stood and walked to the table. Carefully slipping one arm behind Grania’s knees, he cradled her against his chest and lifted her to the crib pushed against the opposite wall. Gently, he tucked a blanket around her frail body. Jeanne watched as he stared down at the old woman’s wrinkled face.
“Has she changed so much?” she asked softly.
John shook his head and turned to look at Jeanne. “Probably not. She was always old, although I don’t remember her being so small.”
From her place by the fire, Jeanne smiled, and his breathing altered. Like a moth to a flame, he was drawn to her. Crossing the room, he stretched out once again by her side.
“Thank you for being so good to her,” Jeanne said. “She was pleased to see you.”
“I didn’t come for her,” John replied.
“I know.” Her voice was so low, he could barely make out the words.
Her face was very close to his own. He turned to look at her. She was beautiful. The clean, chiseled planes of her features, the sweep of black lashes, the sensual mouth. “You are so lovely,” he murmured and, without thinking, bent his head to her mouth. Incredibly, her lips parted, and her arms slid around his neck. A fierce joy blazed up within him. She was soft and welcoming, and it seemed as if he had waited his entire life for this.
Much later, with her head pillowed against his chest, he said, “I’d not expected that.”
“Liar.” Jeanne’s voice was soft and amused. “I knew what you wanted from the moment you entered the room.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want it,” he corrected her. “My intentions were to woo you slowly. We’ve been apart for a long time.”
Her fingers made small, circular motions against the wool of his tunic. “What are your intentions now, John?”
“The same as they’ve always been. I came home to wed you, lass.”
There was no mistaking the satisfaction in her voice. “Was there no one at the English court suitable enough to be the countess of Traquair?”
He smiled into her hair. She’d finally come out with it. He considered telling her the truth immediately and decided against it. She deserved a moment of worry for believing the worst of him.
“Aye,” he replied promptly. “There were many who were suitable.”
She pulled out of his arms and turned to face him, her gray eyes bright with anger. “Why didn’t you wed one of them?”
“No one would have me,” he lied.
Her mouth dropped open in surprise. Quickly, she recovered. “I don’t believe you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be,” she countered. “It isn’t your handsome face or your charm that I find so irresistible.”
“What is it then?”
She stood, pulling the plaid with her, and ground her fists into the curve of her waist. “Nothing,” she said. “There is nothing about you that appeals to me.”
Slowly, he sat up and squinted into the flames. “I love you, Jeanne Maxwell,” he said quietly. “I’ve always loved you. Not a day went by that I didn’t think of you. I wondered why you didn’t write or if the spells you had as a child came more often now that you were grown. Most of all, I feared you had wed and that no one had bothered to tell me.”
With her heart in her throat, Jeanne watched the austere beauty of his profile highlighted by the flickering firelight.
“There has never been anyone else for me,” he continued, “not at the English court and not here, in Scotland. I know nothing of what you’ve heard, but this I can swear before everything that is holy. My heart is yours, lass. No other woman will ever claim it.” He rose to his feet and stood looking down at her. “Now, Jeanne Maxwell, I ask you once again. Will you marry me?”
She closed her eyes and waited. Moments passed. Why in the name of heaven didn’t he touch her? She opened her eyes to find a bleakness she hadn’t expected in his eyes.
“Is it so difficult an answer?” he asked gently. “Yes or no. Tell me, Jeanne.”
“Yes,” she whispered at last. “I’ll marry you.”
He frowned. The words were everything he’d hoped to hear, but something was wrong. Stepping closer, he took her hand. “What is it, my heart? Tell me why you are still not sure.”
She had to say it or for the rest of her life remain silent and wonder. Taking a deep breath, she uttered the words she had carried in her heart for five long years. “Were you ever in