A Perfect Wife(43)
“Ye trust me?”
The waver was back. She bumped shoulders with him.
“Of course I trust you! You are here with me, in this wee, dark, damp cave. Without you beside me I’d be screaming. I dinna like cold, dark, tight places.”
“I dinna like hearing the sea smashing agin’ the rocks below us,” said Camden.
As long as it stays below us when the tide rises, she thought. It was not something to tell the boy.
“You ken why Master Duff wears a leather mask?
“’Tis said he has scars so bad ’twould scare bairns.”
“Aye, that is what is said. But ’tis a lie.”
His whole body stiffened. “A lie?”
“Malcolm and Duff are identical twins. Duff has a scar on his chin from wrestling with his brothers, while Malcolm has one on his arm to show he was born first. Otherwise, most canna tell them apart. Duff wears the mask—”
“So he could pretend to be laird if he must. And if they kill him ye’d still be married.”
The thought of losing either man hurt more than she’d thought possible.
“I canna choose between them, Camden. Malcolm is the laird and needed by Kinrowan. But Duff brings such joy when he makes me laugh—”
Kiera pressed her lips together. She would not cry. When this nightmare was over and all three of them plus the babe were together in their bed, was when she’d allow tears to fall. She needed to focus on something else.
“You were a very brave lad to get in that wee boat,” she said. “And even braver to scramble up from the boat to this cave. ’Twas almost dark, just the moon on the water, yet ye led the way for me.” She kissed his head. “You will make a fine man one day, Camden MacKenzie.”
“I’m no MacKenzie, Lady Kiera. I were an Urquhart, but now I’m just an orphan. But one day I’ll be a soldier!”
“Aye, one day you’ll be a grand soldier. But you’re an orphan no more.”
“Nay?”
She gathered him in her arms and set him on her lap. He didn’t resist. She hugged him, smiling in the dark.
“Laddie, no son could do more for his mother than you have done for me today. When we get out of here, and we will!” She stopped to emphasize that to him. “You, me, Laird Malcolm, and Master Duff will sit together and talk about us becoming a family.”
He said nothing for so long she wondered if she’d done something wrong.
“Do you nay wish to be my son?”
“Ye mean, sit in yer lap like now? Not when the lads are near, but if I have the fever?”
“Aye, hugs are one thing a mother gives her son.”
Another long silence.
“What if the laird doesna say aye to wanting me?” he whispered.
“Have ye heard how much my husbands care for me?”
“The women say Laird Malcolm and Master Duff love ye, but I canna see a man speakin’ of it.”
Neither could she.
“And the men? What do they say?”
“They say the way the laird and Master Duff look at ye when they think ye canna see, and how ye look back when they turn their back, shows ye are a good wife.” He paused. “They said sommat else about buglin’ like a bull elk in full rut, but I dinna ken that.”
She barely held back a laugh. If she let it out, she’d have to explain and that was something a father should do. It was interesting that the women thought Malcolm and Duff loved her. Bessie had said so, but Kiera thought it was wishful thinking. Of course the men would make a comment about her husbands bellowing.
“Ye wouldna be kissing me, aye?”
Camden’s question pulled away from thoughts of the last time Malcolm bugled. She’d have to tell him that term. When they were all safe!
“I promise not to kiss you unless you have a fever, and the lads aren’t near.”
“Then, if the laird and master want me when we escape, I would say aye.”
Camden said when, but her thought was if.
If they escaped this cave. If Malcolm and Duff were still alive.
No, she would not think that way. They would escape, her husbands would be safe, and she would tell them she loved them even if she had to tie them down to listen!
“When could I call ye mama?”
Camden had barely whispered it. She snuggled closer, smiling.
“Why dinna ye start now?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Ye canna risk it, Laird Malcolm. All they must do is kill ye while holding Lady Kiera. They’ll marry her off and Kinrowan will be under the hands of that damned Ross! He’ll—”
“I’ll go,” said Duff, interrupting Ramsay. He met Malcolm’s eyes across the width of Fergus’s room.
“Nay!” Malcolm paced like a caged beast across Fergus’s lair, his usual calm nowhere to be seen. “The parchment stabbed to the door to the bailey said the laird was to be exchanged for the lady. That’s me.”