She jerked up in bed, screaming. The little girl had doe-shaped eyes and long dark hair much like Cora’s.
Cora threw protective arms around the girl and faced Deacon. “All right. I’ll do what you want but not here. Not in front of the child. And I’ll not let you touch her, do you understand?”
He pulled back, sickened Cora would think him capable of such a thing. “I wouldn’t hurt her,” he said. Then, “Is she yours?”
“No, but I’ll not let harm come to her. I’ll die first.”
The child started at her words. She wrapped her arms around Cora’s neck and held tight. “I won’t let him touch you either, Auntie. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“I wouldn’t hurt either one of you,” Deacon protested thickly, sober now. What had come over him? He’d never forced himself on a woman before. It embarrassed him when he realized he’d been about to do so now.
Deacon stepped back. At one time he’d been a favored son in the proud clan Gunn. Now, he was chasing maids and scaring children.
It almost took all his courage to face the two of them. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry. Very sorry.” He backed out of the room and closed the door.
In the great hall, surrounded by silence, he sat in his chair and stared into the fire. He wondered when he’d changed…and if he could ever return to the man he’d once been.
If Aidan had thought Anne would immediately notice his quietness, he was wrong. Over the next several days, they were polite strangers. The only time she sought him out was to discuss improvements she wished to make. Otherwise, she left him to his own devices.
In keeping with his idea of what a truce between them should be, he pretended to ignore her…although he found himself lingering around the castle, waiting for her to notice him.
She didn’t.
Instead, she was busy turning Kelwin into a home.
Over the years, he had worked to turn the lands into a thriving, profitable estate, but he had ignored the house. Now an herb garden was planted right outside the kitchen step. A chicken coop appeared almost overnight, stocked with hens and a crowing rooster. Mrs. MacEwan promised him a cake baked of the first eggs. His dogs were becoming better mannered and often ran right past him to greet Anne.
If anyone in his small community sensed things weren’t right between him and his wife, they gave no indication. In truth, everyone gladly accepted Anne. Even Deacon had given up hounding Aidan about her.
Actually, his friend had become very sober of late. He kept Aidan apprised of the watch for the Danish ship and his brother Robbie’s rebel activities. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to have much to say about anything—not even on the subject of Anne.
And Hugh was gone. He talked and walked and looked like the same old happy bachelor he’d always been—but everyone knew he was in love with Fenella MacEwan. He could barely think of anything else. Fang advised Aidan to push Hugh into a June wedding, “So he can get his wits back and act normal again.”
Aidan didn’t know if he should talk to anyone on matters of love. He’d discovered the one woman impervious to his charm and she was supposedly his own wife.
Granted, a marriage shouldn’t be consummated if he was going to dissolve it, but a niggling thought wormed its way into his mind that sleeping with Anne might not be a bad idea. After all, she worked as hard as he did. And then maybe he’d be able to concentrate on something besides the swing of his wife’s hips as she walked or the way her eyes crinkled at the corners when someone said something tickling her sense of the absurd.
If they consummated the marriage, he could find out what it was like to kiss her. Then perhaps he would stop fantasizing about her to the point at which he’d lost interest in other women.
At the very least, he could complain when she ignored him.
It was a sunny Thursday, one of those days when the sky is clear blue and the ever present wind is finally promising summer, when Aidan discovered his favorite mare was in foal. He was pleased. He’d bred her on one of Argyll’s prized studs. The bloodlines were impeccable. Davey Mowat and his friends were happy with the news, but Aidan wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to share it with someone who mattered.
In the past he would have searched for