Claimed by a Scottish Lord (30 page)

―This pleases me, too,‖ he said.

Then he unerringly found her mouth in the darkness and set about showing her just how much.

Chapter 18

T
humbing through a packet of correspondence on his desk, Ruark finished the last of his tea. He disliked tea immensely, but today he didn‘t notice. The glass doors behind him were open to the mid-morning breeze that billowed the curtains. Birdsong filled the air on one of those rare hot days when the sun had already burned away the garden mists before he‘d returned from his ride.

But early a riser that he was, Rose was even earlier. For the last two mornings, she had awakened before him, dressed and was gone by the time he stirred. Yesterday, she‘d found him in the stable after she‘d spent the day with Mary and his household staff. He‘d been with Angus talking over a late spring foal and he‘d not been able to share her day with her. Today she had invited him to see what she had done in the herbal, and again, he‘d found something else to keep him occupied. He sat forward with his elbows resting on his desk, the correspondence surrounding him all but forgotten as he twisted the silver ring on his finger, more an unconscious result of thought than a need to remove it. Besides, he had already attempted and it would not come off. No amount of greasing or soap would remove it.

Rose had asked him only yesterday if he had ever made a wish on it, and he had laughed at her foolishness, but later he began to think what one would wish for if that
one
had a restless soul and a heart he did not know.

The door swung open and Mary entered carrying a breakfast tray. He had told her he wasn‘t hungry, but as usual, the woman ignored him.

Her pale pink shell earrings bobbed with her movement as she set down the tray. Nearly all of the servants working and living at Stonehaven had been a part of the household for generations, but he was closest to Mary, which accounted for his tolerance of her boldness. He leaned back in the chair.

―What do you know of Arthurian relics?‖ he asked, the question more rhetorical than literal, and he did not expect an answer.

―Ah,‖ she said, her enthusiasm for the topic obvious. ―There was an archeological dig near Stonehaven some fourteen years ago. Naught of significance was found, as is usually the case.‖ Mary talked as she laid out the serviette, stating that she was still friends with the archaeologist‘s wife, who had conducted the dig. ―Mrs. Simpson continued her husband‘s work after he passed some years ago.‖

―Does she still live in Scotland?‖

―She lives outside Castleton, on the English side of the border. In fact, if ye suddenly have a hankering for artifacts, your new bride knows her. She sent Mrs. Simpson a letter during her first few days here. They are friends.‖

If this Mrs. Simpson person and Rose knew each other, then Ruark suspected Rose had believed the ring to be an authentic relic for a reason. She‘d received expert advice on the subject. It was such a silly trinket for him to give much thought, but it had been
her
trinket, and he had carelessly taken it from her. And his mind more and more was diverted to it.

As Mary poured coffee the conversation shifted. Mary told him that Rose had asked to see Jamie. ―I said she need no‘ ask
my
permission but his mam‘s.‖

Ruark looked up as she busied her hands on his tray. ―I see.‖ What Mary did not tell him, what she didn‘t have to tell him, was that Julia had already objected to Rose‘s visit to Jamie‘s room.

But his first instinct had been to protect his wife. ―Has someone else made a comment to you?‖

―Not yet. But Julia is awaiting Mr. McBain‘s return and your young bride has taken it upon herself to care for the lad until he arrives.‖

Ruark mentally groaned. Three days he had been back at Stonehaven, but McBain had yet to return. Yesterday one of the outriders accompanying the coach McBain and Anaya had been riding in from Jedburgh arrived with a message from Colum, explaining that the carriage axle had broken outside Hawick. This morning a message arrived saying the axle could not be repaired and that McBain would skewer the first man who attempted to get him on a horse. Colum said he would remain with McBain and Anaya until such time a new carriage would be delivered. Ruark had business with his solicitor in Hawick, and he needed to pick up Colum before traveling south to Workington to sort out the
Black Dragon
business with Hereford. But this he did not tell Mary.

―McBain is stranded outside Hawick until I can get another coach to them,‖ he told Mary.

―The family has three in service—and at least I can fetch McBain and Anaya back to Stonehaven.‖ He dropped a dollop of sweet butter into the porridge Mary had served him. ―I have to visit the Roxburghe Shipping office in Carlisle and on my way south I want to ride the southern section of this property.‖

Mary‘s hands froze. ―The southern edge? Ye would go alone?‖

Without looking up as he ate, Ruark told her he wanted to check on the planting. ―The crop was planted late due to the weather,‖ he said. ―I do not need an army behind me to speak to the tenants, Mary.‖

―We both know ye are not going down there to speak to the tenants about their crops. This has to do with what happened to yer father down there. Ye should take Duncan with ye.‖

Even if Ruark currently knew Duncan‘s whereabouts, he would not take his uncle with him. ―Aye,‖ he said, dabbing the serviette against his lips. ―My visit south does have to do with my sire and I will speak to the tenants without Duncan present.‖

Ruark would piece together for himself what happened the night his father was killed, and in the process he had unfinished business with Hereford.

―Is it so important to ye that your father is dead? Duncan has already said that Hereford killed him. Perhaps ye should leave it at that.‖

Ruark tossed down the serviette. ―Why, Mary?‖

―Because your da was not a kind man. Whatever happened to him . ‖

He deserved
. She did not say the words, but they lay there between them in the silence.

―Everything happens for a reason,‖ she said without looking at him.

―Aye? I could not agree with you more. But since when have you become so fatalistic, Mary? I am only going to speak to the tenants. I have to go anyway. I have not been there since my return from the sea, and, as I said, I have business to dispose of farther south.‖

Mary sniffed and lifted the tray. Ruark barely rescued his coffee she had just poured.

―Then ye best be talkin‘ to Julia first before ye leave Stonehaven,‖ she said. ―Assure her that yer new bride has no designs on the life of her son.‖ Mary then abandoned him to ponder that task.

With a quiet oath, Ruark downed the last of his coffee. He stood and made his way upstairs to Jamie‘s bedchamber. Then stopped. He leaned with his hands against the doorjamb. Ruark had never pretended to be any good around children, even older ones who could actually talk. As Rose had noted last night, he had not spent much time with Jamie since his return. But his reasons were complicated even to himself.

He found his brother asleep and Julia sitting in the high-back chair beside him. Upon his entrance, her expression changed from one of worry to one of relief. ―How is he?‖ he asked.

Clutching a woolen plaid shawl to her breast, she rose in a swish of wrinkled muslin and hushed him out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind her before facing him and saying in a low voice, ―She was here again this morning, Ruark. In my son‘s chambers.‖

He felt a burst of irritation at Julia. ―What happened?‖

―She came in while I was asleep and sat on the mattress beside him,‖ she whispered, shaking her head. ―I was asleep in the chair. She could have done
anything
, Ruark, and I would not have seen it. I will not allow that woman to give my son any more of her medicines. I want McBain or Mary up here.‖

Ruark understood the ramification of Julia‘s fear in a way that sent a chill over him. If something happened to Jamie while in Rose‘s care, he would never be able to protect her from his family‘s wrath.

―You have hardly slept since his return, Julia. You are exhausted. I will send Mary up. Go wash. Change your clothes. Sleep. I will talk to my wife. She will not go near the boy again unless you say so.‖

Julia touched his forearm, her long slim fingers feathering across the crisp white of his sleeve as if unsure. In the end, she withdrew her hand. ―Will ye not come inside and see Jamie?‖

―I have to go to Hawick and fetch McBain,‖ he said, inexplicably annoyed with both himself and her at the moment. ―Have you seen Duncan since our return?‖

She shook her head. ―Nay.‖

Julia‘s hands tightened in her shawl. She made no other move to touch him. She had kept her distance since his return, even taking her meals upstairs. She was avoiding him, almost as much as his own wife was avoiding him, and last night he had dined downstairs alone. ―Nay. I have not.‖

He started to turn, then stopped. His impatience gone, replaced by something less discernible.

―Did my father treat you well?‖ he asked, because he had not asked yet, and because for some reason he needed to know.

Her mouth softened as if she understood the turmoil her forced marriage to a man like his father had once caused within him.

The light from the diamond-paned window at the end of the hall captured her blue eyes.

―You did not fail me, Ruark. It is I who bears the shame for then and for now. I know what ye did for me and for this family now. And I will never forget it.‖ She moved toward the door.

―Julia.‖ He curled a hand over the doorknob to prevent her leaving.

Her shoulder brushed his, and she raised her chin without moving away. She was still as beautiful as she had been at seventeen. But he knew now he had never loved her. ―Rose is my wife.‖

―Mayhap, but she is not Jamie‘s physician. I have no idea what motive she would have for continuing her visits, as if we would want her near him.‖

He dropped his hand from the door knob. ―Maybe you should ask her, Julia.‖

A
n hour later, Ruark reined in Loki at the top of a barren rise broken only by a stretch of twisted rocks. Cattle grazed in the distance. He‘d ridden past the manicured parkland through the orchard above the northern field oft used as grazing pasture in summer. The hillside had been cleared of trees generations ago when reivers still roamed the countryside and warred on their unprotected neighbors. Thistle and tansy, with its strong-smelling foliage and flat-topped yellow flower heads, grew in abundance among the rocks. Loki stomped in impatience, snorting his displeasure as Ruark tightened his grip on the reins.

He‘d been to the surgery only to find Rose gone and had come this way after one of the groundskeepers saw her walking toward the fruit grove, carrying a large empty basket on her arm. The ground was still soft in places after last night‘s rain and a small print marked someone‘s recent passage. He followed the tracks down a path to the open field.

Summer days might be long in Scotland, but warm weather could oft be short-lived. Today the sun shone high in a flawless blue sky and a warm breeze caressed his face, bringing with it the faint scent of pine from the distant wood grove that led to the falls. He spotted her walking out of the woods, Jason beside her. The two were engaged in conversation as Jason helped her negotiate a creek. Ruark nudged Loki forward.

Rose‘s laughter died while Jason greeted Ruark‘s arrival with a wide grin. ―We have been to the falls. I was just telling her about the art of tickling trout.‖

Ruark shifted his gaze from the delicate hand resting on Jason‘s forearm to Rose‘s flushed face framed by her unbound hair.

She wore a dark blue apron over a brownish homespun dress that could have been a burlap sack for all he cared or noticed, when she was more beautiful to him than sunlight at dawn.

Ruark smiled, his tact considerable when he found himself perversely stirred and annoyed at the same time, first by her unsmiling response to his arrival and then by her proximity to Jason.

―I will see her safely returned,‖ he told Jason. The lad nodded, but before he‘d taken three steps, Ruark called to him. ―Thank you for seeing her safely about.‖

Jason seemed to recognize the inherent message in his words:
She is never to leave
Stonehaven’s walls without an escort.

To Ruark‘s surprise, Rose laughed. He‘d never heard a gladder sound than her laughter.

―Truly, Ruark,‖ she scoffed after Jason started jogging toward the house. ―I did not go far. Besides, this has been a most productive morning and I have taken full advantage of the bounty your lands offer. I found exactly what I sought.‖

Indeed, she looked as if she‘d been crawling on her knees in the dirt. The hem of her skirt showed evidence of mud from the stream.

She offered up the basket for his approval. Inside it laid assorted plants and roots. She tapped a pile of field fungi. ―
Bolg losgain
. Frog‘s pouch,‖ she said proudly. ―Used to stem bleeding, counter boils and abscesses.‖

She caressed a muddy root ball like a mam admiring her wee babe. ―Mallow root. ‘Tis for stomach ailments. And this?‖ she held up a handful of . something—―is for fever. This will help Jamie.‖

Lowering the basket, she held the handle with both hands and squinted in the sun as she peered up at him. ―What are you doing all the way out here this fine day? Are not lairds supposed to be occupied with their lands and serfs and not worried over their brides‘

whereabouts?‖

He leaned his elbow on his knee. ―I came to tell you I have business to attend to in Hawick and the shipping offices in Carlisle.‖

He didn‘t tell her he would be leaving her for a few weeks, and she didn‘t ask why he was going. He wouldn‘t have told her anyway. She would have tried to stop him.

―I see.‖ She turned on her heel and walked through a patch of meadowlark, leaving him to follow on Loki. ―I bid you have a good trip then. When you return, you must show me this

‗trout tickling‘ business of which Jason spoke.‖

He reined Loki in front of her and blocked her path. ―I will return you to the surgery.‖

―I prefer to walk, my lord.‖

Was she challenging him? Daring him to
force
her to do this as well? He breathed out a sigh and swung down from the horse. One battle lost was a small concession. He took the basket from her, and he was surprised she let him. He carried it as they walked side by side like a young courting couple. Despite himself he grinned at the image.

―What is so amusing?‖ she asked, obviously watching him from the corner of her eye.

―I was trying to decide how long ‘twould take you to acquit me of my sins and decide you will ride the horse.‖ He grinned down at her. ―Boots are tortuous when walking,
leannanan
.‖

She was unmoved. ―Have you been to see your brother, yet?‖

Looking across the pasture, his eyes squinted in the dazzling sunlight. The only sound was the soft thud of the horse‘s steps beside him. ―As you say, I have been occupied. I plan to spend time with him upon my return. I need to ask you not to see him, either, until I return.‖

She stopped and faced him. The breeze stirred her hair and she tucked a red-gold strand behind her ear. ―I see. Julia spoke to you.‖

He saw the hurt in her green eyes. His voice gentled. ―She is feeling protective, as any mother would. There are some who do not know you as I do.‖

―They are suspicious of me? Do they think I would murder the boy? Why in heaven would anyone think me capable of—?‖

He stopped her with a finger that went to her lips. ―No one thinks you capable of murder.‖

―Not even you?‖

He chuckled. ―Aye, admittedly you have attempted to bash my head in.‖ He placed his fingers under her chin and tilted her face. She was putting on a good show of indifference. ―But not even I think you capable of harming a child. Swear to me, Rose. Do not go near that boy for now.‖

―I will stay away then, if that is what you want, Ruark.‖

―Only until my return.‖

They walked in silence until they reached the cart path. The left branched into the fruit orchard, the right back to the main house.

―What business do you have to attend to in Hawick?‖ she asked when they reached the top.

―My solicitor is there.‖ He slanted her a glance. ―Now that I am a married man there are certain legal matters which I must settle.‖

The surgery was not far now and she stopped. ―You mean you have business to finish with my father. Swear to me you will not provoke him.‖

He laughed, unsettled by the ease in which she could read him. ―I live life just to provoke the bastard.‖

But his mood was a nebulous thing and he looked away from her to the grove unable to reconcile the need to gather her into his arms and protect her and his want to kill her father. His gaze found hers. ―I have business with Hereford‘s solicitor and with Roxburghe Shipping in Carlisle. I will be gone a few weeks.‖

―You will stay safe?‖

Just looking at her, he experienced a fleeting sense of vertigo he got whenever he was taking her—possessing her. ―Always, love.‖

She reached for the basket only to see the ring and pause. Her expression changed. ―You have got what you want. Your brother is home. Have you attempted to remove it yet?‖

Apparently, she, too, had assumed that his brother‘s return was what he most wanted. As had he. ―Many times,‖ he said.

― ‘Tis a shame,‖ she said sadly. ―I had so believed it to be authentic.‖

―Why do you think it is not?‖

She looked around her, then toward the house spread across the horizon like a huge stone labyrinth amid the jeweled landscape. A number of chimney pots smoked over the gray roof tiles and mingled with the morning mist.

―You have everything. What else could you possibly want?‖

He had always been a man possessed of a sense of his own purpose and the wisdom it took to achieve a goal. He had returned to Scotland to save his brother, a noble-enough task, and now he didn‘t know quite what to do.

Yet while he had never believed in the ring‘s magical properties, he
had
found himself of late pondering the elusive questions of what he truly wanted most in this life. A question he had never contemplated and one he could not answer. He only knew that until recently, he had never cared about his future.

Indeed, if he believed in such whimsy as magic and wishing rings, he might put such power to his use and figure out a way, how
not
to want her.

R
uark left Rose standing on the narrow path that would take her up the hill and through the fruit orchard to the back of the surgery. Holding her basket filled with the wonderful offerings she had gathered from the woods and fields, she watched him mount Loki and ride away.

With the presence of two groundskeepers and a few others who had looked up from their tasks at Ruark‘s approach, his farewell to her had been brief and fraught with formality. He hadn‘t kissed her. After the sight of him had grown small and faint in the distance, Rose stared around her at a world that was as unfamiliar to her as the part of her trying to escape the walls of her heart. She found she wanted very badly to be accepted at Stonehaven. Whether she resented that desire or nay, she had become Stonehaven‘s mistress.

Despite herself, she felt relieved that her husband would be gone for the next few weeks.

Once inside the surgery, she set the basket on the counter at the back of the room, unpinned the apron from her skirt and raised it to cover her bodice. She wrapped a red headscarf around her hair and went to work preparing and drying what she had found near the falls.

That a boy would suffer because of people‘s dislike of her did not seem fair. She would honor her promise to Ruark to stay away from Jamie, but that didn‘t mean someone else couldn‘t help him.

She worked the rest of the afternoon shaving bark onto a drying shelf, then mixed it with licorice to mask the bitter taste. The mallow root balls she tied with a string and hung in a special area in the orangery McBain used for such things. This was not an overnight process and could take days. She checked the progress of some of the leaves and roots McBain had already gathered before he‘d left for Jedburgh. Some looked ready for preparation and she removed them from the drying line. When she finished, she slapped the dirt off her hands and returned to the surgery without realizing how long she had been working. She had a dreaded appointment at three o‘clock with the dressmaker.

Rose shivered at the mere thought of sitting down to select her wardrobe. She knew nothing of fashion.

The thought of having to choose between a silk, linen, muslin, velvet, floral or striped morning or walking dress paralyzed her, almost as much as sitting down with someone at a formal dinner, where all silverware and glassware looked the same to her.

Mary found her an hour later, near the hearth in the back of the surgery as she finished drying the last of the willow bark. ―Have ye no ken the time?‖ the woman demanded, her round face flushed from the heat in the room.

Rose scraped the bark into a tin. ―I know. But this is important. You should not have come all this way. I am almost finished.‖

―Should no‘ have come? Are ye daft girl? The dressmaker will be here shortly. Ye cannae‘ be seen lookin‘ like a sheep herder‘s wife.‖

Aye, I can
, Rose thought stubbornly, perfectly comfortable in her present attire. Jamie‘s health was far more important in her mind than her wardrobe.

She presented Mary with the tin. ― ‘Tis willow bark and licorice. You make it as a tea. This will help with Jamie‘s fever. If I must drink a cup to prove I hold no ill will toward that boy—‖

―You‘ve no need to prove yerself to me.‖

Rose was astonished. Never had she thought to find an ally in this woman. ―His lordship forbade me to see him, Mary.‖

―I know, lass. ‘Tis for the best.‖

―Why?‖

―Have you considered what might come to pass should something happen to the lad under yer care? Nay, I will care for Jamie until McBain‘s return.‖ Mary squeezed her hands.

―Now, I have my cart outside . ‖

Rose withdrew her hands, picked up a rag and returned to clean the countertop. ―I will come as soon as I am finished cleaning in here.‖

Mary didn‘t argue, but sniffed. ―Verra well, lass.‖

―Remember, a decoction, not an infusion,‖ she said as Mary reached the door. ―Boil the ingredients in a pan, then strain. Not simmer in a cup.‖

The woman crinkled her face and placed one plump hand on her hip. ―I‘d no‘ be worth my weight as a housekeeper if I did no‘ know the difference between a decoction and an infusion. Now hie yerself off to the house as soon as ye can and clean up for the dressmaker, lass.‖

A half hour later by Rose‘s estimate, she had finished cleaning McBain‘s surgery. She removed her apron and dropped it in a basket, snuffed the candle and had just put away the flint box when the door banged open. Duncan seemed to blow in on a sudden gust of wind. The narrow doorway made his large size more formidable. His long hair fell uncombed below his shoulders.

He stopped short when he saw her. ―McBain is no‘ here?‖

Alarmed by his tone, she peered past him, expecting to see men carrying in a mortally wounded patient. ―He is in Hawick. Ruark left today to see that he gets safely back. Are you injured?‖

He looked at the cupboard behind her filled with all manner of insidious surgical instruments. ―Nay, lass.‖ He shut the door behind him, and she thought he was walking toward her until she realized his destination was the cupboard. ―I‘ve been with Rufus these past days. The wounds on his foot are festering.‖

―Did I not warn the lot of you at the inn? This is what comes from foolishness. He should have been tended to at once.‖

Duncan turned to look down at her, his shoulder nearly brushing hers with the movement. But rather than note his proximity and move away, she stood her ground. He smelled surprisingly like soap for looking as if he had not bathed in a week.