woman's gaze as she tugged her skirt back into place. She hoped the woman could read the gratitude in her eyes and thought she might have when Bet gave her a quick wink before turning away.
Evelinde now knew what Cullen had been doing under her skirt by the fur. He'd been clever enough to know Edda would subject her to all the humiliation she could and insist on her being examined. He must have rubbed some of the blood from his wound on her thighs to help convince Edda.
"Are you quite satisfied?" Cullen snapped.
"Aye. 'Tis well and truly done. You cannot return her." Edda beamed her satisfaction, then glanced down at Evelinde. "Farewell, stepdaughter. May your life be all that I hope for you."
Evelinde knew exactly what the woman hoped for her future and would have snorted at the words were she able. It was Cullen who did so as he picked her up. He then carried her out of the room.
They were down the stairs and out the front doors in a trice. One of his men was beside them the moment the door closed behind them, so Evelinde supposed he'd been waiting. Her husband spoke quickly to him in Gaelic as he carried her to his horse, then she found herself passed over to the man as her husband mounted. She was then passed back up to him once he was in the saddle. Cullen took a moment to arrange her in his lap, and they were off.
It all happened so fast Evelinde was left gasping. Where was Mildrede? And what of her things? Her gowns, the bits of her mother's jewelry her father had told her to hide so Edda would not steal them, the portrait of her mother, which had been hidden in her room ever since Edda's arrival at d'Aumesbery because she'd ordered it removed and destroyed. The portrait of her father that had been hidden there for the same reason after his death…
There were so many things she would not have left behind. However, Mildrede was the most important. And she'd hoped to be able to speak to her husband about possibly bringing Mac with them. He was a Scot and should have fit in at Donnachaidh, and she worried about leaving him behind with Edda. The woman would have to turn her frustration and anger on someone else now that Evelinde was no longer there to abuse, and Mac would be her most likely target.
But she had nothing. Evelinde did not even have a small bag with a change of clothes as far as she knew. She was going forth into her new life with nothing but the clothes on her back, she realized, and felt fear and anxiety claim her.
It was what every girl had to face when she reached marriageable age, and really Evelinde had been fortunate in not having to do so when much younger—as most girls had to. She would have, had fate not intervened. First, her betrothed drowned when he was twelve. Before her father had found a replacement for him, her mother had fallen ill, and his time had been taken up with worry over her. When Margaret d'Aumesbery had passed away, her father had put off finding Evelinde a husband, wishing to keep her close after losing the woman he hadn't known when he'd married but whom he'd soon grown to love. He'd finally begun searching for a husband for Evelinde just before the chest complaint had taken him.
Still, despite being older than most girls were when they started a new life with their husbands far away from everything and everyone they had ever known, Evelinde didn't think it was any easier. Her husband was a complete stranger, and her new home was a distant place she knew nothing about. It was all terribly scary.
Something else for her to lift her head and bear, she supposed. There seemed to be a lot of that in a female's life. Realizing she was making herself weepy and miserable, Evelinde closed her eyes and decided to try to sleep. There was little else she could do at this point.
Chapter Five
"We're home."
Evelinde opened her eyes and glanced up at her husband. She then sat up a little straighter in his lap and followed his gaze to the dark castle towering ahead in the darkness. Trepidation immediately slithered through her.
Truly, Donnachaidh was a grim and gloomy fortress cloaked in night as it was, she decided, as Cullen urged his mount