Mary choked on a laugh, then turned to her and took her hand. “See, how can ye think to do anything but keep him? And he’ll soon be here. If yer heart kens his, ye will feel it as soon as yer eyes meet.”
“I pray ye are right, my friend.”
“Aren’t I always? Now, go freshen up. Lia is also right. ’Twillna be long before he arrives. He’ll want to see ye straightaway.”
Fiona clasped Mary’s warm hands in her cold ones. “Thank ye, Mary. For this, and for spending so much time showing me how to be a clan’s Lady. Ye make it look easy, but I ken ’tisna.”
“Dinna be daft. Ye’ll be well. They’re going to love ye.”
“As long as Erik comes to do so, I canna ask for more than that.”
An hour later, Mary fetched Fiona from her chamber. “They’re on the beach headed this way,” she said. “’Tis time for ye to come down to greet yer husband. Are ye ready?”
Fiona nodded. “I am. I’ve thought about yer advice. I owe him the chance to see me, speak to me, and convince me we are doing what is best for both of us.”
“I think ye already ken the answer to that, but if hearing it from him gives ye more confidence, then by all means.” She gestured out the door.
Fiona left her chamber ahead of Mary, trusting her to close the door and follow. In the bailey, they waited, side by side, Fiona grateful for her friend’s comforting presence.
When Erik rode through the gate, his gaze went straight to her and he smiled. He was so handsome, so beautiful, sitting high and powerful on his horse, that her knees went weak.
“Ye can do this,” Mary said softly next to her ear. “Go to him.”
Fiona nodded and stepped forward as Erik swung down from his mount and approached her.
“My beautiful wife,” he greeted her, as his gaze searched her face. “I’m so glad to see ye waiting here for me. Does that mean all is well with ye? And us?”
“My handsome laird,” she answered him, summoning a smile and meeting his deep blue gaze with her own. “I am so glad to see ye come for me. Aye, I think all is well.” And she did. As he had done before, Erik had seduced her with his eyes, and his very presence had chased away her doubts.
He took her in his arms then, holding her close. The scent of horse and sea blended with his own very male scent, and Fiona inhaled deeply, wanting to absorb it, and him, into herself. His gaze met hers when she looked up at him, then his head descended and he claimed her mouth in a gentle, welcoming kiss. “I’ve missed ye, Fiona,” he told her when he broke the kiss.
“And I ye,” she said, though the words were too little, too trite, for their reunion. “We have unfinished business.”
“Aye, we do.” His gaze darkened and his smile heated, but he released her and took her hand to move them toward where Mary waited on the steps into the keep.
“Be welcome to Rose, Laird Ross and yer men,” Mary told him.
His men? Fiona glanced around. Five of them. She hadn’t even noticed. Mary, adept at reading her expression, grinned at her, then stepped up to open the keep’s door.
“Ye will want to greet Laird Rose,” Mary said, correctly reading the situation, “before ye take yer wife upstairs.”
Fiona’s face heated. She knew what Mary hinted at. Fiona hadn’t told her where the blood came from on the sheet, but as many times as an annulment came up in conversation, she suspected Mary knew what she had done. She wanted to be truly and fully wed to Erik before she left Rose.
“I do wish to thank him for his hospitality for my wife and myself this evening,” Erik told her as they entered the keep. “And a meal for my men. If Fiona is agreeable and the firth is calm, we will leave Rose in the morning.”
So soon! She shouldn’t be surprised. Erik would be eager to return home with her, to begin their marriage and his control of his clan with a wife at his side. He’d made no secret of his belief that she would strengthen him there. So she gave him the answer he expected. “I am ready. If Lady Moray is amenable and gives us smooth passage, we will sail on the morrow.”
All Erik wanted wasto get Fiona alone in their chamber. He’d thought of nothing but her the entire way across the firth. Lucky for him, the weather was fine, and his men were expert sailors, because his mind was not on their journey, but on its end.
She was even more beautiful that he remembered. A warm, lush armful, scented with sweet herbs and honey along with the gentle alluring scent that was all her own. Each breath he took, each kiss on her soft lips, drove him nearer to madness. He had to stop.
He was grateful that Mary had invited them immediately into the keep to speak to her father. That centered him on what he had to take care of first. Before he could concentrate on his bride, his duty as the Ross laird was to greet the Rose chief.
Mary announced them to her father, who was working at his desk. He stood and nodded to Fiona, then to him. “Ross, ’tis good to see ye returned. I’m certain yer wife is relieved at yer presence, too.”
Well, it wasn’t the warmest welcome Erik had ever received, with the Rose’s hint that Erik might have chosen to abandon Fiona, but given the circumstances under which he’d left a few days ago, he shouldn’t be surprised. “Fiona never had and never will have any reason to doubt my devotion to her,” Erik told him, not daring to look away from the laird to see the effect his words had on her. “I wouldna be disturbing ye now, save that I have wish to express my gratitude for yer and Mary’s care of my lady, and to tell ye we willna impose on ye more than this night. My men will pass the night on ourbirlinn.” He considered bringing up the missing missive again, but he wanted to cut this encounter short. He had a more pleasurable encounter with his wife more urgently in mind.
Rose glanced at Mary, then nodded. “Aye, well, if that is what ye wish. But be welcome for as long as ye need or wish to stay.”
