Page 97 of Sinful Scottish Laird

By the end of the year, Belinda had four students. She asked Daisy if she might use part of the old orangery as a studio. “Children must have something to occupy them, for without occupation, they might revert to criminal acts,” she’d explained. “It happened to a young man in Alberwick. He had nothing to keep his hands busy and confessed to stealing a ham.”

“Dear God, we can’t have packs of ham thieves roaming the countryside,” Daisy had said laughingly, and had helped Belinda convert the orangery for her use.

Uncle Alfonso had taken up residence at the Chatwick town house in London, where he could oversee Ellis’s holdings until Ellis was grown. He visited Chatwick Hall often, generally with a tale or two, including one that featured Lord Yarbrough, who, by all accounts, was caught in the bed of a married marchioness and was very nearly shot while bare from the waist down.

But the news from Scotland was not good. Cailean’s father wrote that the situation with the Jacobites in the Highlands had worsened. They were growing bolder, were plotting another attempt to put a Stuart on the throne, were aggressively recruiting men to their cause. Cailean’s father suggested it was not entirely safe for Daisy and her son at present. “We can trust no one,” he wrote. “Your wife and son are safer where they are for the time being.”

He also wrote that he feared Rabbie might take up the Jacobite cause.

Scotland worried Cailean, Daisy knew, as did Rabbie’s involvement. But mostly Cailean worried about his father. More than once, Daisy had awakened and found her bed empty; Cailean was restless and would pace.

One night, as they lay in bed, naked and still warm from their lovemaking, she touched his chest, drawing a faint line to his groin. “Do you regret it?”

“Lovemaking?”

She laughed. “No...do you regret coming to England?”

Cailean abruptly sat up and stared down at her. “Have you lost your mind, then?”

“I don’t think I have. But I know how you worry. I know how you long to be home, with your family”

“Aye, you have lost your barmy little mind,” he said gruffly. “Else you’d know how much I need you,leannan.I need you now more than ever, aye?” He suddenly grabbed her up in his arms, pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. My world was gray until you shone a light in it. I want to be there, aye. But I want to be here, with you, much more than that. You and Ellis and Belinda are my family. So never let me hear you ask again, Daisy.”

She smiled into his chest. “Never, sir,” she promised and kissed his chest. “I love you, Cailean.”

“Aye, I know you do,” he said and nuzzled her neck. “You can scarcely keep your wee hands from me.” He kissed her shoulder. Then her chest. “Aye, you love me, you do, as well you ought. But you’ll never love me as I love you.” He took her breast in his mouth.

She wasn’t going to argue with him, at least not now. She closed her eyes and descended into the sort of pleasure she’d never known in her first marriage. No matter how hard he tried, this Scotsman would never love her as much as she loved him.

But he did come awfully close.

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