Entering the hallway, Mari rushed past Fiona and Shauna who tried to welcome her with open arms. They might not be so caring once they heard the news. She managed a quick smile for the twins on her way up the stairs, and then she hesitated at the door of the solar. Jillian had always been half mother, half sister to her, and Mari couldn’t remember a time they’d ever had a real argument, but would Jillian forgive her appalling conduct? Mari took a deep breath. She had nearly given away her virginity. It was time she acted like a responsible young woman.
Jillian had just put baby Rose in her cradle when Mari stepped inside and closed the door. Her sister gave a gasp of relief and hurried across the room to give her a big hug. “Thank God, you are safe. I knew Jamie would find you.”
Jillian might not be so happy with Jamie when she found out what happened, but for a brief moment, Mari allowed herself the comfort of her sister’s arms. She hugged her back, and tears began to stream down her face.
“There, there.” Jillian stepped back and used the burping cloth from her shoulder to wipe Mari’s face. “You are safe now. You are home and safe. It is all over.”
“It is not over at all,” Mari sobbed, trying to control the tears and dissolving into a series of hiccups. “I have totally disgraced you.”
Jillian drew her brows together and took Mari’s hand. “Come sit on the sofa. Tell me what is wrong.”
Hesitating and in jerks, punctuated by more tears and hiccups, Mari poured the story out finally ending with, “And I think Ian is angry with Jamie—”
She was interrupted by a knock on the door. Jamie entered, followed by Fiona, Shauna and Bridget, all of whom were wearing huge smiles. Ian came in last and went over to Jillian, bending to kiss her cheek before sitting on the other side of her.
“I believe Jamie has something of an announcement,” Ian said.
All eyes shifted to Jamie. He cleared his throat, and Mari noticed the tips of his ears were pink. Lud! Ian had probably coerced him into apologizing for this morning. Poor man. Well, she would let Jamie have his say, and then she would apologize as well.
It was the least she could do.
Jamie cleared his throat once more. “I have spoken to Ian. As laird, he has agreed that you and I can be hand-fasted.”
The smiles on Shauna’s and Bridget’s faces grew wider while Fiona clapped her hands and nearly bounced on her toes. Mari frowned and turned to Jillian. “What does hand-fasted mean?”
Jillian patted her hand, a big smile on her face too. “It means you are betrothed, Mari. A year and one day from now, you will be Mrs. Jamie MacLeod.”
He knew the lass would nae like the idea. The look on Mari’s face told Jamie as much before she even opened her mouth. A wonderfully soft, compliant mouth that he had enjoyed kissing just hours ago and was already wanting to kiss again—except right now those lovely lips were pressed together tightly.
“Am I beingorderedto marry?” Mari asked in a deceptively quiet voice.
Jamie understood the tone, but before he could rephrase the words into a request, Ian interrupted.
“Ye have been compromised, lass.” Ian cast a glance at Shauna and Fiona, both of whom were looking at him with much-too-interested expressions, and he motioned for Bridget to take them away. Fiona protested all the way down the hall, but finally there was silence. Ian turned back to Mari. “If ye think Broc or Duncan will waste time spreading the word, ye are mistaken. Since a laird’s word is nae longer law, I canna demand their silence. For certain, I canna command the MacLeans.”
Jamie cursed inwardly. The presence of the MacLeans had proved most useful to Broc and his uncle. Instead of bearing witness to a frozen body, as Jamie still suspected was the reason they had come along, they were witness to a much different scene—and quite a heated one.
The saints have mercy. He could not deny he had wanted Mari’s body for weeks. And, saints preserve him, he had done the honorable thing and not taken advantage of her drunken state, although lying with her beneath the plaid and not allowing himself to do more than put an arm around her waist had taken every ounce of his considerable willpower. But this morning when she had turned to him, quite sober, and told him she wanted him, it had been his undoing. The kisses had started slow, but Mari had opened willingly to his tongue, and he loved the taste of her. He had wanted to taste every inch of her, especially to lap the juices of her slick folds and run his tongue over the special little nub to bring her pleasure. Jamie enjoyed every minute of stroking Mari’s satiny skin and playing with the soft, plump mound of her breast, teasing the nipple to a hard peak, taking it in his mouth to suckle it until she shattered. He thought shehadshattered when she screamed…
Damn Broc. Damn his uncle. Damn the MacLeans.
“The gossip here cannot be worse than it is in London,” Mari said. “You can send me back there as soon as the roads are passable. Within a week or two, what happened will no longer be of interest to anyone.”
“Ye are wrong. Nae that much happens here. The gossip will linger a long time.”
“But why? If I leave, why would anyone want to keep talking about it?”
“Because Ian is still their laird, even if the English took away the right to rule,” Jillian said, patting Mari’s hand again. “It will be expected that he make things right.”
“And I will nae have my people think less of my wife because my brother took advantage of her sister,” Ian added.
Mari looked from one of them to the other and sighed. She did not look at Jamie.
“All right,” she said.
Mari let herself into the library and closed the door. The room was blissfully quiet and serene, the only illumination from a small fire in the hearth. The smell of wax polish and leather-bound books was oddly appealing. Mari sank into one of the comfortable armchairs and glanced at the book on the side table. Malory’sLe Morte d’Arthur. She had left it here after she’d finished reading to Jillian the other day. Mari pushed the book aside. Reading about knights in shining armor was the last thing she wanted to do.
Dinner that evening had been an excruciatingly drawn-out event. They’d eaten in the great hall since Ian had announced a celebration of her safe return. She had been seated at the high table between Ian and Jamie. Mari noticed the serving maids giving her furtive glances while the men who filled the lower tables openly stared at her. If she’d had any doubt the rumors hadn’t spread, those doubts were gone. As difficult as it had been to hold her head up and act as though nothing were wrong, the worst came when Ian stood to announce that Jamie and she were hand-fasted.
