Page 21 of To Charm a Highlander

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Ainslee kissed her four little ones on their heads and slipped out of the nursery.Jenny, the lass who worked as a nanny for them nodded at her as she settled into a chair in the room to stay until the little ones were asleep.Then she would sleep on the cot in the next room.

Even though it was still early evening, Ainslee climbed down the stairs and walked the length of the corridor until she reached the bedchamber she and Haydon shared.Before she left to see the little ones settled, he’d offered her an ‘invitation’ to join him there.

She smiled because even after six years of marriage and four bairns, he still wanted her just about every night.Dorathia had told her last year something she’d learned as a midwife.She had claimed that it had appeared to her that there were certain times in a woman’s monthly cycle when she was unlikely to become with child.

Even though Haydon had scoffed at the idea, which Ainslee kenned he didn’t want to believe since that would put them on a schedule, they had tried it and so far, no new bairns had appeared.

He was already in bed when she arrived.“My goodness, my laird.Is yer age getting to ye, then?”

Haydon put aside the ledger he had been studying and held his hand out.“There is no’thing wrong with my age, wife.Get out of those blasted clothes and come here, and I’ll show ye what an old mon can do.”

And did it well, indeed.

Sometime later, wrapped in each other’s arms, both slowly catching their breath, Haydon said, “I am concerned about Donella.”

Ainslee shifted and rested her head on her propped-up hand.“It seems ye’ve been concerned about Donella since I arrived.What is yer new worry now?”

Haydon began to twirl her hair with his finger.“She came to me today and asked me to tell her why everyone is treating her so strangely.”

“Oh.”

“Aye.”

“’Twas only a matter of time before she asked, Haydon.Donella is a smart woman.I kenned ever since I’ve known her that she had appeared simple-minded, but there were times I saw intelligence in her eyes.”

“You’ve told me what had happened to her, as much as ye kenned.I assume ye told her as well.Did that help her to remember anything else?”

He shook his head.“Nay.No’ only could she not tell me anything else, she dosna remember it at all.”He began counting on his fingers.“Dinna remember getting lost.Dinna remember what happened to her while she was missing.Dinna remember why her clothes were torn and why she was filthy.”

“I’m not sure this means anything, but I saw her and Dorathia having an intense conversation in the cottage when I passed by to capture your son to keep him from running into the castle wall.”

Haydon grinned like any proud da.“Since Finlay canno’ walk yet, I assume ye mean Alasdair was giving ye chase?”

“Aye.And doona look so smug.He’s going to get hurt one day.”

“Aye.He will get hurt one day.I got hurt many times when I was a lad.‘Tis in the blood of a mon.”

Ainslee rolled her eyes.“He’s a lad of three summers.”

Haydon gathered her hair and draped it over her naked shoulder.

“Do ye have any plans for Donella now that she seems to have recovered from whatever it was that held her trapped for years?”

“Plans?”

“Marriage.The lass is three and twenty summers.She should have been wedded years ago and already holding a bairn on her hip while another one fists her skirts.”

“Nay.”He held up his hand when she started to speak.“This recovery of hers is too new for me to be sure she is prepared to marry.Doona forget it was confirmed by Dorathia that she’d been violated while held prisoner.I’m no’ sure if the healer told Donella while they spoke today, but any mon who takes her on as wife will have to ken what she’d been through.And with her memory of it gone, is there any mon ye ken willing to take on a wife with her history?Taking a chance that if the memory does return, she won’t revert back again?”

“Aye.”

Haydon frowned.“Who?The lass hasn’t been without her memory for more than a couple of weeks.”

Ainslee smiled.“Callum Gunn.”

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