated her the day before, when he had acted like she owed him something he would not fail to take command of.
She reached for the wine and brought it to her lips as the maids rushed into the room to bring out the used plates. His gaze did not move from her for a moment. She put aside her gift, already looking forward to trying it on, though willing to focus on him, at least for now. If he was going to try and charm her, then the least she could do was leave herself open to it, wasn’t it?
“So,” he remarked, once the second course had been brought in and she had begun to eat. “How do ye find the Keep?”
“Too large by half,” she replied. “I keep getting lost.”
He chuckled. “Well, ye cannae blame me for that.”
“Oh, ye’d be surprised at what I can blame you for,” she replied, but there was a lighter edge to her voice that assured him she was doing little more than teasing.
It took him a moment to make sense of it, though, and he raised his eyebrows for a second before he smiled. He managed a laugh, finally. She could not help but feel rather charmed by his attentiveness and his willingness to respond to her unconventional answers, even when he clearly had little idea of how to.
“Oh, I love cranachan,” she sighed as she plunged her spoon into her pudding and took a hefty bite.
He was still watching her, his wine in one hand. She could not help but notice how much larger his hand looked on the glass than hers did, and she tried not to let her mind linger on it for too long.
“It’s good to see ye eat,” he remarked quietly. “I havenae seen ye take much food since ye arrived.”
“Yes, well, I’ve been too busy trying to get yer kitchen in order,” she replied, waving a hand. “How can I trust anything that comes out of there when I’ve seen the chaos it operates under?”
He laughed again, this time a little more prepared for her response.
“I’m no’ sure that the kitchen staff would agree with ye there.”
“They dinnae have to,” she replied with a shrug. “As long as they keep sending out cranachan this delicious.”
The conversation did not quite flow between them, but it was laced with rather less combativeness than it had been before—especially compared to their time in his study the evening prior. He asked her questions about her favorite foods and flowers, and she told him all about the time she had spent in the gardens of her father’s estate before she had come here. How she had lovedto pick jasmine and fill her bedroom with them so the scent would rise through her body when she woke every morning.
He listened attentively, trying to take it all in, and she thought, for a moment, about asking him why he had reached out to her sister. She was worried, though, that it might shatter the good spirits they seemed to have found together. Whether it was a result of the wine or just the effort he seemed to have suddenly poured into this evening, she was grateful for it. For once, she felt no need to dig her heels in and make a point of not enjoying it.
“There was a woman in the village near me who used to make jasmine perfume,” she sighed, as the memory crossed her mind once more. “I used to spend all my coins on it, and my father would complain that I walked through the estate smelling like a garden.”
She laughed at the thought, and he gazed back at her for a moment, drinking her in. She was not used to seeing him quite so calm, and she’d have been lying if she said there was a part of her that didn’t know how to react to it. She almost wished he would revert to the furious version of himself, because at least, then, she would know what to do with it.
But his gaze… his gaze rather reminded her of how he had looked at her before he had kissed and touched her the night before. And she could not for the life of her make sense of whether she craved that kiss again or whether what defenses she still had left would crumble in a matter of moments if he did.
When their meal was finished, she was warm with wine and good conversation. She turned her attention to the riding ensemble he had purchased for her once more. It wasn’t just the gift itself that touched her, though that was a part of it. It was the thought of him going out of his way to make certain he had the right size for her, speaking with her maids to ensure that he had everything exactly as she might have wanted it.
“It really is lovely,” she murmured to him.
“I cannae wait to see ye in it,” he replied, his voice edged with something a little heavier than just the wine.
She lifted her gaze to meet his, and her cheeks flushed when his blue eyes found hers. There it was once more, the memory of the night they had met, the way he had looked at her across the room, the way he had pulled her close when they had danced, the way it had lit something within her that had started this inferno in the first place.
She quickly hid behind her wine once more, taking a long sip and draining the cup. With the food and drink running dry, she knew that whatever he had planned next for their evening was only a matter of moments away. Her heart picked up pace in her chest.
It wasn’t that she didn’t crave it, of course not. It was that she did not know what might change between them if she gave herself over to him, nor what his wildness might extend to when he got her alone…
“Perhaps I could walk ye back to yer chambers,” he offered as he rose to his feet.
Surprisingly gentlemanly, as though they were still courting. She thought of reminding him that they were married now and he did not need to keep up such an act, but she bit her tongue before she could ruin what had been a perfectly lovely evening.
“That would be lovely,” she agreed, and she rose to her feet as he offered her his arm. The two of them made their way from the room and back to the corridor.
She could not help but notice the strength of his bicep beneath his clothes, the pressure of it under her hand. She had seen him fighting with Archie just the day before, and she had been struck by how strong he looked, how powerful. How there hardly seemed anything in the world that he wouldn’t have beencapable of had he set his mind to it. And, tonight, at least, it seemed as though she was the only thing he cared for.
Whatever that meant…
