Page 32 of Devil Black

“Then do not accuse me of being stingy with you.”

“Fair enough.” He folded his arms behind his head and regarded her in a new way. “Why do you not tell me what troubles you?”

So, he meant to listen? She scarcely believed it. Heatedly, she said, “A score of things trouble me. Yet all you care for is pleasure.”

“’Tis not all I care for, Wife, ’tis what happens whenever we are alone together.”

“You could prevent it, if you chose.”

“So could you. In fact, you just have done. Do you claim you have had enough of me? ’Twas a short honeymoon.”

“I say, concern for other things pushes desire from me. I wonder what will happen when Randal MacNab tells my father that I—that Catherine is lost. He will already be half mad with anger because I am missing from home.”

“Anger?” the Devil questioned. “Not worry?”

“You do not know my father. Worry translates to anger, most times. It has been his foremost emotion, anyway, since my brothers died.”

“How is it the servants in your coach thought they were escorting Lady Catherine Maitland to wed wi’ MacNab, and I got Lady Isobel instead?”

“It is a long tale.”

“Since we have suspended the pursuit of pleasure, I have naught to do but listen.”

“You would do better sleeping.”

“If you will not relieve the ache in my flesh, will you not at least satisfy my curiosity?”

She cast him a withering look. “I cannot imagine how you yet retain any ache at all.”

“Then you can imagine little. I would guess, knowing you these three days, you came to Scotland in an attempt to protect your sister.”

That made her stare at him. Did he begin to know her, after all?

“Randal MacNab and my father have long been friends,” she began. “I do not know how or when the association began—it was founded before I was born.”

“Both King’s men, no doubt. Such men do band together.”

“After his son Bertram’s first wife died, MacNab decided Bertram should wed my father’s daughter.”

She sensed that Dougal stiffened where he lay, but intent on her story, she hurried on. “He requested me, the elder sister. But my father knew me to be…shamed, and convincing MacNab I had other faults, he contracted Catherine to Bertram, instead.”

“What faults?” Dougal’s eyes examined her frankly. “I can, myself, declare you without flaw.”

“Save my overbearing lack of virginity.”

Dougal waved a dismissive hand. “Your father did not tell him that?”

“I believe he mentioned an incident while riding that brought into question my ability to bear children. MacNab wants many sons.”

Dougal’s eyes moved over her again, more slowly. “And, is it true?

“It is not. The women in our family conceive and bear easily.”

He nodded. “Go on.”

“Catherine did not wish for the marriage, did not want to come to Scotland. She had formed an attachment with the youngest son of our bailiff and wished to marry him.”

“A doomed romance. Surely your father would insist on better for her.”