Chapter 21
It was obvious the Keep had stayed awake to welcome them back.
Paisley, perched on the back of Dominic's horse, her arms around his waist, peered over his shoulder at the lights in the courtyard. The double doors were still open, although it was obvious that the party had finished some hours earlier.
It must have been three or four in the morning, at least. Dawn wasn't far off, and yet Paisley wasn't tired at all. She probably should have been tired, after her ordeal, and yet excitement fizzed in her veins.
She'd slept enough on the way to that wretched cabin anyway, regardless of how unnatural that sleep had been.
Catriona was seated in the same place as before, craning her neck to watch them approach. To Paisley's surprise, Ava stood beside her, the two women talking in low voices as if they were old friends.
That's Ava for you, she thought tiredly. She can befriend anyone.
Colby and Veronica were also there, seated on the stone steps below Catriona's seat, looking exhausted and wrung out. They dismounted in the courtyard, and Dominic turned, arms raised to lift Paisley down.
His hands felt warm and sure at her waist, and Paisley was uncomfortably aware of that ache in her chest and gut again. The ride there, which she had spent pressed against Dominic's firm back, arms around his waist, had only heated her blood more than she thought possible.
It doesn't seem appropriate, Paisley thought uncomfortably.
I was this close to being dragged back to England as Lord Ainsley's future wife.
I saw a dead body today. I watched a man's head get severed from his shoulders.
I stabbed somebody with a hat pin. I should be traumatized, not. .. not whatever this feeling is.
"So ye have all returned in one piece," Catriona remarked, making her slow way down the stone steps towards them. "I must say, I wasnae sure."
Paisley saw relief on the old woman's face, and a hint of softness when she looked at her son.
"Ye shouldnae have stayed up, Ma," Dominic said, moving to kiss his mother on the cheek. "It's late. Or early, rather."
She snorted. "As if I could go to bed with yer fates all up in the air. Where's that Englishman, then?"
Dominic's gaze darted around. He pursed his lips and said nothing.
"Well, I see," she said lightly. "Thomas, Emma, are ye well?"
"Aye, we are," Thomas responded, one arm slung around his wife's shoulders.
Dominic slipped an arm around Paisley's waist, moving her towards Catriona.
"Ma," he said carefully, "let me introduce ye to Paisley, me betrothed."
Catriona's eyebrows shot up. "I've already met Paisley, yer betrothed."
He gave a wry smile. "Nay, ye havenae. I can honestly tell ye that ye have nae met me betrothed before."
Catriona pursed her lips, shaking her head. "Ye will be the death of me, lad. Paisley, I'll find ye a place to sleep tonight."
"Nay need," Dominic said quickly. "I'll take care of her."
There was a tense silence. Catriona eyed her son, eyes narrowed, and dropped her gaze to Paisley.
"Are ye all right with that, Paisley?" she asked, her tone neutral.
Dominic said nothing, waiting for Paisley to respond.
Her heart was pounding. The proper thing to do, the thing a real English lady would do, would be to demurely turn down her eyes and politely ask for a room of her own. Catriona would oblige her at once, and Dominic wouldn't say a word. Paisley knew that.
That was the proper thing to do.
Paisley slipped her hand into Dominic's, their fingers lacing together.
"I'll stay with Dominic, if that's all the same to you," she said lightly, unable to believe that she was saying those words and what they entailed, in public.
Catriona nodded mildly. "Very well. I'll bid ye both goodnight."
Then the moment passed, and Dominic was leading Paisley up the stone steps and into the Keep, their hands still laced together.
"Not so fast!" Emma shouted after them, arms tightly crossed. "Not before I dress those wounds of yers, Dominic!"
The rest of Keep MacLennan was like a maze.
Narrow corridors gave way to wide, cavernous halls, with swooping ceilings and echoes everywhere.
The place was quiet – Catriona had clearly allowed most of her people to retire for the night, while she and her attendants stayed up to wait for Dominic's return.
"Where are we going?" Paisley whispered, hurrying to keep pace with Dominic.
"Me apartments," he responded, smiling down at her. "I rarely use them, but me mother keeps them ready in case I decide to move home."
Paisley nodded, glancing around at the impressive space. Room after room after room. Not even the richest members of the ton had houses like this, in a location like this.
"Beautiful," she murmured, and when she glanced up at Dominic, he was looking down at her.
"Aye," he said softly. "Very beautiful."
Abruptly, Dominic opened a door that led to a twisting flight of stairs, up and up and up.
"I hope ye daenae mind," he said with a grin, "But me bedchamber is in the tower."
"I don't mind," Paisley replied. The ache was only getting stronger, something needy and insistent inside her. The narrow staircase meant that they had to let go of each other's hands out of necessity, and she missed the contact.
The staircase led to another narrow corridor, and Dominic opened the last door on the left.
"This is the chamber I've had since I was a child," he said, sounding almost embarrassed. "I had that skylight put in so that I could look up at the stars."
"Skylight hardly covers it," Paisley breathed, eyes wide.
The room was a modest one, a simple space with a severely sloping ceiling, with a four-poster, curtained bed in one corner, a fireplace on the opposite wall, and a desk and chair somewhere in between.
There were books, of course, but not so many as were packed into Dominic's room at The Sinner.
She suspected that he'd brought most of his personal collection there.
There were other pieces of furniture, of course – a wash basin, a chamber pot under the bed, a wardrobe, and so on.
But what really grabbed a person's eye was the vast window on one side of the room, and the huge skylight that covered the sloping side of the ceiling. The panes of glass were reinforced by beams, but the view it provided of the night sky and the surrounding landscape was truly breathtaking.
Paisley moved towards the window, almost holding her breath.
"I've never seen a window of such size, except at the conservatories back home."
Dominic chuckled behind her, and she turned to see him squatting beside the fireplace, arranging a few logs of firewood.
"I had it done specially," he said, creating a spark. "Maither thought it was ridiculous, of course, but I always loved it."
The fire caught, filling the room with warmth and light.
Then Dominic was right behind her, the warmth from his skin leeching into her, his hands hovering over her shoulders.
"It's a much finer view on a clear night," he murmured. "It was tricky to get curtains, though. The light wakes me up, so I had to put curtains around me bed."
Paisley glanced back at the bed. It was larger than she'd first thought, and the mattress was surrounded by thick velvet drapes, freshly dusted and aired.
"It's very clean in here."
"Aye, like I said, Maither keeps it clean just in case I want to come back," he chuckled, shaking his head. "She makes a fine Lady MacLennan, and nae mistake."
Paisley bit her lip, turning to face him.
"If I marry you, I'll become Lady MacLennan."
Dominic's eyes were soft. "Aye, ye will."
"Aren't... aren't you worried that I won't be able to do it?"
His brow furrowed. "What dae ye mean?"
Paisley broke away, pacing the length of the room.
"I mean that I've never really thought of myself as really wife material.
All the ladies back home are all just waiting to be married, and I suppose I thought the same.
But being the lady of a Keep seems like such a responsibility.
What if I'm not cut out for it? What if.
.. what if I can't make you happy? Lord Ainsley said that I. .."
"I'm going to stop ye right there, lassie," Dominic interrupted, crossing the room and snatching up her hands.
"I daenae want ye to give that man's words a second thought ever again.
Dae ye hear? He's a bone-headed fool that deserved everything he got.
He doesnae – dinnae – know ye, nae in the slightest, and nor did he know me.
Being Lady MacLennan is a high responsibility, for sure.
I'll nae deny it. But ye are the finest woman I've ever met, Paisley.
As to being wife material, well, who knows what that is?
It doesnae exist. Ye are nae interviewing to be a hirelin' now, lassie. "
Paisley smiled wryly. "You have more faith in me than I have in myself, I think. I hope I can believe you in time. I hope I'm as capable as you seem to think."
He snorted, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"The sunrise doesn't begin being beautiful just because somebody said that it was. It was always beautiful."
Something caught in Paisley's throat, and she closed her eyes, leaning forward into his embrace. Dominic's arms tightened around her, firm and warm but never tight, and slipped her arms around his waist, flattening her palms against the smooth planes of his back.
There were warm fingers at her chin, tilting up her face, and Paisley tipped her head back to look up at him. Dominic's face was cast into a strange, flickering shadow from the fire, and she thought that his eyes had never looked warmer or sweeter.
"I love ye, Paisley," he whispered. "More than I ever thought I could love a person."
The words sent fizzles of heat through Paisley's chest.
"I love you, too," she replied, the words catching in her throat.
Then he kissed her, their lips crashing together with more desperation than skill, and heat flared in Paisley's chest.