be stable after the fire, he'd changed direction and come to the solar instead, which was why he was on his haunches when he heard the door and saw Biddy bustle past. He didn't say anything to draw attention to his presence in the shadows of the room, but simply listened to her rapid tread as she hurried to the stairs and down.
He then lowered his gaze to the floor once more, but his mind was on what his wife had said in their room. Tavis thought Jenny had a lover? And Tralin thought the girl had had feelings for Darach?
It appeared he'd been a very unobservant lad, because Cullen hadn't seen any of this at the time. Though, now that his wife had said the words, he did recall that Jenny used to light up like a torch put to flame every time his uncle entered the same room. And he could recall his and Tralin coming upon her once when her cheeks had been flushed, her lips swollen, and her gown wrinkled, the lacings not properly done up. They'd even teased her about it at the time, suggesting she must have been kissing one of the squires though they hadn't really believed it. As pretty as she'd been, Jenny always seemed so prim and snobby that Cullen found it difficult to imagine anyone wanting to kiss her. She really appeared to be a proper little thing. He was sure she never would have been caught riding around in nothing but a wet chemise, her horse's reins in her mouth and her wet gown held overhead to dry.
The memory of his first sight of his wife made Cullen smile. Evelinde, he was sure, was special, unlike any other woman in the world. She chattered away like a child one moment and snapped at him like a harpy the next, but when he kissed her, she melted like butter on a warm bit of bread. She was everything he could have wished for in a wife if he'd taken the time to worry about such things before marrying her. His only hope at the time he'd agreed to the wedding was a woman he could bear to live with, but Evelinde was much more than that, she was a woman he could, and did, love.
Cullen just wished he hadn't blurted the words out to her this morning as he had. He hadn't meant to. That had just happened. Unfortunately, Evelinde's response had been less than flattering. Her eyes had gone wide and her mouth had dropped and she'd stood there staring at him as if he'd suddenly sprouted horns. Cullen had then kissed her just to keep her from saying something he might not want to hear, but knew he'd have to hear her response eventually. He wasn't foolish enough to hope the woman loved him in return. As she had pointed out more than once, she hardly knew him thanks to his tendency not to speak. That was something he supposed he should do something about.
First, however, he had to unravel the matter of who was trying to kill her, Cullen thought, and what she'd said that morning had turned his suspicions firmly in Biddy's direction. He stood slowly, considering the matter. Asking his aunt questions wasn't likely to get him anywhere, but a talk with Lady Comyn might shed some light on things. She hadn't visited as often then as she had when his mother was alive, but she had visited a couple of times while Jenny was at Donnachaidh and might have picked up on a thing or two.
He could also search Biddy's room, Cullen supposed, and see if there was anything in there that might help him solve this matter. Although he couldn't imagine what that might be. Still, he knew Biddy wasn't in there at the moment, and it wouldn't hurt to look around… but first he had to wring his lovely wife's neck, Cullen thought, as Evelinde suddenly crept past the open door of the solar.
Evelinde was concentrating so hard on her feet to keep from making a sound that she—like Biddy before her—didn't even cast a glance into the solar where he stood. If she had looked his way, what she would have seen was one very angry husband. Cullen had made it very clear that she was not to go anywhere without her guards, yet here she was, creeping about.
Cullen moved silently forward to follow his wife's progress. His eyebrows rose when