by Dayna Quince
Prim carefully guarded her expression. “It’s a bachelor’s house, is it not? I didn’t expect silk cushions and lace curtains, I assure you.”
He smirked. “I suppose not.”
“Where can I freshen up?”
He glanced around the room, and she panicked. There had to be a better place to take care of her private needs than in this room. She didn’t consider herself to have fragile sensibilities or to be a snob, but there had to be something more here.
“A bedroom?” she asked hopefully.
He nodded. “This way.”
He took the lantern and led her up the stairs, which creaked and bowed underneath his weight. The upper hall was narrow as he led her into one of three rooms. When he set the lantern down on the mantle and started to build a fire, Prim inspected the room while his back was turned. A bed stood out from one wall, but it would barely fit both of them. There was also a nightstand, a wardrobe, and washbasin with a chamber pot underneath, which sported a heavy blanket of dust and cobwebs stretching to the floor. Lord knew what was living inside the pot itself.
She shivered, realizing for the first time that the people living in this village, which was so close to the splendor of the castle, were really living very poorly. It left her cold and speechless.
They deserved more than this.
Lachy stoked the fire to life, and heat finally spread throughout the room. Then he dusted off his hands and waved toward the bed. “I do pay a girl to launder the linens, so take heart. She also cooks and keeps the downstairs area neat.”
Prim nodded, resolved that on the morrow she’d turn this place into a proper home. As of right now, however, she had nothing. No nightgown, dressing robe, or any change of clothing for tomorrow.
“I’ll have to go home in the morning,” she said, making a mental list of things she’d need to bring.
He snorted. “You want to leave so soon?”
Prim turned to him, his tone setting off alarms in her head. “Not leave. But I’ll need my things. My brush, my clothing…”
He rubbed his neck. “Right.”
She moved in front of him and wrapped her arms around him. “But tonight, all I need is you.”
“Have you had dinner?” he asked, his gaze tender as he surveyed her face.
Prim nodded, even though she couldn’t remember what she’d ate. Hunger was far from her mind right now. “Are we really married?”
“Aye. No flowers or fuss, just words and a promise.”
“That’s all that is really needed, though, isn’t it? I spent two years preparing for a wedding that never happened, and I don’t even remember what color I chose for my table linens. But I know I will remember this night forever.”
“I wish I had more to give you,” he said, his hold on her tightening, as if he were afraid she’d slip away at any moment.
She rested her cheek on his chest, his heart a steady beat against her ear. “You have everything I need right here.”
She could feel his hands working at the back of her dress, the closures slipping loose. She lowered her arms, and the dress fell to her waist. He pushed it the rest of the way down, and Prim happily kicked it away. Then she shoved his coat from his shoulders and began to pull his shirt from his trousers. They were in no rush, and that liberated her, easing the tension. There was no more hiding, for either of them. He was hers, and she was his. Spoken vows over an anvil were enough to legally wed them here in Scotland, and nothing but death could take him from her. But he’d already beat death once. Prim was confident he could do it again, if he wished.
She lifted his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, bringing her hands to his wide shoulders, which were carved with muscles. She explored the dips and curves of him, taking her time. When she reached his chest, she trailed her fingers down to his waistband, slipping the buttons free slowly. He nipped and kissed her bare shoulders, allowing her to explore him more fully. Then he helped her remove his breeches, shedding the rest of his clothing and boots and leading her toward the bed.
He laid her down on her side, learning over her. His gaze raked over her face, traveling down over her breasts and stomach. Then he rested a hand there.
“I almost can’t believe you’re really here as me wife, carrying me child. I never imagined this future until I met you, and I never thought I could have it.”
Prim ran her fingers through his hair. “You have me, Lachy.”
He swallowed. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Now kiss me,” she said.
There were no more words for what she was feeling. She needed touch to convey all that she felt. She wanted to be as close to him as possible, which would only happen when he was joined with her completely, body to body, heart to heart.
Chapter 19
Lachy bent over Prim and kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, meeting hers in a caress of hungry need. He moved over her then, her legs automatically parting for him to settle in between. His manhood prodded her already-damp folds, and he slid silently inside, her hips lifting in welcome. He settled deeper, fitting her body as if they were made for each other. His heart thudded as he began to move. The weight of loving her was both heavy and pulling him up, out of the darkness he’d been living in without her.
She peppered kisses over his chest, and Lachy lost himself in the moment, his movements quickening, his breathing shallow as she matched his thrusts, the delicious friction between their bodies hurtling them toward a heaven only they could reach.
She cried out his name then, gripping his shoulders with her small hands as her release claimed her. He felt her nails biting into his skin. The sweet pain pushed him over the edge, and he spilled himself inside her, gasping for breath as he slowed his thrusts but didn’t pull out of her. Instead, he rolled them until she was spread over him.
She was now his in every way.
All he’d had to do was surrender to this maddening love for her, and let go of his grandfather’s and father’s five decades of pain that he’d been shouldering since birth. He brushed her hair from her cheek and kissed her forehead. Whatever happened now, Prim would be his anchor and his north star.
Is this how his father had felt? Like he could risk everything, and simultaneously conquer everything, as long as the woman he loved was by his side?
Resisting this love had brought Lachy nothing but pain, and yet somehow surrendering to it, though terrifying, had been easy once his choice had been made.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He grinned. “How did you know I was thinking about anything? A spent man has little energy for thinking.”
“And yet you were,” she said, folding her hands on his chest and resting her chin there to meet his gaze.
“I was thinking about you.”
“Oh?”
“That was all.”
She grinned. “Liar. I can tell it was more than that.”
“I was also thinking of me father, and how difficult it must have been to love me mother. The choice he had to make when his clan was at stake.”
Her grin faded. “Is your clan at stake for having married me?”
He ran a hand down her back, his manhood stirring again inside her. “No. I think the lesson here is that the clan was never at stake. Pride was, but pride can lead a man to destruction, like mine almost did.”
She sat up, stretching, her rosy-tipped nipples taunting him. “And what else?”
His mind had blanked. “Enough talking.”
“This is important. You’re holding on to a lot of pain from your past.”
He gripped her hips and thrusted. “I’m holding on to you right now, and that’s all that matters.”
“Lachy!” she gasped.
He sat up, wrapping his arms around her, slowing his thrust to languid rolls of his hips. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and her head fell back as she ground her hips against him.
“Well talk about it later,” she said with a sigh.
Lachy gr
inned. There would always be later, always be more, because the future that he’d dared to dream of was finally here, in his arms, carrying his babe, and brighter than the sun.
Lachy took Prim home the next morning, determined to face her family and their wrath head-on, while she collected her things. Her sisters greeted them in the drawing room, the stoic faces of her brothers-in-law foreboding as the women led Prim away to help her pack.
Once in the privacy of her room, Prim faced her mother and sisters. She knew this moment had to come.
Her mother began to cry as she took her daughter’s hands.
“Is this what you really want? Heather and Violet tell me you’ve been enamored with Major Dennehy since our return here.”
“You’ve known all this time?” Prim asked, surprised, as she turned to her sisters.
“Of course,” Heather replied. “I could tell since the moment you met him after Violet’s wedding that he affected you.”
“Since my wedding?” Violet asked. “I didn’t know about that!”
“She met him in the barn, and it was after that when I noticed that something was different about her. I wondered if it would change the outcome with Peverel, and I suppose it did, in the end.”
Prim nodded. “It did indeed. Lachy brings something out in me that Adam never did. Adam knew it, too.”
“Is that why he jilted you?” Violet asked.
“It’s part of the reason. He just knew I wouldn’t be happy with him.”
“That doesn’t excuse him jilting you,” her mother said hotly.
“He had very good reasons, and I have forgiven him,” Prim returned evenly. “You should, as well.”
Lady Everly only shook her head. “I’ve been blind, it seems, to many things happening here.”
Heather patted her mother’s hand. “It’s all right. What matters is Prim’s happiness. You are happy, aren’t you?”
Prim sighed with pleasure. “Oh, yes.”
“Then all is well,” Heather said, with a misty smile.
“We should still have a party to celebrate,” Violet offered. “Especially once Heather has the baby.
Prim smiled. “I’d like that.”
Her mother embraced her. “How much you’ve grown, my darling, and how strong you’ve become. I love you.”
“I love you, Mother. I’m so sorry I’ve kept so much from you.”
Lady Everly nodded and wiped a tear from her eye as she pulled away. “I understand. As we grow older, we learn what to share, and what is strictly ours to experience.”
Prim hugged each of her sisters.
Violet squeezed her tightly, and then pulled away. “Was it exciting as he carried you away? It looked quite dashing.”
Prim laughed, the tightness in her chest easing. “It was.”
“And your first night as a married woman?” her mother asked, blushing.
Prim bit her tongue before confessing it wasn’t her first time with Lachy. “It was lovely, Mother. And I am truly happy. After almost marrying without love, I can only thank the heavens that Adam jilted me, giving me the chance to fall in love with Lachy.”
“That is all the assurance I need, then,” Lady Everly said tearfully. “I shall relish becoming more acquainted with the major now.”
“Let’s head to the study. Erick has important news he’d like to share with you, Prim,” Heather said, her eyes bright with excitement.
Chapter 20
“Shall we move to the study? I have something to discuss with you, Major,” Ablehill said.
Lachy nodded, wondering if he should have prepared his final will this morning, before he’d left the house.
“Prim will join us once she’s ready, but I wanted to show you something first.”
Lachy followed the two dukes to the study, eyeing the closed door, and the more threatening of them, the Duke of Selbourne.
“My congratulations,” the other man said. “Shall we have a drink to celebrate?”
“Is it poisoned?”
“Only cowards use poison,” Selbourne returned. “And I’m not a coward. Are you a coward, Ablehill?”
“Enough, Weirick. We’re not going to kill him. I have precious few family, as it is.”
“Aren’t I enough family?” Selbourne returned. “You can have my wastrel of a brother, if you’d like.”
Ablehill ignored the other duke as he waved Lachy toward a trunk on his desk. “These are journals my mother kept. You may read them if you wish, but this one is what I suspect you will be most interested in. I understand your mother died when you were young?”
“I was ten,” Lachy said, eyeing the journal.
“I was six,” Ablehill said. “Though she was never the same after my birth, so one could say she’d died at my birth. I never even got to know my mother.”
“I’m sorry,” Lachy said, with genuine sympathy.
His own memories were vague now, but he’d had something of a childhood with his mother, and he knew enough to be grateful for that.
“I’ve taken solace in reading her entries, and I think you will, too.”
Lachy nodded.
Ablehill handed him the journal, and he paged through it, noting the alternate entries between his mother and her older sister, Lady Emily.
“They knew about each other?”
“My mother discovered their familial relationship while pregnant with me. They bonded quickly, it seems, but kept it a secret from the Earl of Cassel and my father.”
“Why?” Lachy asked, though he knew why.
But he wanted to see if the duke would admit the faults of his patronage.
“Because they had to, I suspect. The Earl of Cassel, from all I gather from my mother’s journals, was a contemptable man. My father wasn’t any better. I won’t pretend otherwise, major. All I can do is try to be better than them. My title and wealth don’t make me the man I am; my actions do. I can’t change the past, but I can right one wrong.”
“Oh?” Lachy asked with skepticism. “And which wrong is that?”
The study door opened then, and Prim entered, followed by the duchess. Lachy took a quick glimpse of her rounded belly, a rush of heat spreading through him as he imagined how Prim would look similar in a matter of months.
Does Prim’s family even know about the babe yet?
“You’re just in time,” Ablehill said.
“In time for what?” Prim asked, her cheeks rosy.
She appeared happy. Her conversation with her sisters and mother must have gone well.
“I’ve come to a decision regarding your marriage, and although it isn’t official on paper yet, I wanted to tell you now, in person, to show you that even though my family played a large part in hurting Major Dennehy’s, I think I can mend it somewhat.”
Lachy tore his focus away from Prim. What is this now?
Ablehill cleared his throat as his wife came to his side and took his hand, smiling at him with adoration.
But Ablehill held Lachy’s gaze. “We are family, and all that is important to me is that the castle stays in the family. It means something to you, and it means a great deal to me. Prim already has a generous dowry, but I’ve added one more thing.”
Prim gasped as she moved to Lachy’s side.
“This castle is now Prim’s, upon her marriage, which means it now belongs to you, major, as her husband.”
Lachy couldn’t breathe or blink as he stared at the duke.
“There is one condition, though,” Ablehill added. “All of the family will be welcome here, anytime they wish, when not in London, or visiting our other residences.”
“Of course!” Prim cried, bouncing on her toes as she hugged her brother-in-law and her sister.
Lachy still couldn’t move. He didn’t know what to do or say.
Ablehill stepped forward and presented his hand.
Reflexively, Lachy took it. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
The duke nodded. “The legacy of this castle was never just mine. I
t’s ours, cousin. The clansmen are my people, too, more like family than my own father ever was. I am here for them, and it’s only right that this castle represent them again.”
Lachy nodded, his eyes stinging and his throat thick. He still couldn’t speak.
The castle, the home he’d never known, the symbol of his people, was now his again. Plus the land, and the security provided by its income.
Prim hugged him excitedly, jerking him out of his daze.
“We can build a school for Mrs. Wilson to teach at, and make repairs on the buildings in the village.”
“We’ll move out of the master suite as soon as possible,” the duchess said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Lachy said.
The room quieted. His words had come out harsher than he’d intended.
“That is, I don’t want to usurp any of you. It wouldn’t feel right.”
Prim took his hand. “My room is all we’ll need.”
Lachy nodded, as it was probably larger than his whole cottage. “I don’t need much space, and Prim will be more comfortable here than in the village.” He met her eyes. “I never had much family growing up, and I won’t take you from yours. We’ll live here, and my uncle can have the old laird’s cottage.” He paused, looking to Ablehill. “If that is all right with you, cousin?”
Lachy could have sworn the duke appeared moved by his use of the word cousin. Perhaps they had more in common in the way of loneliness than he’d known.
Ablehill nodded. “Of course. That’s the way it should be.”
“Well, since we’re all one happy family, why don’t we move this celebration back to the drawing room and have a proper toast, shall we?” Selbourne said. “Violet and I will soon return to Selbourne Castle now that Prim’s situation is settled, but we’ll make sure to return before the baby arrives.”
When they filed out of the study, Lachy and Prim fell behind.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked quietly.
If Lachy was to be honest, he wasn’t sure, but he would do this, because it meant a lot to Prim to remain close to her family, and the more he let it sink in, the more he thought he might enjoy it, too.