Lois Greiman by Taming the Barbarian

Author:Taming the Barbarian
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“But I dunna think ye are,” he added.

She brightened immediately, but the expression was slightly askew. “You are entirely wrong. I have much for which to be thankful.”

He watched her in silence.

“My business is doing well.” The words were rushed. “My stable…Well, you have seen my horses.”

He nodded slowly. “They are a handsome lot.”

“Aren’t they?” She seemed to relax a mite. “My Juliet shall bear her first foal in quite some time. And Fille…” Her eyes were bright again. There were secrets she was hiding. As well as pain, but she was woman who could adjust, who could find her stride and make the best of things. “I thought, perhaps, when she is a bit older I might mate her with your Treun.”

He said nothing, for she was entrancing.

“I’ll pay you,” she added quickly. “Even though he should have been mine at the outset.” Something shone in her eyes. Humor maybe. Teasing, and he found he wanted nothing more than to fan it into a smile. To hear her laugh, but there were things he must do, or he himself would be lost.

“Did ye have yer steeds when yer husband yet lived?”

“I…” The light in her eyes was abruptly doused. She cleared her throat. “Thomas was not particularly interested in horses.”

“Where then did his interests lie?”

“With his clubs,” she said, then closed her mouth tightly, as if she’d not meant to loose the words.

“His clubs?”

She shrugged as if it was of little interest. “I did not begrudge him his time away. Indeed I was glad—” she said, and stopped abruptly.

The silence felt heavy.

“I am sorry,” Killian said, “that he was not what ye wished for.”

She blinked, lost, but in a moment, she rallied and laughed. “You’re entirely wrong.”

“Often,” he said, “but not this time, I think.”

“You’re wrong,” she repeated, and her voice was brittle.

“Why did he na get ye with child?”

Her eyes widened, and she hissed a tiny intake of breath as if startled. Mayhap ’twas not proper to speak of such things, he realized, but he could not help but wonder. Surely her childlessness was not for lack of effort on her husband’s part, for no man could help but long to see a child at her breast.

“I hardly think that any affair of yours,” she said. Her voice was cold, cold enough to spur him back to the matter at hand, his reason for being there, his mission, which he must not fail.

Killian narrowed his eyes, watching her, remembering that women were dangerous, no matter how fragile they seemed. “A landed gentleman like yer husband would have longed for an heir,” he said.

Did she seem unusually pale suddenly? Did her eyes seem as wide as the moors in her stunning face?

“Perhaps he did,” she said. “But—”

“Did he blame ye for yer empty womb?”

Her lips moved again, then, “I want this land back, Hiltsglen,” she said, straightening her shoulders with a snap. “I shall give you a fair price. Indeed, you will make a fine profit.”

“’Tis said he drowned in yon river,” he said.

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