Chapter 23 #2
When they reached the high table, Dev quietly told Coll to keep Benjy and Jamieson in sight until the latter had gone and the gate had shut behind him. Then, taking his seat beside Robby, he rested his left hand, under the table, on her breeks-clad thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Robina’s tension had eased when Dev touched her back in the inner chamber, and she relaxed more at the table when he rested his hand just above her knee. But when that hand began to stroke her and crept closer to her breeks’ codpiece, she startled.
Dev smiled without looking at her. “Easy, lass,” he murmured.
When she stuck her tongue out at him, he grinned.
“Davy, are you going to tell us why you let that villain walk out of here with Benjy?” Wat asked across Ormiston, who, having acted as host, sat between them.
Giving Robina a rueful look, Dev shifted his hand off her thigh and said, “I offered him a compromise. If he’d give me an honest explanation for his abduction of Benjy and see that his men ceased their raiding, I’d let him go.”
Wat cocked his head, and Robina detected a glint of suspicion in his eyes. “You want us to believe that that villain gave you an honest explanation?”
“Benjy supported it,” Dev said.
“I’d like to hear what it was, then,” Wat said.
“I, too,” Ormiston agreed.
Robina held her breath, but Dev said quietly, “Benjy may tell you one day, or I may. For now, I’ll say only that Jamieson did Benjy no harm and may have taught him a good lesson. Do you and your men want to spend the night here, Wat?”
“Nay, nay, we’ll leave for Scott’s Hall as soon as everyone has eaten. We’ve plenty of daylight left, and they’ll be lighting bonfires tonight in my forest. I’d liefer be there to make sure no one burns it down. You’re welcome to come to us, though.”
Robina stiffened, and Dev gave her thigh another squeeze as he said, “I think we’ll look after our bonfires here, but we’ll visit soon. Father,” he added, “I expect you’ll be returning with them, too, since Fee is still at the Hall.”
“I will,” Ormiston said. “I’ll expect to see you and Robina before we return to Ormiston Mains, though.”
Agreeing, Dev turned his attention to his food for a short time before Wat said, “Did that Jamieson chap say how many other men he had with him?”
“No more than a score,” Dev replied.
Robina saw Benjy run into the hall just as Wat said, “There were a score of them riding around this area together?”
“That’s what he said. Some of them apparently avoided notice by posing as shepherds, seeking lost sheep.”
Benjy took his seat, and Ash appeared with a platter of beef to serve him.
“You know,” Wat said musingly, “I think I’ll stop at Hawick and suggest a compromise of my own to Archie. I’ll offer to let him keep my men at Hermitage if he’ll tell all the men there to keep stray shepherds from collecting our sheep.”
Ormiston, Dev, and others laughed, but although Benjy stopped eating to look at Wat, the boy’s expression was more thoughtful than amused.
Wat sent one of his men to warn those outside that they’d soon be leaving, and when the time came, Robina, Dev, and Benjy walked to the yard with their guests to bid them farewell.
Ash Nixon went with them, and when Wat and Ormiston had departed with their men, Benjy ran off with Ash, and Robina looked up at Dev.
“I expect you haven’t finished with me yet,” she said.
“We’ll talk about it more tonight,” he said. “I need to get men out into the hills again to keep watch. I don’t entirely trust Jamieson to take his lads home.”
“You said you were going to make me wish that Coll had sat on me,” she reminded him. “Are you still so angry?”
“Let’s say that I have mixed emotions about that,” he said in the even tone he took when he was controlling himself. “Especially about riding with our men again and showing yourself to so many in those damnable breeks.”
Her involuntary muscles clenched again, and Robina grimaced, certain that he’d make her rue the actions he had mentioned, at least.
Gently, he added, “I wouldn’t have you any other way, sweetheart, and I love you more than I ever thought I’d love anyone. But I did warn you about consequences. We’ll talk tonight, but you may want to sleep first.”
That night, in bed, when he took her in his arms, he exerted himself to show her how much he cared about her, although he also realized that she might believe he had forgiven her for everything she’d done.
He took his time, enjoying himself, but concentrating more on giving her pleasure, lots of pleasure. Then, when he could resist no longer…
“Dev, Dev, don’t stop!”
He stopped. “Why not?”
She wriggled under him. “Because, because I’m almost… Oh, yes, yes!”
He stopped again, although his lips and fingers toyed with her breasts.
“You devil! What are you trying to do to me?”
“I’m teaching you one of many possible penalties a husband can offer for his wife’s disobedience,” he murmured. “Do you mean to defy my orders again?”
“No, no! I promise! Finish it… please!”
He did not believe that promise for a second, but he willingly accommodated her, bringing her to her climax and then seeking his own.
When they lay back sated, and she grinned, he wondered when she would defy him again. Wild promises were nearly always false ones, and under the circumstances, he could hardly hold her to one made under such duress as this one had been.
Still, she was his now, and he knew that they loved each other. He could judge each new defiance as it occurred, on its own merits.