Chapter 21

Peg grimaced. "I do ken the difference between stealing and legerdemain, m'lady. What I dinna ken is how to get Cath's things back to her now that his lordship has them."

"As they are only trifles, I think we'll just tell her what you did," Jenny said. "After everything else that has happened, I doubt that Cath will weep for their loss. Now, fetch out a robe for me. I mean to wait until Sir Hugh returns to get in bed."

Peg gave her a sympathetic look, quickly found her most becoming robe, and helped her change. As the maid-servant put away the things Jenny had worn to supper, Jenny listened intently for Hugh's step on the stairs.

In the private chamber to which he had taken the Joculator, Hugh said, "I'm very sorry about your son, sir. But I want to encourage you to be frank in answering Archie's questions when you talk. He is not a man with whom it is safe to trifle."

The Joculator said, "I am a wise fool, not a daft one, Hugo. And I care about my people as much as or more than you care about yours or her ladyship about hers."

"Sakes, have you known all along who we are?"

"Nay, not until tonight," he replied with a slight, rather enigmatic smile. "I didna realize who our Jenny was until I recognized ye, which I did when I saw ye on the dais here, having seen ye on one before, at Annan House. I didna ken at the time who ye were, though. Had I known, as I do now, that ye were her betrothed's elder brother, mayhap we'd not ha' done what we did. But believing ye were a fine troubadour who loved so bonnie a lass, and that she cared for ye, it would ha' shamed us not to do all we could to see ye safely wed. I'm right sorry, though, if we created a muddle for ye, as I fear we did."

"I'll not complain about that now," Hugh said. "I would like you to answer a couple of lingering questions though, if you will oblige me."

"If I can, I will," he agreed.

"First, as to exactly what happened tonight…" Hugh began.

After hearing the Joculator out and agreeing that Archie would be satisfied with his explanation, even amused by it, Hugh lingered only long enough to bid him goodnight before hurrying upstairs to his own bedchamber.

Finding Lucas on the landing, he ordered him to bed. "I'll see to myself tonight," he added. "But wake us early, for I want to be away as soon as may be."

"Away, sir?"

"Aye, we're for Thornhill, Lucas. I'm taking my lady home, so sleep fast." Opening the door, he stepped into the chamber, where he saw Peg sitting quietly by the fire and Jenny on the bed. "Goodnight, Peg," he said pointedly.

"Goodnight, sir," she said, bobbing a hasty curtsy and scurrying out.

He waited until she had shut the door and then went to Jenny.

She stood to face him as he neared the bed. "Did he explain it all?"

"Aye, most of it," Hugh said. "Enough to satisfy Archie, at all events. Did you realize that the minstrels had set Bowyer and his man up to look like thieves?"

"I was sure of it when they found those jewels on Drogo," she said.

"I, too," Hugh said. "I suspect hearing how they did it will amuse Archie."

Jenny looked at his chest and said, "I doubt that anything I might say in my defense will amuse you, sir. But I expect you want explanations from me, as well."

"Look at me," he said. When she did, he pulled her close, put his arms around her, and muttered hoarsely, "I've wanted to hold you since you touched my cheek on the stairs, Jenny-love. If you ever give me such a fright again, I swear I'll—"

"Kiss me, Hugo," she said, her warm breath tickling his chin.

He obeyed without comment, holding her tightly and thus able to let go of all lingering remnants of the tension his earlier fears for her safety had built in him.

Plunging his tongue into her mouth, he ravaged its interior, and when she responded eagerly, he relaxed his embrace and began to let his hands enjoy the softness of her silken robe and her curvaceous body beneath it.

Before long, though, his own body began making demands of him that urged him to a faster pace. Stripping the robe from her to discover that she wore no shift underneath it, he laid her on the bed and began to strip himself of his clothing.

But his disobedient wife did not stay where he had put her. Instead, she popped up again and slid from the bed to assist him. Unlacing his nether hose, her fingers alone nearly undid him. Grabbing her hand, he held it while he unlaced himself. "Now you may pull them off, sweetheart," he said.

"Yes, my lord," she replied, peeping up at him through her lashes.

Encouraged, he exerted patience while she tugged and finally managed to get them off him. Then, pulling her up again, he unlaced his shirt and ducked so she could pull it off over his head. Catching her up in his arms again, he threw back the covers, put her into bed, and followed her. When she turned to him, he pinned her beneath him, kissing her again, forcing himself to move more slowly than instinct demanded, moving his lips over her body to her breasts and belly, then lower.

When he came to the fork of her legs and touched her there with his lips and then his tongue, she gasped.

"Do you like that?" he murmured.

"Aye, but—"

"Then enjoy it, sweetheart, as I mean to do."

"Yes, my lord," she said, relaxing.

He teased her and enticed her until she was moaning and then crying out for him, and then he took her strongly, letting instinct take over, his passions soaring with his possession of her and his overwhelming awareness of the great good fortune he had had in finding his bonnie Jenny.

Delighting in all the sensations Hugh stirred in her, Jenny soared with him, higher and higher, the sensations intensifying until she was sure she could bear no more. But they continued to grow stronger until they finally peaked in one that pulsed through her long after Hugh let himself collapse atop her.

"Ah, sweetheart," he said when he could speak again, "I never knew what love could be before I found you."

"I love you, too," she murmured as she eased out from under him. "Does this mean you are no longer furious with me?"

He sighed and kissed her neck, sending new thrills through a body she had thought must be exhausted. "I warned you that I have a temper," he said. "I warrant you'll see more of it in the years we have ahead of us, but I have also come to see that although you can be impulsive, you are sensible and smart."

"And I was right to suspect a plot against Archie," she said.

"You were," he said, as he pulled the covers up over them. Drawing her closer until she put her head on his shoulder, he added, "You did do a few things you'd be wise not to do again, but I'll not belabor that fact."

Believing almost any reply she might make to that statement would be unwise, she said, "Did he chance to explain the jewels taken from Annan House?"

"Aye, mostly. He blamed all the thefts on the two Englishmen, but he did not quite persuade me that they deserve all the blame. For example, he was a bit glib about Cuddy's actions. He admitted that Cuddy retrieved the jewels stolen from Annan House, but that would suggest he struck down the knacker Parland Dow."

"But how would he know Dow had the jewels?" Jenny asked.

"Apparently, Cuddy told the Joculator that Drogo saw the guards searching nearly everyone who left and slipped the jewels under one of Dow's sumpter packs because Bowyer had told him that Dow had first-head privileges."

"Good sakes," Jenny said. "And Reid told Bowyer about that!"

"Aye," Hugh agreed. "I'm thinking that Reid needs to join Archie's service for a time if only to develop better sense than to repeat such stuff to strangers. In any event, the Joculator passed rather swiftly over how Cuddy could have known about Drogo, Bowyer, and the sumpter packs had he not been party to it all."

"I expect he was," Jenny said, snuggling closer. "I think Cuddy was the traveler who returned the jewels, too. When I met him with Cath the next morning, she was scolding, saying she had fidgeted all night, wondering where he'd gone."

"As I said, lass, the Joculator explained only most of it. He's gey shrewd, and shows himself and his fellow minstrels in the best light whenever he can."

"Will you really make Reid join Archie's service?"

"I'll strongly recommend it," Hugh said. "I doubt if he knew what Phaeline and your uncle did with those settlements. He seemed stunned when I confronted them, and his attitude was gey different at Threave. Knowing Phaeline, I'd wager she kept him in the dark and just promised that you'd bring him wealth and a title."

"Does Phaeline tell actual lies, Hugo?"

It was a moment before he said, "I don't know about now. She did lie when we were children if she thought she could get away with it. Why do you ask?"

"Because I think she is lying about being pregnant," Jenny said. "Peg and Sadie think so, and they are in a position to know. Also, there is the matter of her pearls. They never turned up, but Sadie said she found three pearls on the floor. Phaeline slapped her when she asked if they were not part of the missing string."

"I see, but now that you've mentioned her pearls, was there not something else that went missing then?" he asked.

"Lady Johnstone's necklace, but she found it herself where she had left it."

"Well, I think we'll let Phaeline worry about her own lies, sweetheart. We're going to leave for Thornhill in the morning."

"But I've never seen a tournament. And you promised to explain it all to me."

"My head still aches," he said. "If I stay—"

"Do you really expect me to believe, sir, after all that has happened today, that you would let a headache prevent you from attending a tournament?"

"Recall that Archie expected me to take part in it."

"Then tell him you have a headache."

"I want you all to myself for a time, Jenny-love," he said quietly.

"Aye, that is a better reason," she agreed. "Moreover, we have not yet signed our own marriage settlements. But mayhap we do not need any."

"We must draw something up to protect our estates," he said. "But we will talk it all out first, and agree, before we sign anything."

"And you won't issue orders to me anymore?"

He was silent.

"Just as I thought," she said, nestling closer to him.

"I'll agree not to issue orders if you will agree to obey when I ask you to."

She was silent.

"Just as I thought," he said, leaning up on an elbow to look down at her. "How, by the way, did that wee pouch of jewelry end up in that villain's boot?"

Jenny told him, and when he chuckled, she reached to touch his face.

"Do you know what it does to me when you touch me like that?"

"Aye," she said with a smile, stroking his cheek. Then she shifted her hand lower—to his chest, to his belly, then lower yet.

"Kiss me there," he murmured.

"Yes, my lord," she said meekly, and bent to the task.

"Now, take me in your mouth, Jenny-love."

"Yes, my lord." And she did.

"By the Rood," he said, "this promises well for an excellent future."

And it did.