Page 57 of Beyond Dreams

“Nae,” he answered. “Or nae anymore. My mam used to bring me down. She liked to ramble as you do. Like to see and touch everything.”

Holly stopped walking, allowing Duncan to catch up to within a foot of her. This time, she flipped her head to one side, casting her hair away from her face. “I assume since Moire is—what? Seventeen? Eighteen?—that your mom has been gone for a long time.”

“Aye, since my twelfth year.”

“Was that weird then, when your dad married someone pretty close to you in age?”

Weird? “Nae. I was his only surviving child,” he said. “Three other bairns had my mam who never made it beyond their swaddling year.” He collected Holly’s instantly sorrowful mien and explained, “My father needed a young wife to give him more bairns.”

“Well, here’s an indelicate question: was he disappointed then that Doirin only had daughters?”

Supposing there would be few secrets between himself and his wife, he replied, “One of many things my sire was disappointed in with that marriage.”

“She’s not all goodness and light, is she?” She asked, turning around, falling into step beside him.

Another grin came to him. “Aye, that’s one way to assess it.” He was then put in mind of something that had been on his mind since first she mentioned it to him. “Tell me about these dreams you spoke of,” he encouraged. “You said you dreamed of me.”

Frankly, he’d considered that either he’d misheard or misunderstood at the time, or that she’d only spoken in fancy, so then he was rather surprised at her initial response.

“You know what’s funny about those dreams, Duncan? I had them pretty regularly, like, I could count on at least one or two a week. But I’ve not had one dream of you since I’ve...since I’ve come here. And really? You never dreamed of me even once?”

Shaking his head, he reflected on how casually she spoke of something so extraordinary. In fact, he was compelled to ask, “You are sure it was me in those dreams?”

This wrought a burst of laughter from her. She kicked at small stones in the sand, her eyes there on the ground as well, and said, “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t confuse you with another person, Duncan. It was definitely you. That’s why I was so stunned to find you...or see you at the wedding.”

“So what did you make of the dreams? Or what were we doing in these dreams?” He wasn’t sure why he should pursue this. ’Twas only fancy and nothing more, visions at best, otherwise delusions.

“That’s the thing, Duncan,” she said. “We never actually did anything, nothing happened in the dreams. But you know how when you dream, you see yourself, like from afar? It was never like that. It was like I was there with you, and you knew I was there, were talking to me. I could see you as I do now. Well, no, not actually, you were always just a little bit fuzzy.” She paused, bending down to pick up a bird’s feather, which Duncan estimated might have come from a plover. When she straightened she held the feather by the shaft and skimmed the fingers of her other hand up and down the vane. “And don’t ask me what you said,” she went on, “I never could hear or understand. But you were frequently, mostly, angry in the dreams, like you were trying to tell me something and you were angry that I couldn’t understand you. It was—they were—mostly confusing, for how they repeated time and again, but nothing ever happened.”

Duncan digested this but had no idea what might or should be surmised from it.

“Oh, I just remembered something,” she said, dabbing the air with the feather. “The last time I dreamed of you I wasn’t sleeping. Or I didn’t think I was. And it was the only time—in all those dreams—that I knew what you were saying. You were urging me to come with you, you said I had no choice. I said you weren’t real, and you said you were flesh and blood, though I knew you weren’t, not then and there. Anyway, you said,You are promised to me now. That was, um, two or three days before you came to Hewgill House.”

If true, it was as fascinating as it was perplexing. But he was not convinced it wasn’t just some devised fancy of her mind, though the reason behind this posed an even greater mystery.

Holly stopped strolling again, but not to investigate some beach found thing. Duncan paused as well and found her watching him instead.

“You don’t believe me,” she guessed.

“I believe you believe it, lass,” was all he allowed.

“All right,” she said, nodding a bit though she didn’t move on. “I get it. It’s sounds implausible, though not half as unrealistic as some of the things I’ve seen and known.”

He might have questioned this rather dubious statement, but she did not allow him the opportunity. In fact, later he would determine that what she’d said and done next was simply as a means to distract him from examining her cryptic words.

She moved to stand directly in front of him, tilting her face up at him, squinting against the bright sun as she gazed up at him. Though a smile teased at her gorgeous mouth, she sighed as if burdened. “You probably want to kiss me while we’re surrounded by this very romantic scenery,” she said, feigning a resignation that did not match the tweak in her lips.

Duncan let out an unexpected laugh, his chuckle genuine and heartfelt. Aye, he most certainly did want to kiss her, had for some time now. He reached out for her hand, the one still holding the feather and drew her up against him.

“Mayhap ’tis you that wishes a kiss,” he suggested.

“Um, yeah, Duncan,” she said easily enough, pretending now some aggrievement by rolling her eyes. “Hint: if I mention a kiss, it’s a sure bet that I probably want one. You might want to tuck that away for future reference.”

Damn, and he’d been so determined to not enjoy his wife’s company outside the bedchamber.

He slid one arm around her slender waist and one hand around her neck to cup the back of her head, fleetingly aware of her suddenly shallow breathing, invigorated by it, before he brought his mouth down on hers. He covered her mouth completely and kissed her deeply with his lips and tongue, until heat blazed between them, and their hands began to move and explore, so much yet to discover. He pulled her closer, drove his tongue deeper while she dug her nails into his lower back, trying to merge their bodies.

Before the kiss advanced to something more, something neither of them would nor could stop, he wrenched his mouth from hers. “You save that now, lass, for later.”

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