“Yes. Wynda. Someone just offered him food, and he dismissed it. I think he’s quite taken with your cousin, Eoghanan.”
He nipped playfully at my ear, while he thumbed the bottom of my breast that lay hidden beneath his arm. “Aye, well I doona think she’s taken a liking to him yet. She looks verra…distressed.”
I nodded, my sympathy for Jeffrey building. For all his proclamations that he was an expert in such areas, he was as out of practice as I was. “Yes, I can see that, too. Should we maybe save him from embarrassment?”
“No, I doona think so. I’ve need of ye at the moment.” He pressed his hips subtly against my backside, and the hard rod lodged between us showed me what he meant.
“Are you crazy? Not here.”
He laughed. “No, o’course no right here. I am no an animal, Grace. Come with me.”
“Wait. Where’s Cooper? Jeffrey’s clearly distracted.” I had a hard time pulling my eyes away from the train wreck.
“Last I saw him, he was torturing Lady Blaire. He’ll keep himself occupied, Grace. I havena seen ye in days. I only wish to steal ye away for a few moments.”
I faced him and wrapped my arms around him. “You’ve seen me every day. I’ve been sleeping right next to you.”
“Aye, but we’ve truly been sleeping, ’tis the problem. Readying for visitors has exhausted us all far too much. I am no so tired this night.”
I was ready to spend some time alone with him as well. Though I’d gone years without male companionship, it was as if once awakened to it, I couldn’t go long without him before I started to feel a bit empty. I reached around and playfully cupped his rear end. “Neither am I. Let’s go.”
He groaned as he pulled me away, but we only got a few steps before we walked right into Lennox MacChristy and his three sons.
“Eoghanan, what a fine man ye’ve turned into. Do ye remember me, son?”
Eoghanan pulled upright and moved so that I stood in front of him, hiding his lower half.
“Aye, o’course I do. It has been a long time.”
The old man laughed and his round stomach continued to shake after he stopped laughing. “Aye, I think ye were no older than seven the last time I passed through these parts, and me sons werena with me then. Let me introduce ye.”
“I’m sorry.” Eoghanan held up a hand to stop him.
I glanced up at him confused. It was very unlike him to be so abruptly rude.
“I’m afraid ’twill have to wait. There is something I must attend to right away.”
He nodded at the group of men and quickly pulled me away, dragging me across the room toward a small alcove draped in darkness.
“Eoghanan, what’s the matter with you? I think you could’ve waited the five minutes it would have taken to introduce yourself.”
He nodded in the direction we were headed. “No, ’tis Cooper.”
It was then that I noticed him standing with his back pressed against the side of the archway, looking up at the tall young woman standing in front of him. At first glance, there was nothing menacing about the situation. He chatted with the woman just as comfortably as he did everyone else. It was Eoghanan’s urgency that unnerved me.
“Do you know her?”
“No. I havena met her. I know all who should be here, and she is no among them.”
He approached them, and I didn’t miss the look of alarm in the woman’s eyes as he did so. Eoghanan might not have known her, but she knew him well enough.
“Is this yer son? We were just discussing our shared love of partridge.”
I looked at Cooper who locked eyes with me and subtly shook his head. I immediately stepped forward to grab his hand, answering before Eoghanan got the chance. “No, he’s my son. I’m Grace.” I extended my hand. “You are?”
“Just a traveler. Me name is no important.”
“Aye, lass. I’m afraid ’tis. Do ye no live in the village?” Eoghanan took one step in her direction, placing himself between me and Cooper.
“Mom, I don’t even know what partridge is. Is that like a bird, because I never said I liked a partridge?” He whispered it quietly to me.
I squeezed his hand and nodded. “I know.”
Taking in our exchange, the woman realized she’d been caught in a lie and slowly backed away. “No, I doona live in the village. I am only passing by and noticed the gathering.”
Eoghanan held his arm out and moved with her toward the outside doors. “Then, I think it best ye be on yer way. Safe travels.”
Cooper and I stood waiting as Eoghanan showed the woman outside. I bent to pick Cooper up, trying to get a read for how he felt.
“What did she say to you, Coop?”
“Umm…” he lifted his shoulders in a shrug. Clearly the encounter had freaked me out much more than it had him. “She just asked me if E-o was my dad or something. When I said no, she asked me who was and then you guys walked up.”
He squirmed in my grasp. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it, he wasn’t going to allow me to keep picking him up very much longer.