No feminine nibbles here, but a hearty chewing as Alec watched in amazement and so did his clansmen, Rowen oblivious to their stares as she attacked her meal with gusto as a man might—by God,as a man might!
“Go on with all of you, eat!” Alec roared out with irritation, everyone heeding him as the clatter of wooden plates and cups and the bustling footsteps of servants filled the great hall.
Normally animated conversation and laughter would have punctuated the clamor, but there was none at this wedding feast. His clansmen focused upon their food as if anxious to see the meal done.
Could he blame them? The last hour had been unsettling at best with their long-time enemies among them, though now thankfully departed—and leaving behind a famished young woman who bit into a third slice of meat with the same teeth that had nearly cost him his thumb!
She didn’t stop there, but filled her mouth so full with bread that her cheeks puffed out, all of it soon followed by a draft of ale that surely half-emptied her cup…while Gaira sat beside her and picked at her own plate as if Rowen’s coarse table manners weren’t anything out of the ordinary.
Suddenly envisioning what meals had been like in Hamish Sutherland’s great hall with his family seated around him—all of them pouncing upon their food like hungry wolves—proved too much for Alec and he started to laugh.
Not out of humor as much as incredulity as Rowen grabbed up a fourth slice of meat with greasy fingers and popped it into her mouth.
What manner of bride had he been wed to? As if she realized his laughter was directed at her, she stopped in mid-chew to stare at him, clearly bristling.
“Something amuses you, Mackay?”
CHAPTER3
Rowen didn’t need Alec to answer to know he was laughing at her expense, her attention drawn for the first time from her plate since she had started eating.
Yet what did she care what he thought about anything she did? She had been beyond hungry, damn him! Too late she had realized what stubbornly not eating for several days had cost her…aye, humiliation before him and everyone else in that cramped chapel, including her father and brothers.
She had never fainted before in her life and she didn’t intend to ever again. Just to spite Alec, she swallowed her mouthful and grabbed another glistening slice of roast venison to stuff into her mouth and chew with such exaggeration, she saw him grimace, his laughter silenced.
Good, she wanted to disgust him! With great gusto, she chewed and chewed, and with her mouth open, too, so that the mashed-up contents were on full display—and she hoped, sticking to her teeth. Only when her jaw began to hurt did she reach for her cup and down the whole mess with another long draft of ale, and then she wiped her mouth with her open palm just as her brothers had done.
Not stopping there, no, but finishing off the gesture by running her hand down the front of her tunic to fully dry it, leaving a wet spot that made her snort with amusement. Still she wasn’t finished, though, Rowen leaning back in her chair and opening her mouth wide to utter the biggest and longest belch she could muster…everyone in the great hall turning to stare at her.
The portly priest with his big owlish eyes.
The startled servants who stopped in their tracks, holding platters and pitchers.
Alec’s clansmen with their faces and hands soiled and greasy, too, from their meal.
Gaira, who gave a cackle of laughter and shook her head.
Alec’s father, Donald, who looked wholly astonished and wide-eyed as well, while Alec merely looked at her with an expression that seemed to change instant by instant.
First astonishment and then a flicker of amusement…and then an ominous darkening of his face as if he believed her mocking him.
Well, she was mocking him and all of his hated Mackay clansmen, Rowen giving a satisfied sigh when the belch was done as she reached for her ale cup.
“Dinna you think you’ve drank enough, wife?”
“Hardly. Fill my cup, wench!”
The comely maidservant who had obliged Alec earlier came over to the table and looked uncertainly from Rowen to Alec, who gestured for her to do what Rowen had, on purpose, so rudely demanded.
Aye, even Gaira glanced at her with reproach, but Rowen ignored her and took up the brimming cup so abruptly that the frothy liquid sloshed down her arm, making her laugh.
Alec wasn’t laughing, though, only watching her as she brought the cup to her lips and gulped the ale down noisily, some spilling down the front of her tunic.
Did she care? No, not a whit! She and her father and brothers had enjoyed many a meal where they had eaten and drank with abandon—though she was exaggerating at that moment for Alec’s benefit.
He hadn’t touched his plate at all, nor his cup again, but watched her now with a look she couldn’t comprehend on his handsome face…not anger any longer, though his eyes appeared a stormy gray in the torchlight.
Aye, she couldn’t deny he was striking to look upon with his thick blond hair and powerful physique, but that unwelcome thought alone made her gesture for the serving maid to fill her cup again.
