“They look better today,” Geordie commented as he got the linens on her right foot unraveled. “But it might be good to letthem have some air while we sit here in the sun.”
“Aye,” Jetta agreed as she finished with the wrappings on Dwyn’s left foot and examined it, then the one Geordie had unwrapped.“It might allow them to scab up, and speed the healing along.”
“How is she? Are they healing?”
Dwyn glanced up with surprise, and shielded her eyes from the sun as she peered at her sister Aileen.
“Do ye think she’ll be able to dance at the feast tomorrow night?” Una asked, joining them.
“It is looking like she may, and hopefully letting her feet air in the sun will help,” Jetta said cautiously. “We shall haveto see.”
“Oh,” Aileen said with concern. “But we are done gathering the flowers. At least, I think we are. I was just coming to askif ye thought we had enough.”
Dwyn turned to glance toward the cart they’d brought with them as Jetta did, and felt her eyebrows rise. The cart was prettymuch full of flowers. There was more than enough to cover the great hall floor, she was sure.
“Aye, ’tis more than enough,” Jetta said.
“I’ll take her back to the keep on me horse. There is no room in the cart for her now anyway,” Geordie pointed out. “We cansit in the gardens once there so that her feet can enjoy the benefit o’ the sun.”
Jetta relaxed and began to gather the used linens. “’Tis better I put fresh linens on when I rewrap her feet anyway. Rorysays reusing bloodied linens can infect the wound.”
“Help me gather our flowers, Aileen,” Una said, bending next to Jetta to begin collecting the flowers they’d gathered. “Thatway Geordie and Dwyn can take the plaid to sit on in the garden.”
When Dwyn started to try to help, Geordie leapt to his feet and quickly bent to pick her up. He knew he’d startled her whenshe gasped in surprise and grabbed for his shoulders as she stared up at him with amazement.
“I did no’ even see ye stand up,” she murmured as he started to walk toward where his horse waited by the cart. “Ye’re veryfast, m’laird.”
“If that were true, lass, I’d have had ye naked and under me the first morning we met,” he said with amusement before he couldthink better of it. Once he realized what he’d said though, he looked down at her face with concern.
While she had flushed a bit at the words, Dwyn didn’t get flustered or squawk with outrage. Instead, she merely tilted herhead as she peered up at him and asked with curiosity, “And would I have enjoyed it?”
Dwyn’s question made him stop walking. He stared at her for a long moment with those words circling in his mind. Would shehave enjoyed it? He’d like to think so. While he’d never taken a lass’s innocence before, he knew he would have enjoyed it,and that he would have worked damned hard to ensure she enjoyed as much of it as she could too. Come to that, he was prettysure she would have enjoyed the beginning. It was the ending he was more concerned about. Breaching her maid’s veil. It wasnot supposed to be pleasant for any woman.
“Shall I put this on your horse for you?”
Geordie tore his gaze from Dwyn’s face and glanced around to see Jetta beside them holding the plaid. His gaze slid to hishorse, and then to Dwyn, and he asked, “Will ye hold it, lass? I did no’ bring anything to fasten the plaid to me horse’ssaddle.”
“O’ course.” She held her hands out and his sister-in-law passed the plaid to her.
“I shall see you both back at the keep,” Jetta said, before moving away to begin calling to the other women still pickingflowers.
Geordie started walking again the moment Jetta turned away, his legs eating up the distance quickly. The women were just startingto move toward the cart with their bundles of flowers when he set Dwyn on his horse and then mounted behind her.
“Where are they going?” Catriona asked resentfully. “Why is Whinnie riding with Geordie rather than in the cart like she didon the way out?”
Geordie was just stiffening at the insulting nickname when he heard Jetta say, “Her name is Dwyn, not Whinnie. I suggest youtry to remember that else you shall be invited to leave. And she is riding back with Geordie because he wishes it so. Besides,there is not enough room in the cart for her what with all the flowers.”
Because he wishes it so. Geordie smiled at the words as he reached around Dwyn to gather his horse’s reins, and then spurred the animal to a trotthat took them quickly out of the clearing. Aye, he wished it so. At least, he had. Now though, with her back to his chest,and her bottom pressed snugly against his groin . . . Well, mayhap he hadn’t been thinking ahead like he should have, Geordiedecided with a grimace. Their arrival back at the keep could be somewhat embarrassing now that his body was responding toher closeness in the predictable way.
“Ye said Conran was kidnapped by his wife last summer.”
Geordie glanced down at the lass in his lap, and recalled it had been the last tale he’d been telling her before Catrionahad suggested he join the women in picking flowers.
“It was last summer, was it no’?” Dwyn asked now, turning and tipping her head to glance back at him.
“Aye,” he agreed, returning his attention to his horse and the path through the trees.
“And yet ye’ve only just returned from aiding Conran and his wife to settle her cousin, Gavin, as laird at MacLeod,” she pointedout. “How long were ye there? Surely no’ this whole past year?”
“Nay,” he said on a laugh. “I am no’ that good a brother.”
“I suspect ye