And tonight he found himself forgoing his interest in the flesh to simply hold her and offer comfort. Worse, he was content with the contact and didn’t wish for more at the moment.
He was in dangerous territory. If he wasn’t careful he could find himself feeling things he never intended, never wanted to feel.
…
At first light, Mari slid out from under Cameron’s heavy arms and left for the kitchen. She didn’t want to be around when he woke up in a foul mood with a headache and stomach issues. Although…he’d spoken to her in the middle of the night as if he was as sober as she. Maybe the whisky worked differently on a man of his size.
She liked helping in the kitchen. Her sister spent a lot of time there, though Kenna had promised her husband she wouldn’t lift a finger while in her condition. The women told stories and shared tales. Occasionally they’d complain about their men or their bairns.
They never asked Mari probing questions or hinted that they knew why she was living there. She suspected if she told them, they would listen and keep it to themselves. She just hadn’t grown accustomed to having friends yet.
Her maid, Lucy, had been her only true friend. There had been women from court, but she couldn’t call them friends. They were catty women who had preyed on gossip and were just as happy to make something up if it was a dull day.
It was nice to be accepted as she was.
She was about to ask the women if Scottish men did not wake up ill after drinking, when she remembered her sister’s advice from the day before.
The letter.
Good lord. She’d forgotten all about it when Cameron stumbled in the night before. Even now, it was sitting in their room for him to find when he woke.
She jumped up. “Excuse me, I forgot something very important. I’ll be right back.”
She opened the door and only got a few steps from the kitchen when she encountered Cameron coming toward her. He was smiling, which was more than she’d expected in his state. He was also clean and bright-eyed, despite being up earlier than drunken men generally rose. He seemed to have suffered nothing for his indulgence the night before.
“May I speak with you, Mari?”
“Of course.” Her voice cracked with nervousness.
Had he found the letter? Had he read it?
He didn’t look angry…far from it.
He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I wondered if you might want to go for another ride with me this morning, since we didn’t see much yesterday. We can take a meal with us and eat it by the river if you’d like.”
After what had happened the day before, she hadn’t expected him to want to try again. Too overcome with emotion to speak, she just nodded and hoped he could tell how pleased she was to be invited. Especially since he was in a good mood with no signs of overindulgence from the night before.
The morning sun exposed the hints of red in his brown hair as she followed him to the stables. The fear from the day before wouldn’t return. She knew he wasn’t taking her out of the castle to harm her where no one would hear. He merely wanted to show her their lands.
The pride on his face told her how happy he was to have a place of power here.
Like the day before, she followed him out of the bailey. He paused until her horse came up next to his. When she fell behind again, he stopped. It took far too long for her to realize he wanted her to ride next to him. She made sure to keep up when he started off again.
“I don’t know if ye remember, but that stand of woods over there is where you came running into my life.” He smiled. “We canna see the field from here. It’s on the other side.”
She nodded.
“The river is just beyond this small hill. Be careful, though, it’s misleading. There’s a steep cliff on the other side. We’ll skirt around to the right. There’s a place where it levels out. It’s a fine place to rest and eat.”
She looked up at the blue sky of a perfect day, allowing herself to be happy. She was safe here. The woods, while dark and sinister when she’d been running through them for her life, were actually lovely in the way the sun filtered through the leaves, making everything below glow a brilliant green.
“Have you ever ridden bareback?” he asked out of the blue.
“Once or twice. Not since I grew up.”
He nodded. “There’s another reason I wanted you to become familiar with our lands. If ever there’s a threat, if Ridley were to return to arrest you, I want you to be ready to run and hide. You may not have a chance to saddle a horse. If ever I give you the word, I want you to take a horse and come here, to this place. There are plenty of trees for cover. Then get in the river and walk as far as ye can downstream. That will throw the dogs off your scent.”
She swallowed and looked around at her surroundings. The perfect day dimmed as the sun went behind a cloud. In the shadows of the forest she imagined faces watching her, ready to attack.
She shivered but nodded again as Cameron gave her more instructions for getting to safety.
Eventually, they reached the place he’d mentioned where they could eat.
He helped her down and took her arm to guide her to a flat area near the river. He spread out a plaid and dropped a tied linen of food in the middle. She settled on the blanket, still looking over her shoulder in case Ridley and the hounds were coming for her. While Cameron went to get them water, she opened the
