Never Love a Highlander - Maya Banks [61]
Rionna laughed softly and touched her fingertip to Isabel’s tiny palm. Isabel promptly curled her fingers tight around Rionna’s finger and waved it about as her unfocused gaze found Rionna.
“She’s just beautiful, Mairin.” Rionna sighed.
“I thank you. She is a true treasure. Ewan and I delight in her every day.”
It was hard to hold Isabel and not imagine holding her own babe in her arms one day. A son or daughter with Caelen’s green eyes. Aye, that would be perfect.
Mayhap she was already breeding.
The thought sent a jolt through her veins, shocking in its discovery.
Could she be carrying his child already? It had been some weeks since they’d arrived here on McDonald land. Even now, a child could be growing in her womb.
She slid her hand from Isabel’s bottom to her flat belly and splayed out her fingers. ’Twas a marvel she hadn’t considered it until now.
Oh, she knew children were inevitable if God chose to bestow such a gift on them. But she hadn’t considered that it could happen so soon, even though Caelen had all but guaranteed she’d deliver a child within a year of their marriage.
She’d thought his prideful statement to be a natural boast of a newly married man.
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled as she contemplated the possibilities. She knew it was her duty to provide heirs for Caelen. ’Twas a duty she owed her clan as well, to provide them with the next laird.
But ’twas God’s truth, she wasn’t sure she was up to the task quite yet.
It wouldn’t cause her distress if ’twas a little while longer before her womb bore fruit.
CHAPTER 20
Rionna was fair to falling over by the time Caelen sought their chamber. She’d sat by the fire yawning for the past hour, waiting for him to come to bed.
When he opened the door and stepped inside, he looked surprised to see her. Then a faint frown drew his brows together.
“You shouldn’t have waited up for me. ’Tis late and you have need of your rest.”
It would have been a thoughtful statement if he hadn’t accentuated it with that frown.
Ignoring his gruffness, she rose and went to help him undress. He went still as she unlaced the leather ties of his trews. So still that she wasn’t sure he was even breathing.
When her fingers brushed his firm belly, he flinched. She was sorely tempted to run her palm up his midriff to his chest, but she was going to properly attend him first.
She guided him toward the chair she’d vacated by the fire and urged him down. He watched through half-lidded eyes as she tugged at his tunic and then pulled it over his head, baring his broad, hair-roughened chest.
She sucked in her breath. The man was beautiful. Never had she seen his equal. She fingered a puckered scar across his right shoulder and slid her hand lower to a much older, nearly flat scar on his left flank. She frowned as she studied it. ’Twas a knife wound.
“Someone stabbed you from behind,” she mused as she knelt to give it a closer look.
He stiffened, his muscles coiling and going rigid. His profile was set in stone as he stared into the fire.
“Aye.”
She waited but he offered nothing more.
“Who did this?”
“No one of import.”
She leaned forward and kissed the scar. He reacted in surprise, turning, his arm raised so he didn’t elbow her in the head. Then he lowered his hand to her hair and stroked his fingers through the strands.
He ran his fingers over her jaw and then cupped her chin, tilting it so that she looked up at him. A teasing glint twinkled in his green eyes.
“I barely recognize the woman before me. She’s acting almost like a wife. What has happened to my fierce warrior? I came in to a fine table. The lady of the keep directed the welcoming of my kin and she played hostess to my brother’s wife. And if that wasn’t enough, she awaited me in my chamber to attend me with a gentle hand and a soft mouth?”
She scowled up at him. “ ’Tis true what they say of men.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Aye. They never know when to keep their mouths shut.”
He chuckled and rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip