asked.
Jane surreptitiously rolled down her stockings, discarding them and her shoes to dip her feet in the water. 'Hugh doesn't want to be trapped and will do whatever it takes to get out of it. He's made that abundantly clear. I believe his words were, 'I will still leave you.''
Belinda had pre-opened the cork on the second wine bottle, but still couldn't get it open. She handed it to Sam and said, 'Jane, I can see why you wouldn't want to chance this, but I don't understand why he is so averse. Does he have a lover?'
'No, he said he is 'between.''
Sam took out the cork with her teeth, then spat it into the lake. Recorking a bottle was something of a crime at Vinelands. 'Does he make any money as a mercenary?'
'Father told me he had some. But then, Father also neglected to tell me his true occupation.'
Sam asked, 'So sure he's a mercenary?'
Jane nodded. 'His brother is. And Hugh was just down there on the Continent fighting with him. That's how he got those marks on his face.'
Sam handed Belinda the bottle. 'Which brother?'
'Court. Courtland. Theangry one.'
After they both flashed expressions of recognition at that, Belinda said, 'At least he wasn't as bad as the oldest one.'
'The one whose face was all cut up! He used to give me night terrors,' Sam admitted.
'Oh, me too!' Belinda said. 'One morning I was out berry-picking with Claudia, and we met him on a foggy lane. We froze, and he scowled as if he knew what was about to happen. When we dropped our baskets and ran, he roared curses at us.'
For some reason, Jane felt a brief flare of pity for Ethan. He would have been only twenty or so.
'Later we felt awful. Silly.' Almost as an afterthought, Belinda muttered, 'But we didn't go back for our baskets.'
'So what the devil is MacCarrick's hesitation?' Sam frowned. 'He's got enough money to support you, he doesn't have a woman, and he's completely lost for you.'
Jane gave Sam an unamused expression, then turned so Hugh couldn't see her take a gulp of wine. After his rant this morning, Jane figured he'd be displeased to find even a temporary wife stockingless and passing around a bottle. 'He's so lost for me, he tells me twice daily how our marriage will end.'
Sam waved her comment away. 'I'm merely saying what I see. It is a puzzle. I do so love puzzles.'
'Maybe he's got a lusty Scottish lass waiting for him back in the clan,' Belinda offered, taking a more ladylike taste of the wine. 'Someone with ample breasts and wide hips, someone who can cook.'
Jane's brows drew together. Suddenly, she found the idea of traveling to his clan's seat decidedly less appealing. Jane would be the outsider, not speaking the language, not understanding exchanges between Hugh and his kinsmen, or between him and any lasses he'd left behind.
Sam said, 'At least Jane has the lusty part down pat.'
Jane didn't bother contradicting that. Her cravings before had been an irritation, but now with Hugh—and after last night—they seemed to consume her. 'I swear'—she leaned in as Sam's two daughters ran by the end of the dock, chased by a heaving nanny—'I swear, sometimes I believe that I think about making love as much as a twenty-seven-year-old male. There are people obsessed with all things carnal. Maybe I'm like them.'
Sam rolled her eyes. 'This, coming from the twenty-seven-year-old virgin.'
'Samantha, you mustn't judge,' Belinda chided in a prim tone. 'Jane never asked to be a virgin.' She snapped her fingers for the bottle. 'So what happens if you don't consummate the marriage? What happens at the end of this adventure for you?'
Jane put her hands behind her and leaned back, inhaling deeply. The air was redolent with the scent of wild roses, not yet checked by the autumn's first frost. 'Our marriage is dissolved. Hugh goes back to mercenarying or marauding or whatever his secret endeavors are.'
Then Sam asked, 'Janey, just a thought. Doyou want to stay wed to him?'
Jane had wondered if Sam and Belinda were tiptoeing about Jane's past fixation on Hugh, focusing only on his motivations. They most likely feared Jane would cry over Hugh yet again.
As she contemplated the question, she watched Hugh purposely miss yet another shot, even with Lawrence slapping his back and elbowing him. Hugh could have embarrassed the two men, but he hadn't. And she'd seen him eyeing the way Robert held his rifle and knew he badly wanted to correct it, but he'd said nothing. He really was trying to rub along with her odd family.
Jane sighed. After their encounter the night before, she knew she could spend the rest of her nights with that man. Even after their row today, she knew he'd make a good husband.
At an early age she'd discovered his personality and temperament were devastatingly attractive to her. She'd set her cap at him, and after he'd left, she'd never met his equal.
She gave them a tight smile. 'Doesn't matter, does it? He couldn't have made it more clear that as soon as this is over, he will leave and not come back. I swear, you should have seen the look on his face when I told him I hadn't been celibate.'
'To be fair,' Belinda began, 'an easy annulment was one of the terms of the deal he agreed to. Without it, this could get tricky. He might even fear you'll have to divorce. Which cousin Charlotte can tell you is nasty business, after all the hours she's spent at the courthouse.'
Sam was shaking her head. 'No, he's jealous. He reacted to the thought of you with another man, or men.'
Belinda covered her mouth with three fingertips, stifling a hiccup, then snapped her fingers for the bottle again—this time from Jane. 'Jane, I'm actually going to have to agree with Sam on this one. He does look at you like he's been starved and you're a feast.'
'You've only seen us together for the shortest time!'
Sam said, 'But he keeps looking over here at you. Watch for it now. Give it five seconds. Five, four, three —'
Jane tugged one of Sam's russet curls, but Hugh did, in fact, turn to look at her two seconds later. 'He might appear a bit possessive,' she allowed. 'But he should. He's protecting me.'
'Come on, haven't you ever seen a Highlander madly in love? No?' Sam jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward Hugh who was staring at Jane with a smoldering expression. 'Behold!'
'Madly in love. That's ridiculous.' Yet her heart had started knocking hard in her chest.
Belinda frowned. 'Jane, where's your famed confidence?'
'Embattled. Running screaming for the hills. Which happens when one's husband regards his marriage as a sprung bear trap. When he appears determined to gnaw off a paw to escape, well, that never helps, either.'
'Maybe he doesn't think he's rich enough or good enough for you,' Belinda said. 'After all, you were about to marry an exceedingly handsome and wealthy earl.'
'She's right,' Sam said. 'This smacks of self-sacrifice to me.'
'So you think he's here, ready to risk his life for me, because he's in love with me and couldn't stand to see me hurt?'
Belinda nodded. 'Why, that's it, precisely.'
Whywas Hugh doing all this? Yes, she knew he owed her father for his livelihood. But surely this was above and beyond repayment. 'Any ideas on why he'd leave before and be furiously resolved against marrying me now?'
'No, but in your place, I'd be finding out,' Sam said. 'And I'd develop a strategy.'
'A strategy for MacCarrick,' Jane said, tapping her chin. 'Why do I have a sense of history repeating itself?'
Sam shrugged. 'True, our last plan wasn't utterly successful—'
'Utterly successful?' Jane asked with a laugh. 'We endeavored to get him to marry me, and instead, he disappeared for a decade.'
'Well, then, what are you going to do?' Belinda asked.
Brows drawn, Jane said, 'Wait until an answer comes to me from nowhere, then act impulsively and inappropriately?'
