Page 54 of Wild Wicked Scot

“Not entirely. I would be happier had I dined with you.” She sipped elegantly.

She was quite young yet, but she seemed so much older than before. More sure of herself. “You have indeed changed, Margot.”

“Have I?” Her eyes sparkled with pleasure in the candlelight. “For the better, I should hope.”

He wasn’t certain of that—but she was definitely more intriguing.

“You have the first move,” she said.

Arran lifted himself up and moved a pawn forward. Margot matched his move.

They carried on, the movements quick in the opening of the game. Arran couldn’t help but notice how Margot delighted in the challenge. She was quite good at it, even instructing him on how to attack her pawn with his. He could imagine her surrounded by admirers as she challenged one gentleman after the other to a game. Her eyes glittered every time she looked up at him, filled with pleasure and laughter, and Arran could further imagine how those men had been drawn to her. Had he somehow missed this playful side of her before? Would things have perhaps been easier between them if he’d discovered it? So many questions from that time lingered.

Margot was the first to take a pawn. “Aha!” she said, and tapped his ivory piece from the board. “You must pay closer attention, Arran, or I’ll have your queen.”

“Never doubt it,” he said.

“Ooh,” she said. “That sounds quite ominous.” She looked up, but her smile faded when she saw his expression.

“Aye, you’re bonny,” he said low. “I can scarcely bring to mind the trembling lass who met me at the altar.”

Margot laughed softly. “Iwastrembling, wasn’t I? In truth, I could scarcely stand, I was so frightened.”

Arran moved a rook into position. “Was I such a beast?”

“A beast!” She laughed lightly. “You were no beast. You were the strongest and most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on.”

He snorted at flattery he considered false.

“I am sincere! You had completely captured my imagination, though,” she said, putting up a hand, “I will admit I was terribly innocent. But I had scarcely turned eighteen years. I had not the slightest idea what to do with a man like you. I remember looking up, and there was Christ smiling down at me and I thought I might faint dead away.” She smoothly matched his move. “Nor had I any notion of how to be a wife. My mother had long been dead and there was no one to instruct me, no one to tell me about Scotland. Certainly no one to tell me all that went on between husband and wife.” She glanced up and smiled saucily.

“Aye, you trembled then, too,” Arran reminded her, and her smile broadened.

“As did you, as I recall.”

He chuckled. “Perhaps a wee bit.”

“And then I came here, to Balhaire. It felt as if I had journeyed to the end of the world! The people spoke a different language, and none of them were happy to see me. It was so overwhelming, really. I felt quite lost.”

Arran moved a bishop. “I felt a wee bit lost myself.”

“You?” she said, surprised.

“Aye, me. I’d been accustomed to coming and going as I pleased, to dining when I wanted—and alone if I so desired,” he said with a pointed look at her.

She gave him a light laugh and shrugged.

“I didna know how to incorporate a wife into this life, and like you, I had no one to instruct me.”

“But you seemed so confident!”

“I wasna confident, Margot. I hadna been a husband, and I didna want to harm you or displease you in any way.”

“Oh.” Her expression softened. “Oh, Arran, you never harmed me. And any displeasure I suffered was my own doing.”

“Hmm...you have said to the contrary many times.”

“Oh dear,” she said with a rueful smile. “I’m afraid I’ve said many things in the last few years that I wish I’d never said.”