‘I have put great demands on your time lately.’ Realising the decision had been made, Fia did not object.
‘You have not, my lady,’ she said. ‘But I appreciate your consideration.’ Even servants who were not kin were treated as though they were here amongst Brodie’s holdings. ‘I will go to the village in the morn after you have departed.’ Fia walked to the small dressing table and took up the brush there. ‘But for now, shall I see to your hair?’
‘I will see to that, Fia.’ The deep voice of the laird echoed across the chamber. Fia blushed then, her cheeks filling with the heat of it.
‘Very well, laird,’ she tried to say without stammering as she put the brush in his hand. ‘I will return in the morn then, my lady.’
She opened the door and allowed Ailean to precede her out. As Fia tugged the door closed, she heard the soft laughter of the lady within as Arabella chided her husband for embarrassing Fia once more.
Ailean walked down the corridor to her chambers and Fia made her way to the one she shared with several other maids. Moving quietly as she prepared for bed, she thought about asking Lady Eva if she required any help. Nessa, Lady Eva’s maid from Durness, had recently left her service when she’d married and the new maid was still learning her duties. Surely she would be appreciative of some help?
As she climbed beneath the bedcovers of her pallet, Fia knew what going home would mean. It would give her mother endless hours to press her to accept the miller’s son’s marriage proposal. It was a good match for a girl such as she. The daughter of villagers could not expect to marry above her place and, truly, Fia did not wish that.
She wished and dreamed of a man who would make her blush the way Brodie made Arabella. Or the way Rob did Eva. Fia wanted the excitement of being swept off her feet by a strong man who was able to protect her and love her and desire her the way those men clearly did their wives. Another sigh escaped as she pulled the blankets high and closed her eyes. Marrying Dougal, the miller’s son, would not give her what she sought.
As she dreamed that night, a man stood in the shadows holding out his hand to her. Fia walked towards him but hesitated, trying to see his face in the darkness there. Though she could see his black hair, all of his features remained out of her sight. He lifted his hand once more to her and she smiled, reaching out to him, to accept his offer.
She woke, tossing and turning, before anything else could happen.
Her mam believed in dreams, as did most of the old ones in the clan. Did this one mean she would meet the man of her dreams after all? That she should turn down Dougal’s suit and wait for the black-haired man to enter her life and reveal himself?
* * *
The rising sun found her awake still, considering the proposal she’d received and deciding whether or not to accept it. By the time she had seen Lady Arabella off on her journey and made her way to her parents’ cottage, she was nowhere closer to accepting that her future lay with Dougal, the miller’s son.
* * *
‘You should not tease her so, Brodie,’ Arabella warned him.
Right now, as he slid his hands into the twisted braids of her hair and loosened them, he cared not for much else going on in the world. Arabella was his world and he enjoyed the feel of her silken tresses cascading over the skin of his hands and arms. Knowing it would caress another part of him very soon made that part of his flesh rise and ready.
‘I did not do it to tease her, my love,’ he said, burying his face in it now and inhaling the scent of the heather and honey soap she used. ‘She is young and blushes at everything.’
‘Our Fia is a young woman, Brodie,’ his wife said, turning to face him now. ‘And she has been infatuated with you since the day I met her.’
‘Is that my fault? I assure you, I do nothing to encourage that.’
He slid his hands down to rest on her shoulders, drawing her closer to him. God, would the wanting never end? Six years together, two bairns and another on the way, and he needed to see her, to touch her, to hear her almost every hour of the day and night. Brodie leaned his head down and touched his mouth to hers. She opened to him as she always did and he tasted her deeply.
‘I do not think it is you,’ Arabella said as she leaned her face a scant bit away from his. Clearly she wished to speak more on this matter before seeing to his important matters.
‘Then what is it?’ Brodie dropped his hands and took a step back. Mayhap some distance would ease his need for her? He knew in an instant it would not make a difference.
‘She wears the hope of a young woman seeking her first love in her eyes,’ his wife said, letting out a sigh much as the girl did. ‘She thinks that our beginning and Rob’s with Eva are romantic.’
‘I kidnapped you and held you against your will. Rob chased Eva, caught her and married her against her will. That is romantic?’ Brodie asked, shaking his head. No matter how long he was married, no matter how much he thought he did, ’twas clear he did not and would not ever understand women. ‘I cannot fathom it.’
Arabella stepped closer to him now and his body waited for her touch. She lifted her hand and touched his arm with only a finger, tracing up on to his shoulder and down on to his chest. He wished with all his might that his garments would drop away on their own so that her finger touched his flesh.
‘You do not understand the appeal of being rescued by a handsome Highland warrior who becomes chieftain of his clan.’ He tried to meet her gaze but he was caught by the movement of her finger as it slid lower and lower. ‘Of being sought by a strong man who protects you against your enemies and reclaims a part of your soul you lost.’ He was going to argue that point, for it had not happened quite that way between Rob and Eva, but when her finger crossed his belt and pressed against the fabric, he forgot how to think.
Another finger joined the first and then another until her hand cupped him, forcing a gasp from him. She paused, holding his sensitive flesh in her palm, and she met his gaze. Arabella was waiting for him to say something and Brodie struggled to remember the topic of their conversation. The girl. Her romantic dreams or some such thing.
‘I...um...will try... Oh, hell, Arabella! I cannot put a thought together when you touch me like this!’ Her laugh echoed around them both and lightened his heart.
‘Be kind to her, Brodie. She is young and deserves to dream before she faces the reality of life.’
‘Should I find someone to kidnap her? To sweep her off her feet as I did you, my love?’ He did just that then, lifting his wife into his arms and carrying her to their bed. ‘Then she can see how romantic it was for us.’
He followed her down and climbed between her thighs. Now she could feel the hard length of him—the one that she had caused with nothing more than a kiss and a caress. When she pushed against his chest, he lifted his weight from her.
‘Brodie, she will find her own love, kidnapped or not. Just have a care for her tender feelings and sensitivities right now.’
‘Fine! But now, my gentle wife, you should have a care for my tender feelings,’ he teased. Sliding his hips, he watched her face as her body reacted on its own.
‘Aye, my handsome Highland warrior,’ she said, opening her legs so he could move closer to the place he knew
