Chapter 18

18

E dina looked around. If she refused to dance with him when everyone had noticed that such an eminent person had come to see her, there would be a dreadful scene, and she did not want any more unwanted attention drawn to them.

"If I must," she said frostily.

Unfortunately, the next dance was a country waltz, which meant that Aidan and Edina were dancing as a couple, as opposed to many of the other reels and strathspeys which were performed in groups. Although they were not in a tight embrace, they were close enough to talk.

"What do you want?" Edina demanded at once.

"I wanted to see you one last time," he told her, "and I needed an excuse. Do you honestly think I would become lost in my own backyard? I know every inch of the area for miles around Achnabreck Castle. I could ride blindfolded!"

"If you wanted to see me so much," Edina said through gritted teeth, "then why did you ignore all my letters? I must have written you half a dozen!"

Aidan looked down at her, mystified. "I received no letters from you, Edina," he replied. "If I had, I would have replied straight away. You must believe me!"

"Why I should I?" Edina was furious that he thought she was so stupid. "I was not trying to come between you and your bride. I just wanted to keep in touch with you to see that you are well. I worry about you sometimes. I will not be at your wedding, of course—I plan to be sick that day—but I wanted to let you know that I still think of you."

"And I think of you incessantly," he replied tenderly. "I told you I will never commit adultery, Edina, and that is a promise I intend to keep, but there is less than two weeks till the wedding and I needed to see you for one last time."

For a moment, the dance steps separated them, but as they came together again, he saw an expression of rage and contempt on Edina's face.

"That was what you said the last time," she said derisively, "and the time before that, and the one before that. For someone who is about to make a very solemn commitment, you seem very lacking in willpower. If you come to me after your wedding, Lewis , I promise you I will not only push you away, but I will never speak to you again, and unlike you, I have plenty of self-control!"

Aidan looked down into her smoky grey-violet eyes, which never failed to fascinate him.

"I can only be true to myself when I am with you," he said desperately. "I will do my duty by Fenella, but I will never stop thinking about you. We can write to each other if you like. Letters are not a sign of infidelity, as far as I know."

"Pah!" Edina spat. "I told you I wrote to you many times, and you never answered once. I am not a simpleton. I will not be wasting my time again!"

At that moment, the music stopped, and he drew her away to a quiet spot next to the back door of the hall. He was mystified.

"Edina, I did not receive any letters," he told her, frowning in puzzlement. "Not one."

She stared at him for a moment with contempt before she realised that he was telling the truth.

"But I gave them to the guard," she told him. "You must have got them."

"Which guard?" he asked.

"Andy Wallace," she replied.

"Did they have my name on them?"

His voice was suspicious. Another possibility had just occurred to him.

"Yes," she replied. "I have known him for a long time, and he is absolutely trustworthy."

"I see."

Aidan thought for a moment. He knew that what Edina said was true, but could his letters have been intercepted?

Edina stared at him for a moment before realising that they were thinking exactly the same thing.

"You are wondering if he gave them to the wrong person?" she asked. "Who destroyed them or hid them?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes. I am," he replied. "What kind of letters were they?"

"You mean, were they love letters?" She laughed. "No, they were not. They were no more than casual notes asking how you were, what the goings-on were at the castle, that sort of thing. No ‘I love you' or anything like that. Not even a hint of it."

He frowned and shook his head. "There is nothing I can do tonight, Edina," he told her, "but I will get to the bottom of this when I get back."

"And where are you going now?" Edina's mood was beginning to soften a little. Knowing that he had not received her letters, for whatever reason, made her feel better.

"I have to go to see Fenella and her family," he told her, dropping his gaze to the floor.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the anger inside her flared up again.

"Then go!" she hissed, so that no one else could hear them. "I really do not know why you bothered to come here! I never want to see you again!" She gave him one last furious glare before marching out into the freezing cold night.

Aidan could not remember a time when he had seen her look so angry. After a moment, he strode after her. Edina looked behind her and saw him, then broke into a run. However, there was no chance of outpacing him, and she knew it, but she had to try, if only for the sake of her dignity.

Aidan almost laughed when he saw her speeding up, because he knew he could catch her in a few strides. He let her run for a few more minutes, anyway, and then, with a few long steps, he was able to reach out, grab her by the elbow and spin her around to face him.

"Not so fast." His voice was not gentle any more, but stern and forbidding. "I am not asking you to lie with me, Edina, even though I wish I could. All I want is a kiss. One last kiss that we can remember for the rest of our lives. Please?"

The pleading note in his voice was almost Edina's undoing, but at the last second she saw Fenella in her mind's eye. She was his betrothed, not Edina, and even though they were not yet wed, even a kiss would be dishonourable.

Aidan could not see Edina's face well enough to make out her expression, but he knew her well enough by now to sense the doubt within her.

"Edina…" he said softly, then, bent his head to kiss her, but he jerked backwards as the flat of her hand connected with his face in a hard, stinging slap before she turned away and went back into the hall.

The pain in his face was intense, and Aidan reflected later that for such a small woman, Edina packed a brutal punch. Had she been a man, he had no doubt that he would have knocked her to the ground with one blow of his fist, but he had never hit a woman in his life, and never would.

He was not ready to give up yet. Edina was marching back to the hall with fury in every one of her steps. Aidan felt his body stiffening and he groaned. Despite his assurances to Edina that he wanted no more than a kiss, he had been hoping for more—much, much more, and he always found her more alluring when she was angry.

Edina went straight into the midst of the crowded hall, and in a few seconds she was lost from his sight. Aidan made his way through the mass of people, trying to follow her. The music had just started again, but suddenly, above its melody, he heard a piercing scream; a woman was crying for help.

Aidan did not think twice, but plunged into the mass of people to see what was going on. When he arrived at the source of the disturbance, he saw a balding middle-aged man with the bulbous blue nose of the habitual drunk trying to drag Edina onto the dance floor.

He was not holding her hands, but had his hands on her buttocks and was trying to pull her towards him. Edina was resisting with all her might, and Aidan thought fleetingly of the hard slap she had given him. She was not in the right position to do the same thing now, though, since the man was holding her too close.

Edina had the heels of her hands under his chin and was pushing the drunk's head backwards and his chin upwards with all her might. Although he was short, he was strong, and she was making no progress at all.

Making it worse was the fact that no one had stepped up to help her, even though it was obvious that she sorely needed it. All of them were standing watching, cheering and clapping, except for some of the women, who were quite distressed.

Aidan was neither amused nor distressed. The drunk might have been far stronger than Edina, but he was no match for a strapping man who stood well over six feet tall. Aidan stepped forward, and without any apparent effort, he wrenched the wastrel away from Edina, then held him up by the front of his shirt so that they were nose to nose.

"Why were you molesting this lady?" he growled.

His expression was thunderous.

"I wasnae molestin' her, Master," the man replied. He was literally shivering with fear. "I only wanted tae dance wi' her."

"Well, I do not think she wanted to dance with you!" Aidan said through gritted teeth.

He put the man's feet on the ground again, but kept hold of his shirt, then he punched his hand into a fist and swiped the drunkard so hard that he fell down and skidded across the wooden floor.

He lay so still for a moment that Aidan thought he was dead, and his heart skipped a beat, then the fellow raised his head and looked straight at him with hateful eyes.

"What is your name?" Aidan demanded.

"Jack Davison, Master," the man answered sheepishly.

"Well, Jack Davison," Aidan drawled. "If you decide to do anything like this again in my presence, guest, we take it outside and settle it like gentlemen. He gave the man a scathing look that raked him from head to toe. "Do we understand each other?"

Davison nodded. "Aye, Master," he replied, standing up so shakily that he had to hold on to a chair for support.

"Now, apologise to the lady please," Aidan ordered.

Davison bowed to Edina, who was leaning on Mairi. "I am sorry, Mistress," he said, looking at the floor.

"Thank you."

Edina turned to leave with Mairi, but they were intercepted by Aidan, who stood in front of the door with his legs spread out and his elbows on his hips. Despite his aggressive stance, he was gazing at Edina anxiously.

"Are you all right, Edina?" he asked. "Did he hurt you?"

"I am fine," she replied stiffly. "Can you please get out of our way?"

Aidan hesitated for a moment, then stepped sideways to allow them to pass. That was when he suddenly winced and raised his hand to look at it. There was blood running from one of his knuckles, and the others were badly grazed, with bare flesh showing through the skin.

Immediately, Edina went to his aid. She had mended so many of the school children's skinned knuckles and knees that she had become something of an amateur healer. She inspected the wounds and frowned.

"I don't know what his head is made of, but it is not flesh and bone," she said grimly.

"I hit my hand on a chair after striking his head," Aidan confessed. "Stupid of me."

He shook his head, sighing.

Edina took his hand tenderly in her own, avoiding the injured parts.

"Come with me and I will try to patch it up," she said. "You hurt yourself defending me, so the least I can do is help you."

She began to walk along the street towards her house.

"Where are you taking me? To the healer?" Aidan was puzzled.

"She is at the ceilidh," Edina told him. "You can come to my house. I have a few remedies there. I am always patching up the children."

"You love them, do you not?" he asked.

Suddenly, a well of tenderness opened inside Aidan as he visualised Edina with the children. That was the moment that he realised he would be totally miserable if they did not end up together.

When they went inside, Edina lit a lamp and Aidan looked around the cottage. It was small, but it had a cosy, homely feel about it that he loved. Edina quickly set light to the wood in the grate, then turned to him and inspected his hand.

Her touch was not as soft as it used to be, he thought. She had been doing much more manual labour, like cutting her own firewood, than she ever had before. Yet, he loved her carefulness, the gentleness with which she cleaned his flesh then applied the soothing salve to his bloodied hand before bandaging it.

"May I have a glass of wine?" he asked when she was finished. "It might help with the pain."

This was, of course, a complete fiction and a very flimsy excuse for him to linger, but Edina humoured him and poured a glass, yet did not sit with him to drink it. Mairi had gone back to the ceilidh, so she took out a broom and began to brush the floor—anything to distract herself from his presence.

He looked so massive in the small space, and the atmosphere was soon filled with his tough masculinity as opposed to the gentle feminine presence it usually contained. It was as though a giant stallion had stepped into a stable full of young mares.

Edina began to walk past him to reach the other side of the room, but suddenly, she was jolted sideways and found herself on Aidan's lap as he reached out to pull her to him. For a few seconds, she stared into his light-brown eyes, then he cupped his hands around the back of her head and drew her lips to his.

They had kissed many times, but this was the sweetest, tenderest one they had ever shared, and as Aidan tightened his embrace around her, she melted into his body and sighed into his mouth. Being with him again was utter paradise; he felt the same, and moaned his satisfaction as he moved his hand to her breast, kneading her soft flesh.

When they drew apart, Aidan smiled at her.

"I love you," he said huskily. "I will always love you, Edina. You have become my reason for living, and I cannot even think of being with anyone else. I will tell Fenella as gently as I can, that I am not going to marry her. I think she has been somehow intercepting your letters to me, and I do not wish to have that kind of dishonesty in my wife. She is not for me: you are. Will you marry me?"

For a moment, she gazed at him, stupefied, then she cried, "Oh, yes, Aidan!"

Edina hugged him, and they shared another kiss, this one searing and passionate, and it took only another moment before she was sitting astride him, riding his manhood. He thrust into her fast and fiercely, driving her up to the peak of ecstasy when she saw stars in front of her eyes, and screamed her pleasure so loudly that once again he silenced her with a kiss.

Aidan drew out of her just before he climaxed and spilled his seed onto the chair, then Edina stood up, and bent down to kiss him before moving away to find a cloth to clean him with.

"I long for the day when we will not have to do this," he murmured.

"So do I," Edina whispered. "When we do not have to worry about conceiving babies."

"Then we can conceive as many as we like," he murmured, pulling her into his arms. He sighed.

"I will have to go to the tavern to spend the night, or I will ruin your reputation."

Edina nodded, seeing the sense in this. She ran her hands back over his red-brown hair and looked at him sadly.

"Will you go back home tomorrow?" she asked.

"I was going to see Fenella's family, but now I see that it might not be the best idea," he replied. "I will go to see my father, but it won't be a pleasant experience. You will likely hear all the shouting from here."

She smiled.

"Goodnight and good luck, my sweetheart," she whispered, before they kissed again, and he walked into the night.