The laird continued to stare for a long moment at the two sweetly rounded breasts that reminded him of two ripe peaches. Her nipples were small, the color of dusky rosebuds. They puckered beneath his ardent look. He brushed the fingers of one hand around the curve of the firm globe, tracing its delicate shape. She trembled beneath his touch. 'Don't be afraid, lambkin,' he said softly. 'I am not like
Alix gasped softly with surprise. The only time Hayle Watteson had touched her breasts was to squeeze them hard and mock their delicate size. Maida had big breasts where a man could pillow his head, he always told her. Hayle had never touched her gently as Malcolm Scott was doing. She gasped again. And he had certainly never fondled her breast and sucked hungrily upon it as the laird was now doing. A little cry escaped her. 'Oh! Oh!'
He looked up and into her face now. 'Do I please you, or distress you, lambkin?' he asked her quietly.
'I never knew…' she began, and then, 'Yes, my lord. You please me muchly.'
He lowered his head and began to pay court to her other breast while she sighed with her obvious pleasure at his renewed devotion. Her scent-or was it the heather about them?-filled his nostrils, making him almost giddy with his rising desire. He felt his cock growing harder and harder in his breeks. But he knew this was not the time. Not with his daughter sleeping so innocently but a few yards away from where he lay with Alix. Finally he forced himself to raise his head from her breasts. He laced her shirt back up.
'We can go no further here with Fiona nearby us. But make no mistake about it, Alix Givet. I want you in my bed. I have never taken a mistress, but I think you would have me, lambkin, as I would have you.'
'But what if I should disappoint you in the coupling, my lord?' she asked him once again. 'The man to whom I was wed put me on my back that first night and thrust himself into me so cruelly that he hurt me. I could not see his face in the pitch black of the room. And after that whenever he came he would make me kneel upon my bed, for he said I was no better than a bitch hound and should be fucked as a bitch is fucked. I quickly came to dislike the act, my lord. What pleasure is to be had in it?'
Malcolm Scott felt himself filled with anger as he listened to her. How could a man brutalize a woman so cruelly? 'I will show you the pleasure in the coupling, Alix. And you will give me pleasure with your fair body as I will give you pleasure when we are joined as one. You will never displease me, lambkin. I can only hope I will not disappoint you.' He brushed her mouth with his.
She nodded. 'I will trust you, my lord, but remember I want no husband who will have dominion over me. I will be your mistress, but I do so of my own free will, not because you force me to it.' She sat up and began to rebutton her jerkin.
'And I want no wife, although I ask one thing of you, lambkin. Never deceive me with another man. If the time comes that you want someone else you have but to tell me and I will let you go, but do not betray me, Alix Givet.'
'I will not ever mislead you, my lord,' she responded. 'I swear it!' He was thinking of his wife, Alix thought. 'But you must make me the same vow. If you decide you wish to have another for your mistress, or a wife, you will tell me in order that I not be shamed.'
'If that day should ever come I will indeed inform you, and I will provide for you as well, lambkin. I know my responsibilities.'
'I ask nothing of you but courtesy,' Alix quickly said. 'My father left me provided for, and I have the wherewithal to make my own way if I must, my lord. I am no whore to be cast off and paid for services rendered you other than my compensation for educating your daughter.' There was a proud tilt to her little chin.
'It is not a matter we are faced with, so why should we argue over it?' he replied. Her stubborn pride pleased him well. Robena had wanted everything of him.
'I will awaken Fiona, my lord.' Alix stood up and brushed her skirts off. Then she went to gently shake the little girl awake.
They rode back to Dunglais in the late-afternoon sunshine, listening to the now-rested Fiona chatter about how she wished to ride all the way to Edinburgh one day to see the king. 'Do you think he would marry a girl like me?' she wondered aloud.
'Kings usually marry great ladies,' her father told her.
'Are you not a great lord, Da?' Fiona wanted to know.
Malcolm Scott laughed aloud. 'Nay, lassie, I'm just an insignificant border lord with a herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, and an old stone keep.'
'But you were the old king's friend. Can't you be the new king's friend too, and ask him to make you a great lord?' Fiona wanted to know.
'Our new king is a little boy, Fiona. He's just two years older than you are. And his days are spent very much like yours are, learning his lessons and learning how to be a good king of Scotland like his father and his grandfather were. And he is already betrothed to little Princess Margaret of Denmark. His wise father did that for him before he was killed, God assoil his soul,' the laird told his daughter.
'Am I betrothed?' Fiona wanted to know.
Malcolm Scott chuckled. 'I am not certain yet that I ever want to let you go,' he said with a smile at his little daughter.
'Oh, Da!' Fiona replied, but they could tell she was pleased.
As they sat afterwards at the high board when Fiona had gone to her bed, Alix asked the laird, 'How did you know the king, and were you really his friend?'
'Jamie Stewart and I were educated together,' Malcolm Scott said. 'When King James the First was murdered and his eldest son became king, his mother, Queen Joan, sought for a few lads his age who were not involved with either the Douglases, Lord Chrichton's family, or the Livingstones to be companions to the boy king. Jamie had been the survivor of twins and he bore a rather harsh birthmark. Half of his face was the color of an amethyst. In the streets he was known as James of the Fiery Face.'
'Oh, how sad!' Alix noted.
'Because of it he didn't like great public shows or spectacles where he had to show himself. He was intelligent, inquisitive, and preferred companions like himself. He had nothing but scorn for old Douglas, and as for Crichton and the Livingstones he but bided his time until he could take control of his kingdom, for there was a ruthless streak in him. It was shortly after he married Marie of Gueldres, the Duke of Burgundy's niece, that he exerted his influence. Many thought she was behind it, and while I am certain she encouraged her husband, Jamie was his own man. We learned to like bad women, good whiskey, and guns together. Of course, I went back to the borders right after he married. He didn't need me then. My father had just died, and a border holding not strongly held by its owner is apt to be taken by another.'
'Were you with him at Roxburgh?' Alix asked.
'Aye,' the laird replied grimly. 'I said that damned canon was ill loaded, but he was so anxious to show off for his queen. He loved her, you know, and got four sons, and two daughters on her. She has not just the little king to worry about, but the other five as well. Hers is not an easy task, but she was a good wife to Jamie, a good queen, and she is proving stronger than anyone anticipated as the queen mother.'
'So in a way you were brought up at a court too,' Alix remarked.
'Not really,' the laird replied. 'We moved from place to place. We were always on the go. There was no real court as you would know it. The idea was to keep the king safe and alive. To get him educated to take up his duties. Most of the other boys fell away in the furor between all the factions trying to control the king's person. But he would never go anywhere without me, and I even slept in his bedchamber most of the time. We were bedded by the same whore for the first time when we were fifteen,' Malcolm Scott chuckled as he remembered. 'Livingstone was a prig, but Crichton arranged it for the king, and if the king did it then I had to do it. Jamie Stewart would have it no other way.'
'And after that you never looked back,' she teased him.
'Nay, I never looked back. And now I am looking forward to a new adventure, lambkin.' He took her hand and kissed it, laughing softly when she blushed.
'You are so bold,' she said softly. 'You frighten me, and yet I trust you. 'Tis odd.'
'I don't want you frightened of me,' he told her earnestly. 'But I believe once we have become lovers in every sense you will not be afraid of me, Alix. At least I hope not.' He still held her hand in his, and now, turning the palm
