Chapter Nineteen

Jasper read his mother’s letter with a sinking heart. She wanted to come back, but he could not bear her spite and the sulking presence of his sisters. He wanted to revel in his new happiness and the sweet oblivion of carnal pleasure. He wanted to indulge what Glenna would call his ‘worst appetites’ by claiming Rowenna’s soft, eager body. But his need was not just carnal. Rowenna held him at night. She stroked his hair until his worries eased and his eyelids grew heavy. She talked to him in the dead of night about hopes, dreams and a future.

A few weeks had changed him beyond measure. Since he had lain with Rowenna that first hurried time, there had been endless days spent in bed, their bodies coiled in bliss, secrets whispered, a quiet softening of lust into affection. Rowenna had let him into her body and her confidence, and they talked of her life at Fallstairs, her struggles with her drunken, boorish father and brother, and her worry over Cecily. There was no news of her sister, and it burdened her so much that Jasper had taken to spoiling her with a fine horse to match her riding skills, furs, dresses, and shifts edged with delicate lace to clothe her delicious body. It did nothing to lessen Rowenna’s sense of loss but helped take her mind off it. He flattered himself that what he did to her abed helped, too. With Rowenna, he enjoyed being a husband. Given the robust nature of his nightly pursuits, he might soon become a father, too.

Randel strode in, looking a little troubled. He nodded at the letter in Jasper’s hand. ‘Bad news?’

‘Aye, the worst. My mother and sister demand to return.’

‘Oh well, you might think about it. They have been banished for quite some time while you…erm…settled into married life again.’

‘I have to take them back because my mother is hastening Maeve’s wedding to Alec Carstairs. Maeve must come home to make ready for her nuptials.’

‘It will be one less woman to vex you once she is married and away.’

‘I suppose. But Maeve has the mind of a girl, not a woman. I doubt she will ever be old enough for marriage.’

Randel shuffled his feet. ‘Whereas, you have a woman, not a girl. Folk have begun to warm to Rowenna. They can see she makes you happy, and they believe you are most fortunate in your choice of wife.’

‘They do?’

‘Aye, myself included. The lass has a warm, friendly manner with the servants, though she is a firm mistress. She has healing hands and tends to the men’s ailments, though some have taken to staring at her bonnie face a bit too long for my liking.’

‘Which men?’

‘Now, don’t fash, Jasper. I gave them a stern talking to, and it’s not the lass’s fault if she was born bonnie and buxom. She has a way of making friends, some good and some bad.’

‘Bad? Talk plainly, Randel.’

‘You put me to spying on our clansmen, and I have been, with little to report. Now, Jasper, I have gone back and forth as to whether to tell you this, but I have seen Rowenna taking trips down to the cellars, and one time, I saw her…’

‘Stealing food,’ interrupted Jasper. ‘It is a harmless habit from her deprivations at Fallstairs. That idiot father never fed her much.’

‘No,’ said Randel steadily. ‘Tis not that. The lass was visiting her brother. She knows he is here and has for some time.’

Jasper’s world swayed on its axis. The bread in Rowenna’s pocket that first time they made love in the cellar was for Bran. She lied.

‘How could she know?’ he snapped. ‘No one goes down there. She could have no reason to stumble across him, and the man we put to watching him was warned to tell no one.’

‘That wet nurse is in Rowenna’s confidence. They have become friends, and Osla is a nosy baggage who seems to sniff out every bit of gossip in Kransmuir.’

‘How do you know this?’

Randel shuffled his feet. ‘Because the woman is not keen on her husband, but she is keen on me. Osla has a loose mouth as well as loose skirts. I asked her why Rowenna would go to the cellars, and she told me.’

Yet Rowenna had said nothing to him about Bran. ‘If she knows, why has she not asked me about it?’ said Jasper, anger heating his words.

‘Well, the way I see it, you have power over her. Perhaps she is frightened to bring it up. And the lass is just trying to survive.’

‘But does she have to make a fool of me to do it?’ he snarled.

‘Now calm yourself. I don’t think that was her intention,’ said Randel.

‘I don’t care what you think. How long has she known?’

‘Osla says weeks, but I don’t rightly know what to believe with that one.’

‘Damn those MacCreadie rats. The brother is in league with the Warden, the Gunns, and, no doubt, others who wish me dead. And that lout of a father is desperate for coin. He will do anything to survive. As for the sister, no one knows what she is up to since she disappeared. And now, I have been played for a fool, dancing to Rowenna’s tune.’

Jasper paced, his hands fisted. He could not be still.

‘What will you do?’ said Randel.

‘Nothing, for now. Keep watching Rowenna.’

‘You want me to spy on your wife?’

‘Aye, and don’t let her out of your sight. And keep tupping that slut of a wet nurse so that you get to know all her secrets.’

‘Well, I’m not that partial to Osla, to be honest. She clings a bit, and I would rather not.’

‘We all have to make sacrifices, Randel,’ hissed Jasper.

He shrugged. ‘Alright. I will grit my teeth and surrender my virtue for the sake of the clan. But, Jasper, do not judge Rowenna too harshly. It’s not as if you told her you had her brother thrown into a dungeon, is it?’

‘The worm has been well fed, and if he had spilt his secrets, I would have freed him eventually, for her sake. But not now.’

Jasper scrunched up his mother’s letter and threw it in the flames. He gripped the mantel to stem the anger flooding his heart. So, another woman had played him for a fool. These last weeks, when Rowenna had panted and squirmed under his hands, his mouth, his cock, it had all been an act to get on his good side and free her brother. One moment, he was basking in his happiness. The next, his heart was an open wound. But was it not always the way with women? They either used or rejected him, never loving him or wanting his affection. He had been falling into a sweet oblivion, but now he had to drag himself out of it and face the truth.

‘Randel, go and fetch my mother and sisters back.’

‘Aye, that might be punishment enough for Rowenna, having those harpies around,’ he said, placating him, trying to laugh it all away.

‘Just do it, will you,’ snapped Jasper. ‘And say nothing of this discovery to anyone, least of all my lying wife.’