Page 48 of The Lone Wolf's Bride

‘Surely it can wait another day. You have done so much already, and ‘tis a short ride home to rest.’

‘No, and I have other business, early tomorrow.’

‘Where? Doing what?’

‘Are you my keeper now, that I must account for my every action with you?’

Ilene cast her eyes down. ‘No,’ she said, in a quiet voice. ‘You may do as you please.’

‘Are you pretending to miss me, Ilene?’

‘Would it make any difference if I did?’

‘Maybe. It pains me to say it, but sometimes, I think of you in a way I would rather not. If I believed for one moment that you could feel something genuine for me…’

‘Does she not have the bonniest face you ever saw?’ cackled Flora, loudly bustling back into the conversation. ‘Best hope the bairn has her looks when it comes and not yours eh!’ she teased, as she flopped down once more onto the grass.

Ilene held her breath.

‘I fully expect it to,’ Murray said evenly.

‘You don’t deserve such a bonny wife.’

‘No, I most certainly do not,’ he said, frostily.

‘For shame on you, leaving her to bide by herself all the time. Careful someone doesn’t steal her away.’

‘Oh, I’m sure I can trust her to be there when I return, Mistress. Ilene, Duff will escort you home.’

Ilene watched him walk away, with an ache in her heart.

Flora narrowed her eyes at his retreating back. ‘He’s a hard one, doesn’t smile much does he, though his looks are well enough?’

‘Please don’t judge him too harshly, there’s kindness in him but he hides it. He has had many disappointments in life.’ She picked at the grass around her. ‘I fear I am one of them.’

‘Surely not?’ Flora was quiet for a moment. ‘Lass, did your father force you to marry him?

‘No, it was I who chose Murray, I who pursued him.’

‘And why was that?’

‘Because I trust him and I thought I might come to love him someday, Flora.’

‘Why so unhappy then? It’s plain as day on your face when you look at him. Does he beat you, is he not kindly to you.’

‘He does not mistreat me, Flora, it’s just that I am not the wife he’d hoped for. I am not the person he deserves to be with.

‘How could you not be, lass, with your bonny face and goodly heart? Men just cannot see what treasure is before them, that is all. One day he will see and with a bairn coming, for sure that will make him happy, and keep him home nights instead of….’ Flora stopped talking abruptly and pursed her lips.

Ilene wondered what Flora was trying not to say and why her face was suddenly guarded.

Chapter Nineteen

Murray changed his mind about staying at the house for the night and rode up, in the late afternoon, to see Ilene lifting stones to repair the stone wall around the cottage. Damn, the pig must have escaped again. He realised she had never once complained about the cold wind whipping in off the sea, or the hard work of keeping the cottage in order, or at getting her hands dirty dealing with the animals. She just worked, relentlessly, and sometimes he worried that it was because she was frightened of him.

Since sharing that kiss had made him soften towards her, and he had started to take her to the village with him, they had discovered a kind of uneasy peace. Ilene had learnt not to re-open old wounds, so there were no more pleas for forgiveness which so stirred his temper, no more smiles to appease him and no more tears, to tug at his conscience. She seemed to have simply accepted her fate and his loveless company. For some reason, this frustrated him to the point of exploding, for her indifference hurt more than anything.

Nevertheless, he, in turn, had tried to bite his tongue when harsh words were about to spill from it, but still, he couldn’t wash the image from his mind of her and Aidan lying together. It poisoned his heart towards her and it was impossible to forget her treachery when now, there was a little curve to her belly, as Aidan’s child grew bigger.

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