She had come back, which was all that mattered for now. He flipped open the cover of a leather bag slung over his saddle and withdrew a bundle wrapped in linen and a wineskin filled with cider.
“You must be hungry, wife, and thirsty. I brought this along for you.”
Alec knew he had judged rightly that she wouldn’t take a moment to eat before they left earlier, no matter that he had bade Gaira to fetch her breakfast.
With Rowen’s surprised gaze fixed upon the bundle, he drew closer and flipped aside the linen to reveal oatcakes baked fresh that morning.
“They’re not hot any longer, but they’ll taste good with the cider. Go on, eat—och, lass, dinna choke yourself!”
Alec had no sooner lifted the bundle than Rowen grabbed an oatcake to stuff it into her mouth, her cheeks puffing out much as they had last night at their wedding feast.
Yet this time her face reddened as if embarrassed by her own lack of manners, and she giggled sheepishly while covering her mouth with her palm so he couldn’t see her chewing.
Aye,giggled, so astonishing a sound that Alec could only stare at her, the wildcat he’d wed become as endearing to look upon as a blushing girl.
Without a word, he uncorked the wineskin and handed it to her, and she appeared to take it gratefully to wash down the oatcake.
“Go on…you eat, too,” she bade him after another swallow, which made Alec marvel that she would display any concern about his own hunger.
He obliged her, the two of them sharing the oatcakes and cider in companionable silence while his men grunted with exertion in settling the stag into the wagon, the wooden wheels creaking under the weight.
“You see, I knew you’d need plenty of help, Mackay,” she said after another draft of cider, which made him sigh and twist the cork back into the wineskin.
“It’s Alec, lass. I dinna think you’ve said my given name once since we wed.”
Her hand stopping midair with a last chunk of oatcake, Rowen stared at him with a flash of surprise mixed with indignation in her lovely eyes…and Alec knew their congenial respite was over.
She dropped the oatcake to the ground and tightened her fingers around the reins, Alec stepping out of the way before she could steer her mare right into him.
“Very well, Mac—Alec. Let’s see what King Robert has granted you that cost me any chance for happiness.”
Rowen didn’t wait for him to mount, but urged her mare into a gallop while Alec ran for his stallion and vaulted into the saddle.
“At least she said my name,” he muttered, ignoring the stares of his men as he set off at a harder gallop to catch up with her.
Undaunted.
Determined.
Yet wondering, too, what misadventure his unpredictable bride would lead him into next, God help him.
* * *
“He rodeafter her like a besotted fool. It seems our new lady’s flame-red hair and pleasing figure have beguiled Laird Mackay?—”
“She isnamylady!” Sheena retorted in a heated aside to her brother, Kael MacBain, who had just helped to carry into the castle kitchen the gutted carcass of an enormous stag.
The creature’s throat gored in a rutting battle, but with a bloodied wound in the upper chest that could only have been made by a deep sword thrust to the heart.
Sheena felt her own heart flutter as she imagined Alec Mackay wielding his weapon to end the stag’s misery—och, she adored the man, she couldn’t deny it. He was so strong and powerful and handsome that any time she drew near to him at mealtimes to fill his ale cup or skewer roasted meat for his plate, her knees grew weak and her entire body flushed hot…
“Och, lass, there you go again…thinking as you shouldna about the laird,” Kael chided with a low voice as he drew Sheena toward the kitchen door while the portly cook barked commands to his workers. “You’re a servant here, nothing more. We’re fortunate tae have a place in this household and not out on the land trying tae coax a living from the soil. Do you hear me?”
Sheena winced at the pressure of her brother’s hand upon her elbow, though she stared right back at him. “You dinna have tae remind me of my lowly station, Kael, but I will think what I want and dream what I want, do you hearme?”
“Aye, and you’re as much a fool as…” Kael didn’t finish, but shook his head and headed out of the kitchen after the other menservants who had carried in the carcass. That left Sheena to smooth the bodice of her woolen gown and flick away from her neck loose strands of brown hair from the twirled bun at her nape.
She had been busy filling pitchers with ale for the midday meal when the wide door leading from the bailey had been thrown open to an unexpected commotion that hadn’t yet abated.
