They stood there in silence for several seconds, neither looking away, neither appearing ready to speak. Heat suffused his body. It was like a fever, but he was not ill. Her eyes reflected confusion and wonder. He did not know what had just happened, but it was profound.
Unable to stop himself, he pulled her closer, until their scents commingled and their bodies were aligned.
Then, he kissed her. Because he could. Because he couldn’t not.
As soon as his lips touched hers, another wave of heat suffused his body and he heard what sounded like the barest of sighs in his head. Was his wolf that affected that the beast sounded so unlike himself?
The prospect was not a pleasant one on any count. It felt too much like weakness.
An anathema.
Refusing to give in to the sweetness of her lips, he stepped back from her.
She looked up with an expression he had no idea how to decipher. And he refused to allow himself time trying.
He deliberately turned away from the connection he felt to her and ripped the sheet from the bed. “Your mother will have nothing to harp about now.”
He stormed from the cottage, tossing the bloodied sheet at the feet of the baron. Lady Hamilton bent and grabbed it, examining it even as Talorc leapt to the back of his horse and looked to see if his wife had followed. She had. He bent to grab her. She settled in front of him without a murmur of protest.
He gave the signal and he and his warriors set their horses galloping north . . . toward home.
Abigail concentrated on not falling off Talorc’s great beast of a horse. Until she realized the stone band around her middle that was his arm wasn’t about to let her go anywhere. The horses were galloping so quickly, the green beauty around her was naught but a blur to her dazed eyes.
She had never ridden at such a pace in her life. It was most exhilarating.
Despite the trauma of her wedding and near bedding, Abigail felt a smile of pure pleasure steal across her face and laughter welled up inside her. She realized it had not been silent when the body so close behind her stiffened as if in surprise.
She cocked her head back and turned it so she could see Talorc’s face. Sure enough, he had a questioning look on his darkly handsome features.
“What?” she asked.
“What has you laughing?”
“I believe I enjoy riding Scottish horses, my laird.”
“This is no mere horse; ’tis a beast worthy of a Chrechte warrior.”
His arrogance made her laugh again. “No doubt.”
To have his confidence would be a wonderful thing. Abigail spent so much time in fear of revealing her true self, she rarely felt confidence in the company of others. But right at this moment, she knew unadulterated joy as they rode away from a life and family that had caused her pain and pain again.
“You surprise me, lass.”
“Perhaps that is a good thing.” She could not believe her own temerity, but Abigail felt freer than she had since waking to a silent world as a terrified young girl.
“Aye.” He looked quite serious. “I believe it is. I would not have you eaten, lass.”
“The Highlanders are cannibals, then?” she asked with undisguised humor, knowing they were no such thing.
He stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “Nay, but my clanspeople have little tolerance for weakness.”
“You think I am weak?” She did not know why his judgment should surprise her so. She worked hard not to be noticed; it would be a true shock should he realize the woman under the exterior. So, rather than be offended by his assessment, she found in it her own private joke.
Though in this case, she did not let him see that.
“There is much fear in you.”
She could not deny that. She lived in daily terror. “I am not afraid right now.”
“I can see that.”
“I was afraid when I thought you would bed me with brutal expediency,” she admitted, still grateful he had not done so.
“Aye. You were terrified.” No worry at that truth showed on his features, yet he had protected her.
“You alleviated my fear.”
He shrugged, causing her body to move against his.
Quite unsettled, she gasped. “I have not been this close to another person since my sister left our home.”
“No one else will hold you thus.”
No, really? She was no wanton to allow another man to touch her. She rolled her eyes at him, but then had a thought. “I will hug Emily when I see her again.”
“You dare to defy me?” Was that a twitch at the corner of his lips?
“In this instance, yes.”
“If you think to let another man touch you . . .” He let the rest of his clear threat remain unsaid, but a fury completely unjustified by their current talk glowed in his blue gaze.
“Do not be daft. I’m not fully reconciled to you touching me.”
“You will grow used to my touch.” There was that amazing confidence again.
“It is your responsibility to make it so.” Had she truly said such a thing aloud to him? But it was no more than he had claimed when explaining what the marriage bed would be like for her.
“Aye.”
“What is Chrechte?”
He did not answer but stared into her eyes with an expression she could not read, no matter the time she’d spent learning how to do so.
“You said the horse was worthy of a Chrechte warrior. Is that another word for a Highlander?”
He shook his head.
“Then what does it mean? Chief? Laird?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?”
“In truth?”
“I will always expect the truth from you.”
Her heart twinged at his words. She determined right then that though she could not tell him her secret, she would never lie to him. “I often wish to know things I do not ask about.”
“Yet you do not hesitate to query me.”
“Should I?”
He did not answer immediately.
“Well?” He could not know how important his answer was to her, but it would say much about her place in his esteem.
“Nay.”
“That is good to know.”
“The Chrechte are an ancient tribe of people who live among the Highland clans now.”
She smiled at this confirmation of his willingness to appease her curiosity. “You mean the Picts?”
“That is what the Romans called us, aye.”
“Like the Normans among the English?”
He shrugged again, but there was no mistaking the moue of distaste on his lips at the mention of the English.
Abigail turned to face the front of the horse again, her pleasure draining from her. Talorc hated the English. That would never change.
No matter how considerate he was this day, the fact that he claimed not to hate her would not last indefinitely. If for no other reason than that she was not the innocent he and his warrior Niall believed her to be. She was lying to them by pretending to be something she was not. A whole woman, worthy of being a laird’s wife.
For the first time, Abigail felt grief at the inevitability of her future. Talorc was not the monster she feared him, nor was he the barbaric animal her mother had claimed.
He had assigned his warriors to watch over her the night before, showing she had more value to him than she had to her parents. Even if she was English. He had also protected her from a soulless bedding Sybil had been only too happy to demand.
Abigail did not know what had led her to insist on adding her blood to his on that sheet. She only knew that something inside her had told her it was the right thing to do.
And he had respected the gesture. She had seen it in his eyes. Their incredible blue warming with approval, however brief. One day, probably sooner than later, that same blue would grow icy with distaste when he discovered her secret.