“So it has,” Gawain agreed. “And what of Jessie Martin? I thought—”
“’Tis over,” Jamie said curtly.
“Is it now? But does she know that?”
“You ask too many questions, Gawain. This is none of your concern.”
Gawain smiled. At that moment Jessie came hurrying over, looking provocative in a blue silk gown. She gave Jamie a bright smile. He swore silently. He hadn’t had time to speak to her, and now Sheena was there. Sweet Mary!
“Dinna leave, Sheena.” Jamie squeezed her hand before letting it go. “I want to talk to you when I’m through.”
She looked at him beseechingly. She understood who this woman was, and what she was to Jamie.
“I know what you’re about to do, Sir Jamie, and I’m asking you no’ to do it on my account. You’ll regret it.”
He smiled at her gently before he left the table to intercept Jessie, steering her to the hearth. Sheena sighed. This mistress of Jamie’s was a strikingly beautiful woman. She did not deserve to be treated so callously. Sheena’s guilt grew when voices were raised.
“You canna mean it, Jamie. ’Tis too soon!”
“Lower your voice, Jessie.”
“Nay! I’ll no’ go!”
“You will!”
“Och, God,” Sheena gasped, covering her face with her hands. “How can he be so cruel?”
“Dinna waste your sympathy on a slut, lass,” Black Gawain said.
“I would have expected more charity from you, sir,” she said stiffly.
“Och, now, dinna look at me that way. Jessie Martin is a calculating, deceiving woman. She’s only getting what she deserves.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our Jamie wanted naught to do with her,” Gawain explained. “He knew her game and what she was after. Anyone who knows Jessie does. But she was out to have him, and there’s only so much enticing a man can withstand.”
“I’d prefer no’ to be hearing of this.”
“I only thought you’d be wanting to know, since you’ll be taking Jessie’s place.”
Sheena’s eyes flared. “He’s no’ asked me to be his mistress,” she said indignantly.
Gawain looked suitably shocked. “Forgive me,lass. I was only assuming…I mean, Jamie’s sworn never to marry without trying his bride first.”
“So I’ve heard,” Sheena retorted.
“He’s asked you to handfast then?” At her reluctant nod, Gawain chuckled. “Well, well, I never thought to see it. He’s no’ handfasted ’afore, you see. He’s never found a lass he’d be willing to commit himself to.”
“I dinna see handfasting as a commitment,” she said sharply. “’Tis only free license for an immoral love. I dinna believe in—”
She was cut short as a hand dug into her hair, yanking so viciously that her chair toppled over and she found herself on the floor.
She couldn’t move. The wind had been knocked out of her. She could see the face of her attacker above her, a face contorted wildly by rage, an ugly visage replacing the beauty she had seen earlier in Jessie Martin. A hand with its bent fingers and long nails was coming at Sheena’s face, yet she couldn’t seem to move, to cry out. She could only stare at those clawlike fingers, mesmerized as they got closer and closer….
The hand was gone. Jessie stumbled backward, yanked away by Jamie.
“Enough!” Jamie roared. “Or I’ll lay you out as I’m tempted to do!”
