She slid her hand down his belly and clasped him in her hand. “I am thinking ’tis my wedding night and ye are nay paying the proper homage to your new wife.”
He laughed and rolled until she was beneath him. “I will pay ye homage until ye scream my name, m’lady.”
“We shall see, my boastful knight.”
She did. Annys just prayed everyone at Glencullaich was asleep or she would never hear the end of it.
Harcourt looked at the woman asleep in his arms and sighed. He should tell her about his concerns after all that fine talk about just speaking up. Yet, it had just been a small worry. It had begun to grow as they spoke of love though. Gormfeurach was no Glencullaich. It was a warrior’s home with good defenses but little else. He could not help but wonder what she was going to think about her new home. He did not fear one look at the place would kill her love, but he did dread the fact that she could be sorely disappointed in the home he was offering her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Annys stared at the keep as their cart rolled through the gates of Gormfeurach. It was big, but much the same as the one at Glencullaich and she found some comfort in that. There was none of the softness of Glencullaich, however. The place was certainly defensible but it did not appear all that livable. She and Joan would have their work cut out for them.
As Harcourt helped her and Joan out of the cart, Benet and Joan’s two sons scrambled down and cautiously looked around. Benet tugged Roberta down and Roban quickly leapt onto the lamb’s back. Annys tried to ignore the interested and amused looks the pair drew. Her attention was fixed on the couple that had just stepped out of the keep and waited for them on the steps.
The man bore a strong resemblance to Harcourt with his black hair and strong features but, as Harcourt led her closer to the couple, she could see that the man’s eyes were a deep, rich green. The woman was pretty but her one truly memorable feature was her eyes as they were an odd mixture of gray and blue. Annys tried not to be nervous as Harcourt introduced her to his brother Sir Brett Murray and his wife, Lady Triona. To her surprise, Harcourt introduced Joan to them as well, immediately placing Joan in a position of importance in this new household.
“Oh! My dear friend is also called Joan,” said Lady Triona. “’Tis a good thing ye are at different keeps or we should have to add some silly second name like Tall Joan or Old Joan, or Round Joan, which my friend now is for she is carrying another child.”
“Just as long as I dinnae end up being Old Joan,” said Joan and laughed along with Triona and Annys. “Sir Harcourt said I would be the one to run the household for her ladyship,” she added, standing straighter, her pride clear to hear in her voice.
“Oh, and ye are sorely needed. Come, let us leave the men to their talk and I will show ye around your new domain.”
Harcourt sighed with relief when Triona, Joan, and Annys disappeared into the keep. He had not feared that Triona would not sweetly welcome any wife he brought back but knew Annys worried. She had, in many ways, lived a cloistered life, and meeting new people, especially ones whose good opinion she craved, made her very nervous. He then looked at Brett and sighed again for his brother was staring hard at Benet.
“There is a cat sitting on that lamb,” Brett said.
“Lamb is called Roberta, who is not for the pot, and the cat is called Roban,” Harcourt said. “It seems the cursed cat really likes to ride around on that lamb.” He waited patiently for Brett to stop laughing. “And, aye, Benet is just who ye think but to the world he is the only son and heir of Sir David MacQueen of Glencullaich and now the heir to David’s brother Sir Nigel.”
“And why should your blood be claimed by another mon?”
“Because David saved my life. I had been attacked and was close to dying. Couldnae move, couldnae e’en do anything to stop myself from bleeding. David found me and took me in. He didnae ken who I was and I was in no state to tell him until later. I had been robbed so there was no sign of what place I held in this world. I was also just tossed on the side of a drover’s path. It took a verra long time and lots of work to get me back to my fine, handsome self.
“Naturally I wanted to repay him. He said I could give him a child and told me something we thought no one outside of Glencullaich kenned—he had been gelded by a jealous husband. He could have no children. Couldnae really bed his wife, although I think that problem came from more than the gelding. He asked me to bed his wife until she was with child. He had seen how I looked at her and, though it sounds vain, how she looked at me. The reasons he gave me, the mon who sought to take hold of Glencullaich being all David said he was, made me agree. I also thought it would nay matter to me. That I could ride away from it and ne’er think of it again.”