Erik was too shocked to speak. How convenient. She could live there with the guard. Or was the rumor wrong? Had she met with another man? Did she have a lover there? He cleared his throat. First things first. “I wouldna have given a second thought to the rumor, but ye seemed to be keeping something from me ever since ye came here. Aught to do with Inverness and yer eagerness to go there. So ’tis true. Ye already have a plan to leave me, and a place to live in the town.”
“I didna say that. I said I could, no’ that I would. If I meant to do that, why would I be here now?”
“Where would ye live?”
Fiona paled, then squared her shoulders. “I inherited Arabella’s house.”
“Ye have a house in Inverness,” he bit out. For a moment, he let himself be angry that the Rose had kept that information from him when they negotiated the marriage contract. Or had he? “Did the Rose ken ye had been bequeathed a home?”
“Nay. I didna tell him. After the bridge burned, once we got word that the town was safe, I didna intend to stay at Rose, but to return to the house. But ye arrived, and before I kenned what had happened, ye had negotiated for my hand, and we were wed.” She gestured to a chair and sat, waving him to take the one opposite. He did.
“Were ye ever going to tell me?”
“Aye, though I worried how to, and how ye would take the news. I never thought it would be under such suspicion of betraying ye—and our vows.”
“Tell me now.”
She spent the next few minutes telling him what she’d withheld about caring for the old woman who left her the house they lived in. Her duties there had included managing the lady’s household, keeping accounts, reading to the woman whose eyesight was failing, shopping at the market for food, cloth, andanything else they needed, and a myriad of other tasks. And she wanted to use that knowledge and expertise to make things better at Ross.
“I didna realize how much I’d missed Inverness until I saw it again,” she admitted. “And I spoke to the merchants I kenned. Saw a few old friends. Aye, I’d been tempted to stay,” she told him. “To be independent. And free of the burdens we carry here.”
“What kind of life is that for a lass?”
“No’ relying on Rose or Ross? No’ subject to the whims of their lairds? Perhaps a very good one.” She cocked an eyebrow and a hint of a smile played around her lips, but vanished when he failed to reciprocate.
“And the rumor?” He held his breath, but he already knew it wasn’t true.
She scrunched up her nose, eyes squeezed to mere slits, as if she smelled something bad.
If they hadn’t been discussing such serious issues, he would have enjoyed how adorable it made her look,
But then, she opened her eyes and said, “Utter…damn…I dinna ken a term filthy enough for the person or persons who spread it. Erik, we havena been together for very long, but I think ye ken me well enough by now to hear when I tell ye the truth.”
“I like to think so,” he replied, then gestured with an open hand for her to continue. As adorable as she had looked only moments ago, now he had to respect her serious side.
“I would never do such an awful thing to ye. If I wasna willing to be yer wife, I would tell ye, and I would return to Inverness, but no’ with any of yer own men. Or any other.”
He reached across the space between them and took her hand. “Thank ye, Fiona. I knew in my bones ’twasna true, but…”
She frowned at the hand holding hers, then met his gaze. “Dinna doubt me. I will always be honest with ye.”
“And I with ye. Ye ken how much I need ye. Ye have a purpose here, no’ in Inverness. Ye have already done so much for Ross, and ye’ve barely begun to work yer way down yer list.”
That quip finally earned him a smile.
She squeezed his hand and leaned back, as if realizing the tough part of their reunion was done and she could move on to other things. “Speaking of lists and such, Husband, I need your assistance.”
That surprised him, because she seemed to be doing everything quite well on her own.
“What can I, a mere mortal, do to assist my lady wife?” He meant it as a jest, not an expression of his earlier concerns about being good enough for her.
“While in Inverness, I spoke to some of my merchant friends about getting someone to be a caretaker for the house while I live here.”
Erik frowned.While she lived here?How long did she intend for that to last? The same evil doubts assailed him yet again, spinning in his gut and making him want to pace. She would still own the damned house, and still have a place to go that she clearly missed. More than she’d missed him?
“They offered to buy it.”
Erik had to pull himself out of his own thoughts to understand what she’d just said. Someone wanted the house?
