Chapter 20 #2
“Most men don’t,” she said. “I should not have spoken to you as I did, though, especially in the great hall with so many ears around. But if you expect me always to submit when you issue orders to me as you do to your men, or even when you simply tell me to do something without due discussion…”
His eyes lit then with humor. “I don’t expect such submission from you, Robby, nor would it please me.
The thing I liked most about you when Rab first brought me here was your intelligence and the fact that you know your own mind.
The trait I dislike most in others, especially other men, is their inability to make a decision.
But you should also understand that there may be consequences you will dislike if you defy me or willfully disobey when I command your obedience. ”
Fluttering her lashes, she looked up at him through them and said, “Mayhap we’ll get on better, sir, if you do not command. I am persuadable, you know.”
“Do I know that?” He watched her in a way that sent fire through her body again. “Then, come here to me, naughty one. You must tell me what you thought of our messengers whilst I persuade you out of your kirtle and shift.”
As she moved to obey him, her body contracted in an area that she had not known it could contract.
Her breathing quickened, her heart pounded, and her knees felt so weak she was unsure that they’d support her.
She realized with an abruptness that shocked her that if he had wanted to punish her, all he would have had to do was walk out and leave her standing there so.
Dev was not so cruel. He took his time disrobing her, though, making her ache for release long before he carried her to bed and allowed it.
Dev awoke to hear the privy-stair door opening.
Swiftly, he looked to be sure Robby was covered and then fought to suppress the anger that had flared at hearing the intrusive sound.
In his eagerness to enjoy himself with Robby, he’d neglected to bolt the door, so it was his own fault that Coll opened it.
Coll halted on the threshold, one hand on the latch, a cold cresset in the other. When he saw Dev and would have turned away, Dev stayed him with a gesture.
Putting a finger to his lips, he got up and quietly drew the curtain before collecting his braies and breeks from the floor where he’d tossed them.
“How long till supper?” he murmured as he stepped into them.
“Not long, sir,” Coll replied as quietly, setting the cresset on a nearby table, along with a twine-tied bundle of fresh candles from a pouch on his belt.
“I just came to bring these things up. I didna think…” Pausing, he gave a rueful shrug.
“I should ha’ rapped on the door, sir. It willna happen again. ”
“I’m awake,” Robby said from behind the curtain. “If you’re talking to Coll, sir, prithee ask him to fetch hot water or send Corinne up with it.”
Dev nodded, and Coll left the way he had come, closing the door behind him.
“Do you want your shift and kirtle, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Aye, thank you. What was Coll doing here? Is there another message?”
“He just brought us more candles, but supper will be ready soon.”
“Why did he think we needed more candles?”
“He brought a cresset, too. Doubtless, he assumes we’re enjoying sleepless nights of coupling and might require more light.”
Hearing her low chuckle, he grinned as he pulled back the bed curtain and handed her her clothing. He was more amused when she kept the coverlet high until she had both her shift and her kirtle over her head and could pull them into place.
“Don’t fret about Coll,” he said. “He has waited these past mornings until I shouted, and he’ll soon know your needs and Corinne’s as well as he knows mine.”
Pouring cold water into the ewer, Dev washed his face and hands and donned the shirt and leather jack he’d worn earlier. Then he waited patiently until Coll brought Robby’s hot water and she had performed her ablutions.
Supper passed quickly, and despite their naps, she made no objection when he suggested they retire early. She took time only to bid Benjy goodnight before returning with him to their bedchamber. They lay talking quietly for a time.
At last, Dev drew her close, turning her so that her back was against him and they could lie curled together like nested spoons. He felt as if she belonged there.
He soon dozed off, only to waken before dawn and hear her talking to someone.
“Marrying Dev was a good notion, Beany,” Rab said as they rode toward Slitrig Water. “He’ll look after you now, and God kens fine that you need a man to keep you out of mischief.”
“I don’t get into mischief,” she said curtly, leaning forward to urge her horse to keep up with Black Corby. “You must know that I’ve done only what needed doing to keep Coklaw and our people safe.”
“You think you can do all that I used to do,” he retorted. “You cannot, lass. Dev was right when he threatened to take that dirk away. I must have been mad to give it to you and teach you the few tricks I did show you.”
“You don’t mean that,” she protested. “You taught me well.”
He shook his head. “I let you think so. You and I were too close, too much alike for your safety. Had I realized that you’d imitate me and I’d not be around to rein you in—”
“What? What are you saying? What do you mean by that? Just because you’re a man! Why are you shaking me?” she demanded, trying to push the offending hand away, only to realize that Rab had disappeared and she was in bed with Dev.
“Wake up, Robby? You were talking in your sleep and not too clearly, I might add,” he said. His carefully even tone of voice brought her fully awake. “Who taught you well, and just what did he teach you?”
She swallowed. The remnants of her dream were fading, but she had been talking to Rab. Surely, that would not anger Dev, if she said she’d been dreaming about Rab.
“It was Rab,” she muttered, trying to collect her scattered wits. “He taught me to use his dirk before he gave it to me. I told you that.”
“What sort of dream was it? You said something about Coklaw. Do you often talk in your sleep?”
“Mercy, I don’t know,” she said, turning slightly to face him.
She could see only his muscular shape against the moonlit room beyond him as he leaned up on one elbow over her.
“Janet said naught about hearing me talk. Nor did Bella, and I’ve never slept with anyone else, except our nurse when Rab and I were bairns… and you.”
“In this dream of yours, just what did Rab say about your dirk?”
“Naught that he’d not said before. I told you he does not object to my having it. Although he did say I should not have tried to—” She broke off. Rab had said that to her after the event in the yard. It had not been part of her dream.
“Should not have tried what?” Dev said. “Tell me. Do you dream of him often?”
“How can I answer you sensibly if you keep flinging questions at me?”
“Choose one, and answer it.”
“I don’t think I dream of Rab often, but I don’t know,” she said, choosing what seemed to be the safest question. “I rarely remember dreams when I wake, or if I do, I remember only bits that fade quickly away. Why did you wake me?”
“The boot is on the other foot, lass. You woke me with your chatter.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “May I go back to sleep now?”
“Aye, sure,” he murmured. “I did not mean to cross-question you. You startled me out of a sound sleep, and I thought you were talking to someone here in the room. Sleep now. Mayhap we’ll ride together after the sun comes up.”
“I’d like that,” she murmured drowsily.
When she awoke to find him gone and Corinne bustling about the room in her usual way, memory of Dev’s waking her from her dream swept back into her mind.
Dressing quickly in her old moss-green kirtle, she went downstairs and found him at the high table, finishing his breakfast. When he saw her and smiled, she relaxed. Until that moment, she had not realized she was tense.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” he said, standing to meet her. “Do you still want to ride? I thought we might go toward the Ormiston estate today. I’d like to know if anyone saw our messengers heading back to England.”
“I must speak with Ada Greenlaw first,” Robina said. “I have paid her little heed since the wedding, and I don’t want her to think I’ve abandoned my responsibilities to her. I usually discuss the next few days’ menus with her after I break my fast, but I’ll meet you in the yard shortly after that.”
He agreed and turned to go but stopped at the edge of the dais. She saw Benjy hurrying past the archway at the other end of the hall.
When Dev whistled, the boy skidded to a halt and looked their way.
Dev crooked a finger, and Benjy hurried toward him. His jack had a rip in it, and his shirt looked as if someone had dipped it in muck of some sort.
“What happened to you?” Dev asked. “You look as if you’ve been rolling in mud.”
“Nearly,” the boy said, grinning. “Ash is teaching me to wrestle. I got mud in me eye, though, and when he washed it out, he said I’d better change me clothes.”
“Go on up, then, and wash your face and hands whilst you’re about it. Robby and I are going to ride to the Ormiston estate if you’d like to ride with us.”
“Must I? Ash and me were going to help in the stables.”
“Aye, then, if you offered to help, you should,” Dev said.
Grinning again, Benjy ran off without comment, and Dev glanced at Robby to see that Corinne was serving her breakfast.
Knowing she would likely take longer than she expected, he went outside to give the order for their horses but told Sandy not to keep them standing in the yard. “Have someone bring them out when they see us coming,” he said.
With that task done, he returned to the keep. He’d been meaning to visit the ramparts and talk to the men there but had not yet made time for it. Realizing that he’d be able to see the yard from up there and could shout down to let Robby know where he was, he went on upstairs.
Benjy’s door was closed, so the boy had likely tidied himself, changed his clothes, and gone outside again.
Benjy heard the footsteps outside his door and opened it in time to see Dev disappear around the next turn of the stairs.
Grimacing, he tiptoed down the stairs, only to hear someone else coming up.
Hurrying back to his room, he decided to wait until he heard Dev going down again.
He’d been thinking about that jar of coins that Beany had found and wanted to see what it looked like and how much it had in it.
If it was his, as Beany had said, he had every right to see it.
He knew exactly where Rab had kept the carved box that Beany had mentioned.
Robina finished her breakfast and took only a few minutes with Ada to be sure that the housekeeper had everything well in hand. Then, feeling pleased with her efficiency, she hurried upstairs to put on her rawhide boots and fetch her cloak.
Doubtless, Dev had expected her to keep him waiting half the morning.
“When are you going to tell him about me? He can tell you’re still keeping something from him, and he’s been more patient than you’ve any right to expect.”
“I don’t know how to tell him,” she muttered. “He’ll think I’m daft. He won’t believe that you speak to me.”
“Aye, sure he will. I’ve told you things you could not have learned otherwise.”
That was true. He had told her that the ruffians who had taken their stock before had taken more on Easter Sunday. And, when she’d guessed that he meant the thieving Turnbulls of Langside, he had praised her quick wit.
“I’ll tell you now that Dev is no fool. And if he finds out for himself—”
“Stop, damn you! I don’t want to tell him yet. I cannot do it, and I won’t!”
“Och, wheesht now, wheesht!”
A slight noise above had already warned her that she had spoken too loudly. Looking up, she saw Dev standing on the landing outside their bedchamber.
Wincing, she shut her eyes, hoping that she had imagined him.
When she opened them, Dev was still there.
“Who were you talking to, Robby?”
“N-nobody,” she said. “I… I was just talking to myself. People do that, you know, and I… I am…” But she’d said too much. She knew she had.
He knew she was lying. She could see it in his face.
“Come up here,” he said. “We’ll talk in our chamber.”
She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. She muttered, “The horses are waiting. We should go.”
“The horses are fine,” he said. “Come.” He pushed open the door to the bedchamber.
“This is not the first time I’ve heard you.
And before you insist again that you were talking to yourself, I should warn you that, although I do know people sometimes do that, I’ve never heard of anyone shouting or swearing at herself. ”
“I didn’t do that,” she said curtly. When his frown deepened and his jaw tightened, she added impulsively, “If you must know, I was talking to Rab.”