apart from him.
Looking into his eyes, she wet her dry lips and impaled herself on him with a soft grunt that nearly drove him mad. He almost found his release but leashed back the savage so the man could have a go.
He took her rump in his hands and raptured in the feel of her enjoying him.
Her body squeezed and convulsed around him until he shot forth his seed as deep as it could go.
They panted, drained of all strength to continue. She fell on top of him without withdrawing. Tristan liked it and smiled, holding her closer.
They awoke the next morning in the same position, though separate.
“Good mornin’, love,” he greeted when he opened his eyes and found her staring at him.
He felt a wee bit hard already so waking to find her warm body on his was immensely pleasurable.
“Did you sleep well, Tristan?”
“Like a brick,” he said and slanted his smile at her.
She smiled back. “You look fine at first light. You feel fine as well.”
“Hmm?” he grinned and closed his arms around her. He flipped them over without severing their connection.
“I feel refreshed,” he said, hovering over her. She giggled and then stopped when he showed her how ready he was.
There came a knock at the door. ’Twas Harper. “The governor’s family is breaking fast.”
“We will be down shortly.”
“Now!” the captain commanded and knocked again. “’Tis rude to make them wait.”
Tristan opened his eyes and cast his ready wife a regretful look. “Aye, we are gettin’ oot of bed now.”
He pushed off her and after a quick wash in the basin, they dressed and left the room holding hands.
Tristan wasn’t surprised at how perfectly her hand fit into his. Everything about her fit perfectly into him.
“Good morning,” everyone greeted.
“How was your bed?” the governor asked. “Did you sleep well?”
They all agreed that they did. Mary blushed the hardest.
“You four must be positively famished,” Emma remarked and then giggled.
Rose was. She ate to her fill and then Emma showed her around the grounds.
“I had such plans for us, Rose. When we got home, I wept every day for a fortnight about you being sick. I never knew about my father hiring Tristan MacPherson to kill your father. To tell you the truth, I do not know what I would have done if I had known.”
When they were done walking, they turned back for the house. Three of the governor’s guards walked with them under Emma’s order but the gates were locked. No one could get in.
That was why she was so stunned when an arrow thumped into one of the guards’ chest. Emma screamed and dashed away. An arrow was shot through her skirts. It missed her body. Rose shouted, “Father, do not shoot Emma!” She knew the arrows were coming from behind the stables.
Horrified, Rose realized that her father hadn’t left the grounds last eve. But Tristan had scouted the area and found nothing.
Her father was clever. “Do you hear me? Emma has done you no harm, Father.”
“Come closer to me, Daughter,” he called out, “and I will not kill her.”
Rose took a step forward. She heard Emma whimper.
“Closer, Rose!”
She could only see a small part of his face. The rest was hidden behind the wall of the stable.
Emma’s remaining two guards hadn’t moved but her father shot one down with an arrow anyway. The last guard took off after him, his sword raised high. But her father was quicker and before the guard reached him, an arrow in the eye took his life.
“You are evil,” Rose cried, unable to look away from the dead men. “Why did you have Neill kill my mother and Jonetta?”
Her father stepped out from behind the wall. His bow was raised, and his arrow nocked and ready to fly at Emma.
“Your mother was going to meet her lover in Lockerbie. She wanted to bring you, but I would not let her. I knew she was never going to return.”
Because if she escaped him, she would never return? Or because he knew she would die before the end of the night?
“I let her take Jonetta, so she was not alone,” he continued with a satisfied smile. “’Twas also a perfect way to exact punishment on your mother and Estrid, since your mother would not let me kill her after the fire, for leaving you alone.”
“You killed them for something Neill had done at your command six years earlier,” Rose said with horror and sadness. She held her belly that was twisting and