Ruark took her against him. “I would like to lay the blame of everything that has occurred in this life at your father’s feet, but I cannot, Rose. He does not bear all the responsibility. There are many here who are culpable.”
She didn’t believe it. Not anymore.
“He has a fever, Ruark,” she said. “He could be ill. And he’s scratched and bruised and scared. You cannot just wash him and put him to bed and think everything will be all right. He is just a boy. He needs ...”
“The person he needs most is in the room with him, Rose.”
“I am so sorry—”
He gave her a shake. “I will not let you apologize or martyr yourself. Do you understand?”
She tried to step past him but he caught her hand easily, turning her. She pressed her palm against his chest. “I do not understand how you went through with this ordeal, when this marriage could easily have been annulled.”
His low voice challenged. “Truthfully? I wed you because you were compromised beyond all hope, Rose. You have proven beyond a doubt that I am a gentleman.”
She stared at him aghast. She was attempting to talk to him and all he could do was make light of her efforts.
“And there is always this to consider, my love.”
His mouth covered hers.
He parted her lips and drank in the tension that came as she spoke his name. The long fingers of his other hand framed her jaw and turned her face. The kiss deepened with mutual desire and need. But despite the wave of longing pulling her under, uncertainty wracked her mind and her heart.
Perhaps it was the way he knew how to touch her that made her feel important to him. Only after a few moments did she seem to realize the magnitude of her doubt. Then as the weight of the last few hours began to crush her, she leaned against Ruark and kissed him with everything that was inside of her.
His hand came under her chin to lift her face. He caught a tear at the corner of her eye and his mouth curved downward. “Tears?”
A cold shiver shook her. She was afraid of speaking, afraid she would say something she’d regret later. “I swear I will be a loyal wife to you.”
“I want more than loyalty.”
Loyalty was the only offering she could make him that came from her heart. “I do not know what else to give you that is my own, Ruark.”
She didn’t understand him enough to know what he expected from her, and she pushed past him in the darkness seeking ... seeking what?
She never saw what tripped her, a tree root perhaps, but she hit the ground hard. She came to in Ruark’s arms with the light around her, her head resting against his shoulder, his voice distant. A door slammed somewhere behind them. Its staid symbolism not lost on Rose in her murky state of mind.
An hour later, Ruark finally let Mary convince him that Rose was not seriously injured, but merely exhausted. Mary had bathed her and seen she was not bruised, not even a bump on her head. Later, his hair still damp from his own bath, Mary found him standing in front of his window. She reassured him Rose had dined on soup and Mary’s own hot toddy and was now sleeping soundly. She reassured him that Jamie was also sleeping.
“The lass was vexed that she had caused so much trouble and told me that I should be with Jamie, not her,” Mary said as if that should surprise Ruark.
“Did you tell her we have fifty servants who are attending to Jamie?”
Mary replied that she had said as much, but Ruark sensed Mary was of a mind to speak more. “The lad will be all right. Do not think ye are to blame. Ye are not.”
He continued to stare out the window, seeing nothing but his own reflection in the darkness, and not liking the man staring back at him.
“I know who is to blame, Mary.”
“Some believe your taking an English bride will cause opposition among those who have yet to swear their fealty to ye, that Hereford intended such.”
So she had heard about the disagreement he and Duncan had had on the front drive. “I know, Mary.”
“Ye knew, and ye wed her anyway. Then went and sealed it so ye can never annul it.”
“I wed her because I chose to.” Now, impatience to have the housekeeper gone forced him to soften his tone as he spoke, “Go, now. ’Tis late. And I have a wish to be abed.”
Her expression softened. “Ye are a decent man, Ruark Kerr. Despite what ye may think at this moment.”
